Denver International Airport plans to spend $1.2 million on a system next year that will allow travelers to have parking fees debited electronically from a preregistered credit card.
DIA will sell transponders to parking patrons who want to take advantage of the electronic transactions, said Dorothy Harris, the airport’s parking manager.
Travelers who sign up for DIA’s automated parking program should be able to get through gates at special unattended toll booths in as few as five seconds, Harris said.
Current cash and credit-card transactions at staffed toll booths take at least 10 seconds and it often takes longer if the driver has to sign a credit receipt. Credit-card parking bills over $75 require a signature.
DIA’s automated parking system should be in place by late next year, and the special transponder-only lanes will be available at all of DIA’s parking lots, airport officials said. DIA has more than 30,000 parking spaces.
The airport expects that its automated parking operation will be compatible with EXpressToll transponders used by motorists on the E-470 and Northwest Parkway toll roads, Harris said.
In other DIA news, a special committee appointed by Mayor John Hickenlooper that looked at options for changing the management structure of the nation’s fifth-largest airport has concluded that “no change in governance is currently warranted.”
The group, which was formed about 13 months ago, examined the possibility of converting city-owned DIA into into a quasi-independent entity like the Denver Water Board or a special authority like Denver Health.
The committee rejected such a conversion for now. But the group recommended that Hickenlooper appoint a smaller “working group” to conduct “a much more detailed investigation of the potential benefits and costs” of changing DIA’s management procedures to allow for more flexibility in hiring and firing, procurement, contracting, business development and planning.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-820-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
