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Parking app lets Victoria drivers pay on the go

The City of Victoria has introduced a parking app that allows drivers to pay for on-street spots using an iPhone, iPad, Android smartphone or tablet.
ParkVictoria 10.jpg
The ParkVictoria app lets drivers pay for parking with a mobile device.

The City of Victoria has introduced a parking app that allows drivers to pay for on-street spots using an iPhone, iPad, Android smartphone or tablet.

On top of that, the new ParkVictoria mobile system sends a text message or pop-up note to let people know their parking time is about to expire.

About 10 per cent of daily parking transactions at on-street pay stations each day — 1,000 of 10,000 — are done with a city-issued parking card, and manager of parking services Ismo Husu said he expects the new system will attract even more people to the technological side of things.

“I’m really expecting, once this has been around for six months, for us to see about 30 per cent of the transactions on pay-by-phone,” he said.

Husu said the best part of the new system is that it continues to allow motorists to shut off their parking time at any point, which should increasingly cut down on infractions and fines. City parking cards have allowed people to reload time since 2002.

“We allow you to select however long you want to park for,” he said. “I would suggest just take the maximum and then you can turn it off whenever you’re done. You get that money back.

“This should eliminate a lot of tickets, because you don’t have to guess anymore.”

Even so, parking revenue is not expected to drop.

St. John’s, N.L, and San Diego are the only other North American cities he knows of that have parking cards designed to refund time, Husu said. The Victoria system cost about $90,000, which came from a parking-reserve fund designated for improvements.

Sign-up for the mobile offering is free, with a phone number, email address or Facebook account used as identification. The system was developed by PassportParking Inc., which has developed similar systems in Chicago and Omaha and is working on one in Toronto.

A few cities such as London, England, have eliminated parking infrastructure in some areas and have a phone system only, Husu said.

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said the system is good for the city. “Victoria is tech town,” she said. “We are Tectoria and we are now creating our own apps to make the No. 1 problem in downtown Victoria just a little bit easier.”

Victoria Coun. Chris Coleman said he likes the ease the new system provides.

“Anything that makes it more convenient for the user to come downtown — fabulous stuff,” he said. “We’ve done a whole slew of things to improve the parking in the downtown core that have been very well received.

“So the parkades are seeing much greater uptake, it adds to vibrancy.”

About $5 million in improvements to the five city parking garages over the past few years have included improve lighting and blocking out-of-the-way areas where people could congregate.

The ParkVictoria app is available through the App Store or Google Play or online at parkvictoria.ca. For more information, go to victoria.ca/parking.

jwbell@timescolonist.com