The Altoona Parking Authority in mid-March will begin enforcing the city’s parking laws on downtown streets, following City Council’s adoption last month of an ordinance authorizing such street enforcement by the authority.

On most of those streets, a total of two hours free parking per vehicle per day will be permitted, after which vehicles will be ticketed.

Tickets labeled with a QR code that takes motorists to a website operated by parking management firm Metropolis will be placed below the wiper blades of vehicles in violation, enabling motorists to pay their $15 fines, plus their $6.50 transaction fee, for a total of $21.50 per violation, according to authority office manager Nadine Miller.

When making a payment, the motorist must enter a nine-digit violation number that a Metropolis employee has written on the ticket.

Motorists without smart phones can reach the payment website by typing in the address on the ticket in any internet-connected computer.

Those without credit or debit cards or without electronic access can call the authority office at 814-943-8133 or else visit the office at 1225 11th Ave., to make payment arrangements, according to Miller.

Motorists cannot increase the time during which they can legally park for free downtown by simply moving their vehicle to a new location, according to Miller.

Conversely, if they move their vehicle to a new location with less than two hours having elapsed, they can continue to park for free until their total time for the day reaches two hours, Miller said.

In a small section of downtown where there are currently a total of 22 parking meters, mostly in the vicinity of Tom & Joe’s restaurant, there will be no free street parking.

In that section, workers will be removing the meters and replacing them with signs bearing a QR code that will take motorists to the Metropolis payment website, where they will be charged a fee of 50 cents per hour to park, coupled with a 50-cents-per-visit transaction fee.

The meter charge has been 25 cents per hour.

The meters have been malfunctioning frequently, sometimes because vandals have been purposely jamming them, according to Jess Bilko, senior manager for Metropolis.

Replacing the meters with the QR code system will make it easier for employees in that area who won’t need to interrupt their workdays to feed the meters, officials said.

Under the new system, motorists can predict how long they expect to park, and if they stay longer than that, respond to electronic alerts by extending their time via their smart phones, officials say.

A similar QR-based “day-rate” system is already operating at the authority’s Transportation Center parking garage, Lot 20 across from the Mishler Theater and Lot 24 across the 10th Avenue expressway from the expressway’s intersection with 11th Street.

For the garage, the charge is $1 an hour, with a max of $6 after five hours, plus a 99-cent transaction fee.

For the Mishler lot, the charge is also $1 an hour, with a max of $9 for a day, plus a 99-cent transaction fee.

For the lot across the expressway, the charge is 50 cents per hour, with a max of $4 after eight hours, plus the 99-cent transaction fee.

The garage, the Mishler lot and the lot across the expressway are the only authority lots not fully

spoken-for through monthly leasing.

There are approximately 100 spaces total in those three lots that are thus available day-by-day.

Metropolis is hoping to install a “vision”-type parking management system in the parking garage.

It would include installation of entrance and exit gates, according to Bilko.

Drivers would pause at the entry gate as they approach the garage so the equipment can record their vehicle license plate sequence.

Upon leaving the garage, the exit gate would open for drivers whose license plate and payment information is already in the Metropolis system — including those who have been using the garage and those two other lots in recent times, Miller said.

Drivers whose information isn’t already in the system would need to register before approaching the gate to leave the garage in order not to be delayed when exiting.

Otherwise, they would need to complete the registration at the gate before the gate would open, Miller said.

The system would be set up so that the first 15 minutes or more would be free, so that there wouldn’t be a charge for pulling into the garage to drop off someone entering the transportation center to catch an Amtrak train or Greyhound bus, Miller said.

A vision system is expected to cost from $10,000 to $15,000, excluding the gates, Bilko said.

She will obtain quotes for the board to consider at next month’s meeting.

The authority can use money allocated by the city to the authority from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act grant of $39.6 million to pay for the vision system, officials said.

The ordinance passed by City Council that gives the authority permission to enforce parking laws on the streets downtown also gives permission for the authority to enforce those laws all over the city — although that won’t happen right away, officials have said.

City police are generally too busy with other matters to deal with parking enforcement routinely, officials have said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.