BROOKLINE, MA — If you use your credit card to park at the multi space parking meters like the one behind Coolidge Corner or the Town Hall lot, that’s about to stop working.
For two weeks between April 1 and April 17 the town is putting a pause on the ability to use credit cards at its 30 multi-space parking meters.
“In the interest of protecting the credit card data of our residents,” said Transportation Administrator Todd Kirrane in an announcement.
Lest you get excited about free parking, not so fast: You can still pay good ole fashioned cash at the meter or pay by cell via the Passport or ParkBoston apps. Credit cards will still work at the single space meters around town.
Brookline has used the multi-space parking meters made by T2/Digital Luke since 2008. But the Transportation Division says they have an end of life notice for technical support, replacement parts, and PCI compliance for credit card transactions.
The Town is using a required replacement period to change vendors and upgrade the 30 multi-space parking meters in the Town owned lots to IPS, the same vendor who makes the new single space credit card acceptance parking meters.
The new multi-space meters will have the same Pay by Space system, but the town says the interface is more user-friendly and has larger screens.
Since rolling out the Passport App a year ago, residents have made more than 431,000 parking meter transactions, according to town data.
