Don’t worry about running back to the parking lot to feed the meter. In fact, you can forget the meter altogether.

In an effort to try to bring more visitors to California State Parks, officials have launched a pay-by-phone method that allows beachgoers to buy hourly parking passes, encouraging more affordable visits to the beach.

A few years ago, in trying to compensate for budgetary issues, the cost to park at a State Parks beach skyrocketed to $15 a day for an all-day pass. This gave visitors who just want to enjoy the coast for a few hours – say to jog or surf – a reason to find less expensive beaches where they could pop a few coins into a meter.

“I think we’ve pushed some visitors away,” said Brian Ketterer, district superintendent for Orange Coast District. “That’s one of the reasons we’re trying to make many of our lots hourly, so we can try to entice those visitors back.”

State Parks started putting up hourly parking operated by meters in Crystal Cove, San Clemente, and San Onofre about a year ago, and so far the response has been positive, Ketterer said. At those beaches, you can pay by phone or meter.

During the first year, there was a 12.62 percent increase in visitors at Trestles and San Clemente’s Calafia parking lot. Those same areas showed increased revenue of about 9 percent, Ketterer said.

The experiment in Huntington Beach will take meters out of the equation and will rely solely on a phone operation, requiring beachgoers to log onto a smartphone or call into a live operator to give their credit card information for payment.

When a user enters their information, they will log the number on the parking spot and will select the number of hours they want to stay. When the pass is going to expire in 15 minutes, a text alert will be sent to the purchaser’s phone. They can opt to add more time straight from their phone, eliminating the need to stop what they are doing on the beach.

“That’s a great feature for the beachgoer in California – you’re on the beach having a good time, it’s nice to know you can add time without going all the way to the parking lot to feed the meter,” Ketterer said.

The test lot started a month ago at Beach Boulevard and goes south to Newland Street. A lot attendant is on hand for the first few months to explain the system to those who want to sign up, and have been up around the lot to explain the option.

There are a few reasons there are no meters to be added in Huntington Beach. First, they take time to manage and maintain. And getting approval through the California Coastal Commission to install meters can take more than a year, Ketterer said.

Ketterer admits it may take awhile for people to get used to the idea of not putting money into a meter.

“I think there will be a learning curve,” he said.

He said it takes less than two minutes to set up and is operated by a company called PassportParking, based in Charlotte, N. C. Several cities on the East Coast and in the Midwest are also experimenting with the technology, among them the city of Chicago.

In a few months, the system will also go live at Bolsa Chica State Beach. Those who want to use the PassportParking – as well as annual pass users — will be able to use a new entrance at Warner Avenue. It will be a welcome relief to beachgoers who go to Bolsa Chica, who have to deal with long lines stretching along Pacific Coast Highway on busy summer days.

“My intent is to get more visitors in the park,” Ketterer said. “I think what you find is across the board, a lot of state beaches and county areas are flat rate. It makes it difficult for a person to decide what they want to do… It’s really giving people an option. How much time do you want to stay at the beach?”

Surfers, for example, might only want to spend a few hours at the beach and have been deterred from State Parks because they don’t want to pay a $15 for an all-day pass.

The management of the system is easy, Ketterer said. Live data showing how many passes have been purchased feeds into an Android, showing how many people are parked, as well as how much time is left on a vehicle.

“For me, on the backend, it saves staffing,” he said.

Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com