Cal State Long Beach Parking and Transportation is replacing all single parking meters with larger devices called Lukes, located at the front of lots to handle payments for all individual parking spots.
This replacement started at the beginning of the semester and will continue until all lots with single meters are replaced.
The Lukes will accept cash, credit and Beach Club cards only.
“It will eliminate the function of using a coin,” said Derrick Che, physical planning and facilities management employee. “That makes it easier on the customer … [and] maintenance is a lot easier.”
There is a chance that the meters will operate solely on credit cards or Beach Club cards, according to Mark Rudometkin, general manager of Parking and Transportation. He said that collectors had to handle a lot of money, but future plans for going 100 percent plastic could create a safe and easy way to keep track of parking revenue.
The meters will enforce a fixed rate system, with two hours for $5, three hours for $10 and the maximum of four hours for $15.
Facilities Management employee Brian Dunaway explained that therate is fixed “because of the convenience of the parking spots.”
According to Rudometkin, the parking meters are named after the opening scene of the 1967 film “Cool Hand Luke,” which depicts main character Luke Jackson taking down parking meters.
There are a total of nine Lukes on campus now, according to Rudometkin.
Two are located on south campus, two in Lot 8A near the Fine Arts building, three on East State University Drive, one in front of the Nursing building and one in Lot 15 near the College of Business Administration building.
Many students seem pleased with the change, noting how it will lift the burden of having the right amount of coins to pay for parking.
“Not all [students] have coins,” psychology major Wala Elkhider said. “Sometimes the change machine is broken. [Now, it’s] less stressful and we can get to class faster.”
Other students argue that parking meters should not exist at all.
Graduate nursing student Elayne Grgas said that all parking meters are “clever ways to lure cash — and card-strapped students into a potential parking ticket.”
Even though students have mixed feelings about the parking system, according Rudometkin, he and his team are working to provide convenience to the CSULB community.
“It is [the students] who do all the work, and we are providing the best services to make [parking] a seamless experience,” Rudometkin said.
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