Seattle to consider pay-by-phone parking

The Seattle City Council is scheduled to consider an
ordinance that would allow you to use your cellphone to
pay for parking on city streets.

Rather than use the current pay stations, parkers could
add time from their mobile devices without having to stick
a proof-of-payment receipt to their car window.

“That information goes to our Seattle Police Parking
Enforcement folks wirelessly,” said Mike Estey, manager of
Parking Operations and Traffic Permits for the Seattle
Department of Transportation.

Parking enforcement officers would receive real-time
updates on their handheld devices that would tell them who
paid to park, who didn’t, and whose time has run out.

Estey said the new system will warn users if they are in
danger of getting a ticket because their time has expired.

“If you’re in a meeting or at dinner, or something like
that, you can get a text message that tells you your time
is about to run out and you could add time remotely,” he
said.

Although the system would make parking easier for some
users, it would come with a convenience fee. While the fee
has not been set, Estey said it will likely be somewhere
around 35 cents per transaction.

The vendor that provides the service would pay for the
cost of updating graphics and signs in parking areas,
while the city will pay to upgrade wireless plans for
parking enforcement officers.

Estey said a similar service is already being used in
cities such as Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

The council’s transportation committee will consider the
legislation during a meeting on July 10. The Seattle
Department of Transportation hopes to have the system in
place for a trial neighborhood by September, and citywide
by the end of the year.