Pay-by-phone parking pulls up to Sydney
App lets members top up remotely, refunds unused time
You no longer have to rummage for coins, leave a meeting to feed the meter, or, worst of all, find a ticket on your windshield when parking in downtown Sydney.
This week, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality launched a partnership with HotSpot Parking that allows people to use their smartphones to pay for parking.
Paul Burt, the CBRM manager of building, planning and licensing bylaws, said the app “takes our old, antiquated put-apenny-in-the-parking meter and almost brings it into the 21st century.”
He said it would have cost the CBRM more than $400,000 to replace its approximately 800 parking meters with ones that allow drivers to pay with debit, credit or swipe cards. While Sydney metres still accept coins, now people who pay a monthly or annual membership fee can use HotSpot instead.
“This a whole new service that we can now provide that hasn’t cost us anything,” Burt told the Cape Breton Post.
HotSpot CEO Phillip Curley said the membership fee is $2 a month, or $20 a year ($18 for CAA members), and there are also corporate rates. You download the app, sign up and enter your vehicle information. Then, the next time you pull up to a parking spot, you press “park car’” icon, enter the meter number, select your time and you’re done.
Curley, who founded the Fredericton, N.B., company in 2013 while studying engineering at the University of New Brunswick, said they have more than 60,000 members and their service is available in about 20 cities and towns in Atlantic Canada, including Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John.
“For a lot of reasons, it’s pretty sweet. You get to refund your money, so if you park and your meeting goes short you can get your money back. It reminds you so you can top up remotely. You can use it anywhere in the Maritimes — all of the Maritimes have the same app,” said the 27-year-old Summerside, P.E.I., native.
“There’s a cost to using the service but it’s right up front. And what we do find is if you download the app, with the refund setting, people usually save more money than it costs to use the service.”
While refunding money for unused time seems like it could cost the CBRM, Burt expects convenience will encourage compliance.
“In fact, most jurisdictions that we talked to actually found a slight increase in revenue because you’re getting people that will pay for that 10 minutes of parking now. You’ll get that person running into the store who doesn’t have the change but all they’ve got to do is hit ‘park’ on their phone and it’s done. It’s very simple.”
This week, the Sydney Waterfront District is offering residents who download and register for the mobile app, two free hours of parking per day in celebration of Small Business Week and HotSpot’s launch.