New parking kiosks installed just a few weeks ago at York Beach, which uses a 4G network, are causing a “hit or miss” experience due to a poor connection between the kiosk modem and the Verizon tower, reported Seacoast Online. Representatives from kiosk manufacturer Hectronic, modem manufacturer TransCor and Verizon are working to solve the problem.
“The goal is to have the glitches ironed out in the near future,” Hectronic President Steve Snyder told Seacoast Online. The company has worked with municipalities across the country and this is the first time this problem has occurred, he said.
The kiosks were installed to give beachgoers the flexibility to use credit cards, cash, or coins to pay for parking. When a visitor tries to use a credit card, “Sometimes a transaction will take longer than it should, or the transaction could time out and fail altogether,” according to Snyder.
Town Manager Steve Burns tested his credit card at two different kiosks. “I used one last weekend, and it was fine. Today I tried, and it didn’t work at all. It’s not consistent.”
Previous kiosk models used a 3G instead of a 4G network, and the modem is the isolated issue, according to Snyder: “It’s a brand-new modem for us and we’re learning about how the modem reacts with the network,” he told Seacoast Online.
According to Police Capt. Charles Szeniawski, there are also ramifications with the interface between the kiosks and the new handheld electronic ticket devices being used by police. “We are not able to get a consistent read, which throws off the process,” he said. “So far, we’re not overly excited about it.”
Public Works Director Dean Lessard added, “These are brand new machines, and part of the sales feature was that we could use credit cards. They are not working to our satisfaction, and we are all anxiously awaiting resolution. I am going before the Board of Selectmen on June 12, and I want to be able to tell them it’s been fixed.”
June 5, 2017
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