A reader wrote us concerned about persisting problems she had with pay stations in Ballard back in December. While the problems have since been fixed within the neighborhood, it continues on in other areas.

Carol said that she has had no problems operating pay stations before, but found in December -- primarily along NW Market St near 20th Ave NW -- that the stations would stall when she tried to pay with a credit card. It would say something to the effect of "Please wait a moment," but then a moment would turn into eternity, and if it ever came back it would just repeat itself, she said. She said other parking patrons also experienced the same problem.

What Carol then encountered was a conundrum: She couldn't pay for parking, but she couldn't simply leave her car unattended, or else a parking enforcement officer would ticket her. It's either take the risk or take her business elsewhere.

We followed up with the Seattle Department of Transportation on the issue and spokeswoman Marybeth turner said the "intermittent communications issues" in Ballard have been fixed. They worked with their vendors to change out all the Ballard modems between late December and mid-January, putting them on a new, more stable communications network, which has addressed the issues.

Meanwhile, parking pay stations have been experiencing the same problems in the past several days in areas such as First Hill and Pike-Pine.

SDOT says if drivers experience difficulties with particular pay stations that they should let them know by calling 206-684-ROAD (684-7623).

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