Are Easton's Parking Meters Too Tall?

Easton officials are looking at whether they need to lower the city's parking meters.

Not the cost of the meters, mind you. You'll still pay a dollar an hour.

Instead, the city could physically lower some of its new credit card meters after complaints that some of them are too high for some people to reach.

Downtown business owner Faith Proctor spotted three of those drivers Monday morning outside her Third Street store, standing on their tiptoes and struggling for several minutes to figure out how the meters worked.

"One of them was laughing, it was so ludicrous," said Proctor, who owns Madame Mim's. "The other one looked like she wanted to kick the thing."

The topic was a popular one last week on the Easton, Pennsylvania Facebook group.

"I'm just shy of 5'7''," wrote local artist Susan Huxley. "I can comfortably read the screen on the newly installed meters on n 3rd. The average American woman (yes I know this for a fact because I design clothes) is 5'4". Dear city of Easton. WTF?"

Easton officials say they've heard similar WTFs, and are looking at lowering some of the meters.

Administrator Glenn Steckman said that although the meters are compliant with the height requirements set by the Americans With Disabilities Act, the city will lower any meters that need to be lowered.

Lt. Matthew Lohenitz, who runs the police department's traffic and records division, said the department is conferring with other communities and also the Pennsylvania Parking Association.

Lohenitz said he had begun hearing complaints last week—although he noted new meters had been in place near the Northampton County Government Center.

He said he enlisted a pedestrian who said she was 5'3'' and who had no trouble seeing the meters. He also pointed to the double meter outside the New York Tailor shop on Northampton Street.

One of the meters on the pole is the old coin-only kind, the other is a new one, and they're only about an inch apart in height, the lieutenant said.

It's a "negligible" difference, Lohenitz said, but as long as the department is getting complaints, it will try to make the meter heights more uniform.