App starts to get use for meter payments
The app that lets drivers pay for metered parking by using their smartphones has been getting up to two dozen uses per day in Kingston since its local launch last month, according to the city.
“We don’t have a way of determining how many people have downloaded the Whoosh! app in our area, however we have seen an average of one to two dozen transactions per day in Kingston,” Megan Weiss-Rowe, Kingston’s director of communications and community engagement, said in an email this week. “We expect this number will increase as additional signage is installed soon.”
The Whoosh! app was activated for Kingston parking meters in mid-June. The local launch
coincided with the city doubling
the cost of on-street parking to $1 per hour.
The Whoosh! app is available for iOS and Android phones and is free to download. A 35-cent “convenience
fee” charged for each transaction goes to the app company, not the city.
All meters in Kingston still accept coin payments, as well.
Mayor Steve Noble has said the city expects use of the app to result in fewer parking tickets being issued for meter expiration.
The app notifies users
when their meter time is near expiration. The users then can remotely extend their time, and remaining time can be carried to other metered spaces in the city.
Parking enforcement officers will determine if a vehicle has time left on its meter by checking the record for the license plate number provided by the app use.