Hundreds of Oahu parking meters disabled following 3G shutdown

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Oahu drivers are being urged to use coins for digital parking meters as hundreds are currently unable to accept card payments.

About 1,300 electronic parking meters suddenly stopped accepting credit and debit cards on Wednesday, mainly in Downtown Honolulu and Waikiki.

According to the Honolulu Civil Beat, the problem is being caused by Verizon shutting down its 3G network, which the meters rely on to process the payments.

Currently, if you go to an electronic meter and insert your card, you can’t select how much time you want to pay for. Some meters are still processing payments, which officials don’t understand.

The city knew in 2019 that Verizon was shutting down 3G, but they were slow to upgrade the meters.

The process got bogged down in the budgeting process.

Right now, the city is looking for a vendor to put in new meters — that could take six months or more.

City officials said they did not know that it was going to shut down this week — and about 80 other communities across the country are having the same problem.

In the meantime, Honolulu police told Civil Beat they will temporarily suspend issuing citations. However, this does not include meters that are strictly coin-operated.

This story will be updated.