Coventry University is introducing a new system for staff and student car parks, which will involve access control cards.
As well as each of their ten coin and credit card Elite machines, there will be a card reader on a separate post. When staff and students present their access control card, the card reader will send a signal to the networked Elite machines for a parking ticket to be issued. Two of the machines will be installed in a brand new staff and student car park.
Elites have been ordered by Wigan & Leigh College, whose Sustainability, Health and Safety Officer, Helen Cutts, carried out her own independent research before choosing Metric.
She said it was a combination of her own research, recommendation and price: "I approached other educational establishments and local authorities who had experience of Metric and the feedback was very positive."
She explained that Wigan & Leigh College had decided on parking meters to help implement the College’s Sustainable Travel Plan: "The previous policy required staff and students to pay up front for a year’s permit.
"Now that we are having parking meters, it means greater flexibility with staff and students only paying for the journeys they make by car. They will pay as they go with two tariffs which are £1 a day for staff and 50p a day for students."
The biggest of the four educational installations is at Stirling University where 21 Elite pay and display parking machines will shortly be in use while Keele University, the biggest live off campus in the country, will install three Elites in a new car park. Keele has previously ordered Metric Accent machines.
Said David Gray, Keele University’s Head of Security and Travel Co-ordinator: "We have used Metric machines for some years now and have always found the reliability and service to be exactly what we require.
"When we needed new equipment it made sense to stay with a proven product."