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That’s because Chicago Parking Meters, the private company that will be running the system for the next 75 years, has undertaken some aggressive customer service initiatives. While parking rates will continue to climb, the company is replacing meters, which only take quarters, with pay boxes that accept credit cards. And scores of company employees will be dispatched to city streets to help people feed them if they can’t figure out how to do it on their own.
“We challenged CPM to do a better job of addressing consumer concerns and improving the system operability, and we’re pleased to report that CPM has substantially improved their performance,” revenue commissioner Bea Reyna-Hickey adds.
In April, Ben Joravsky and I wrote about how the process the city undertook in privatizing the meters was clouded in secrecy before being rubber-stamped by the City Council.
