The pilot program for pay-by-phone parking started last summer in select areas downtown. In a nutshell, you set up an account and then pay for your parking by sending a text.
Now the city is expanding pay-by-phone to all metered spots downtown in a trial run. From the City of Asheville blog:
The yellow parking meter stickers are going up all over town as the City of Asheville expands pay-by-phone parking to all of its 750 meters in the downtown central business district.
The service allows drivers to pay for up to two hours of on-street parking using a credit or debit card number and their cell phone. The move enhances the accessibility of on-street short-term parking by extending it to people who are not carrying change. In September, the City of Asheville’s Parking Services Division launched a three-month test phase involving 104 parking meters, and the success of that phase has led to an expanded trial run throughout all of the City of Asheville’s meters.
Read the whole blog entry here. Congrats to the City for taking a step into the future with this program. Please, please let debit-card parking be next.
3 Comments
I think it’s interesting that there is no indication on the signage that metered parking ends at 6pm … does the app indicate that fact?
This is awesome, though I haven’t tried it yet. Typically, I am generally heading downtown around 5:15p during the week after work, and not having change means I have to park in a garage, rather than pay for just 45 mins. for a space.
And while I would love debit card parking like they have in the big cities, I’m afraid it means that it’ll make it easier for the city to extend the hours required to pay for parking.
Having to go through a phone app is a pain in the butt (what if you forget your phone at home?). I still wish they’d install debit card meters. Or one or two kiosks per street with the ability to print ticket receipts (they have this in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario; it’s handy).