Drivers adjusting to new kiosks in Lewes

LEWES, Del. – New parking kiosks in Lewes might look confusing, but official say they’re a lot less complicated than you might think.

“People should be able to look at the space number on the meter, look at the number down on the curb, and say ‘yep that’s the space I’m in,'” Dennis Crawford, Supervisor for parking enforcement in the city, said.

But Crawford says the kiosks have caused some trouble for drivers in the resort town.

“Sometimes people will not put the complete license plate number in and then as my guys do the enforcement, they can’t find a partial plate or a plate without letters and so we end up issuing a citation for that,” he said.

So the town took action.

“We have put a white arrow on the top of every one of the meters pointing to the space that it controls, then we’ve also painted the meter number,” Crawford said.

And now, after those changes were made, drivers in Lewes seem to finally be getting used to the new machines.

“There’s two meters, one for the left side of the line, one for the right side of the line, they’re very self-explanatory I think,” one visitor, David Garwood, said.

And users are only reporting some minor issues with one of the payment options.

“My second time using the app, it did work in Bethany Beach,” another visitor, Carl Long, said. “This one I could not figure out because it gave me the space number so I ended up using my card.”

But with time, officials say the kiosks will be just another part of the town.

“Then people will get used to it and will learn what to do,” Crawford said.