COVINGTON, Ky. — The city of Covington is modernizing its parking meters, saying they will clear up confusion and clutter.

Covington residents are used to seeing meters that are about 30 years old. Kyle Snyder, Motor Vehicle Parking Authority executive director, said they’re outdated.

“Lots of complaints about the old meters,” he said. “We were way behind the times with those.”

The roughly 400 parking meters are electric but not smart meters. They can’t read credit cards and have been costing the city a lot in maintenance.

The city signed a contract with IPS in August to replace all the old meters with new ones, which are the same found in Cincinnati and Newport. Those are in the process of being installed.

The city is able to put two meters on a single pole, creating less clutter. They feature just four buttons, a slot for a credit card and tap-to-pay, plus a bigger and dynamic screen.

“The screen will tell you when it’s Sunday and you don’t have to pay for parking, or it’s not eight o'clock yet so you don’t have to pay for parking,” Snyder said.

There’s also sensor technology that can tell if the car is in the location, meaning no more forgetting to press the free 15 minutes button. That’ll now trigger automatically and will be cumulative with the amount of time paid. 

“We'll have better analytics on when and where people are parking," Snyder said. "And that will, in time, help us better manage the parking system city-wide." 

All of the parking apps will remain available as well. Snyder said he doesn't expect rates to increase but indicated that could change in the future. 

The initial purchase involved 425 new meters, meaning the city will have some spares. The city is also installing 12 new kiosks.