There are a lot of dodgy smartphone apps for parking out there. Some sell you space that isn’t actually privately owned; others let you hold a space hostage until the ransom shows up. According to syracuse.com, the city of Syracuse, NY, has just begun offering an app called Whoosh! that lets users pay for parking with their smartphone. I’m not crazy about exclamation points in business titles, but I definitely like the way this app works.
The Whoosh! system can be used by any motorist who downloads the free app to their phone and registers their vehicle license plate and a credit card to which the payments will be charged. Each transaction includes a 35 cent convenience fee.
It’s an easy process to download the app and use it to streamline meter transactions. I think the 35-cent fee is high, considering some parkers might only be spending 50 cents to park. I don’t live in a place that freezes in the winter, but I imagine there are plenty of folks in Syracuse who’ll be glad to pay 35 cents to get out of the cold a lot faster.
So many apps leave me puzzled. This one makes sense.
Read the rest of the article here.
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For what it’s worth there are some apps that are clean, simple and easy to use. For instance SPOT which launched in Boston recently allows people to list privately owned parking spaces that they control (whether you own the land or received the spot as part of your apartment). They’ve also been working with schools and non-profits to use those parking spaces to raise money for them, even waiving their transaction fees for them.
Another great Boston-based app (excuse my hometown bias) is TicketZen which while it won’t help you find parking, does make paying tickets a heck of alot easier.
Lastly there’s Fixed out in SF that helps you contest parking tickets by crafting personal appeal letters based on info you send them and their knowledge of parking laws which is super cool. I also believe they’re now available in Denver as well.
All in all there are plenty of good parking apps out there, just gotta be able to wade through the crap to get to the good stuff.