Apps streamline parking process for city residents

Several cities are partnering with private companies to develop smartphone apps that make paying for parking a breeze for citizens.

Released in late May, the aptly-named app Asbury PARK is a collaboration between Asbury Park, N.J. and Passport, a mobile parking and transit payment provider, according to the Asbury Park Press. The app allows users to pay for parking, track remaining time on their space and remotely purchase extension time on their space.

“Providing our parkers with the ability to handle their parking experience through their smartphone gives them the convenience they want,” Asbury Park Transportation Manager Michael Manzella told the APP. “With Passport building us a custom app, we have a great opportunity to positively rebrand parking in the city of Asbury Park.”

In mid-May, Passport also launched a parking app for both the University of Iowa and Iowa City, Iowa, the Iowa City Press-Citizen report. The new app has similar functionality to Asbury Park’s app, but this app also offers emailed receipts, which supplants the previous inability to get receipts from parking meters in the area.

“If someone is traveling for business and needs receipts or a parking history, now they'll have one," Mark Rummel, associate director of transportation services for Iowa City told the Press-Citizen.

"It all gets back to convenience," Jim Sayre, associate director of University of Iowa Parking and Transportation, told the Press-Citizen. "It seems like people carry change with them less and less often, and this will be an added option." Sayre also said that the city and university will be able to track parking habits and trends through the app, which could inform future decisions on parking.

Kingston, N.Y., will be rolling out a new parking app called Whoosh! for its city later this month to coincide with an increase in hourly parking fees, the Daily Freeman News reports. It’s made by a company called Parkeon and over 20 cities, universities and parking companies use the app, per the app’s website. 

Like the Asbury PARK app, Whoosh! will allow Kingston-based users to pay for parking using their phones, including extending time on a given space while sending users notifications if their parking is about to expire, according to the Daily Freeman. The app has an added benefit of allowing users to carry parking time to other parking spaces throughout Kingston, “encouraging individuals to move seamlessly between our business districts,” Kingston Mayor Steve Noble told the Daily Freeman.

“Our goal with launching the Whoosh! app is to provide an alternative option to payment by coins,” Noble told the Daily Freeman. “We want to make accessing our business districts easier and more convenient, and ultimately we expect to see a reduction in the number of tickets issued due to overdue meters.”

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