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In Sundance Square, is time almost up for 'free' parking?
By KEVIN LYONSklyons@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH — The days of finding "free" parking in downtown Fort Worth — that’s when there’s money left on the parking meter you’ve been stalking — could be coming to an end.

Officials have replaced 50 parking meters at Sundance Square with ones that have sensors that reset the meters to zero when a car leaves, even if there is time left.

"If there is found money when you pull into a meter, they should let you keep it," said Scott Otness, an Arlington resident who works in Sundance Square.

The sensor meters are not meant to penalize patrons, said Peter Elliott, manager of administrative services for the city’s parking department. The city just wants to find out how many people park and for how long, he said.

Most of the meters around Sundance Square are one- and two-hour meters, and in a typical day, those meters should get about five cars a day, Elliott said.

"We’re trying to see if that’s what’s happening. Or are we getting people parking four and six hours a day, and we are only getting two or three turns?" Elliott said.

Do they work?

Using Earth’s magnetic field, the sensors detect when a car or other massive object moves into or out of a space. The unit sends a message to a device in the meter that determines how long a car has parked.

The sensor meters were installed in mid-August as part of a three-month pilot program, partly to see whether the meters actually work.

On Wednesday, Otness parked at a meter across from the F.W. Woolworth Building that still had 41 minutes on it. Other metered spaces on Sundance Square were empty but still had time remaining.

"Those meters should have worked," Elliott said. "But you have to remember that it’s a pilot program."

Taxpayer cost

There are 1,935 parking meters downtown, which bring in about $1.25 million a year, Elliott said. But before the city can change the rest of its downtown stock, it would need City Council approval.

More changes Since November, the department has installed about 30 four-space steel meters — a single meter that collects fees for four parking spaces. They cost about $600 each, but it could take three to four years to replace each meter in the city, officials said.