Parking sensor system disappoints village

Massapequa Park's experiment with a pavement sensor system to detect parking scofflaws has not resulted in as many violations as expected, village officials said Thursday.

The board of trustees will consider the project's future at its meeting Monday night. But in their public work session last month, trustees questioned the system's effectiveness.

Thirty-five wireless discs sense vehicles in no-parking zones and transmit signals to code enforcement officers' smartphones. The sensors were embedded along Park Boulevard in November as part of a no-cost trial run.

"The system updated officers' iPhones every few minutes to show them where the cars are," village administrator Peggy Caltabiano said. "But when they got to the spot, the car would already be gone."

Caltabiano said the village needs a solution for short-term violators.

"I can see it [the sensor system] working somewhere else," she said, "but it may not be the best thing for us."

The low rate of catching violators, technology glitches and other factors will all be considered, Mayor James Altadonna Jr. said Thursday.

"We're going to present an analysis as to the effectiveness and both the pros and cons," he said.

No tickets were issued to drivers identified by the sensors during the trial run, Altadonna said.

He has said the program was meant to increase public safety, not increase revenue from parking tickets.

A contract with Georgia-based StreetSmart Technology would cost the village $25 per sensor each month, Caltabiano said.

A StreetSmart representative said the Massapequa Park trial is "still a work in progress." The company has a five-year contract with Easton, Pa., for 300 sensors, and is part of a San Francisco program that helps drivers find available parking spots via smartphones.

"We haven't yet concluded it [the Massapequa Park program]. We haven't rolled up our results or written a final report, debriefed the city," StreetSmart managing partner Kirby Andrews said.