Parking pay stations in San Francisco's Chinatown are being replaced with a pay-by-license-plate parking system as part of a citywide upgrade.
The new pay stations are on existing metered blocks in the Chinatown district from Clay Street north of Bush Street, and from Stockton Street west of Kearny Street, including blocks near Portsmouth Square and along Bush Street adjacent to Union Square.
The pay stations will be activated on Feb. 13, according to a news release from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.
Upgrades to the devices include multilingual screens with a more intuitive interface, as well as stronger protection against vandalism and more powerful batteries to ensure continuous availability. Languages include simplified Chinese, English and Spanish.
Payments can be made at the pay station or on the mobile app PayByPhone.
The transportation agency said in the news release that the replacements were necessary because the older meters had reached their end-of-life and used 3G, which has been phased out by wireless providers.
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