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December 15, 2011 By News Staff
In San Francisco and don’t have change for a parking meter? Fear not. You can now pay for it using your cellphone.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has launched the PayByPhone parking payment service. Drivers can pull into a spot and pay for parking time online via a mobile device or call a toll-free number. The service is now available for parking meters in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood and will spread to other areas of the city by early 2012.
“Parking is one of the greatest frustrations people experience in their daily lives,” said San Francisco District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, in a statement. “We need to make it easy to pay for parking, and this program puts us on that path. I’m thrilled that the Castro was chosen to roll out this innovative program.”
To use the system, drivers will enter the meter location number and the length of time they want to pay for on the phone. In addition, as time runs down on the parking meter, those using PayByPhone via cellphone will receive a text message reminder when time is about to expire, along with the ability to pay for additional time and receive receipts via email.
Parking spots are a part of the PayByPhone program will have a PayByPhone decal. Users of PayByPhone will be charged 45-cent fee each time they pay for parking with the technology.
“We look forward to providing additional convenience for our parking customers,” added Tom Nolan, chairman of the SFMTA board of directors. “Anything we can do to make it easier for folks to pay at the meter furthers our goal of helping our customers get to their destinations quickly and easily.”
Those drivers who have near field communication (NFC) on their mobile devices can physically “tap” the meter to access a streamlined payment process. Once PayByPhone is installed throughout all 30,800 SFMTA and 1,000 Port of San Francisco car and motorcycle parking meter spaces, the city believes it will be the largest NFC deployment in the United States.
Paying for parking via cell phone is becoming more common in big cities. In one example, Seattle will debut its own real-time “pay by cellphone” program in 2012. Seattle’s app will also charge users an additional 25- to 35-cent convenience fee to park, but the city hasn’t decided if the city or the citizen will pay those fees.
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http://www.govtech.com/e-government/San-Francisco-Launches-Pay-by-Phone-Parking-Meters.html
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Hey, any opportunity I can have to be charged a fee as part of paying another fee will make me a happy citizen. Maybe they can apply a sales tax to the convenience fee as well?
Bravo!
I recommend citizens in these pilot areas ask for an accounting of the costs of the old method of payment and the new method. City agencies often face a lot of significant costs in collecting and depositing money from coin meters and credit card merchant fees for accepting meter payment at card kiosks. If this new method is eliminating many of those costs, then the citizens may wish to press the city to account for this 45 cent fee. They may claim its to pay for the new system, but if so, ask what the life of the system is projected to be and do some math. Government agencies can get a little heavy handed with fees if you don't ask a lot of questions up front.
Washington DC adds a surcharge if you want to pay for your income tax by credit card.
After the frustrating time we had trying to pay for parking in Seattle on the Pier, including half hour wait times to see if our card would finish processing only to be told to pick a different kiosk, (this one is out of paper) 3 times, I will GLADLY pay 45 cents.
Be aware that this parking method tells the "meter-maids" electronically exactly where your car is and exactly when the meter expires, so 2 seconds after expiration, they just happen to be there printing your ticket.