Feed Your Meter Wirelessly

No more searching for quarters or running back to your car to feed the meter before parking enforcement gets there. Sound good to you? Sounds great to me, especially in the Washington, DC, area where parking violations can run up to $125 per incident. San Francisco is testing a system to allow drivers to pay parking meters with their cell phones.

To initiate the service, a driver need only call a toll free number on the meter and establish an account, by providing a credit card number. At that point,l To pay for meter time, it’s a matter of entering the amount of time needed and the meter number. Drivers will receive a text message before time runs out reminding them and prompting them to add more time without having to return to the meter.

Parking Enforcement will have special wireless devices in order to check the status of each space so that tickets will not be given to those who have paid by cell phone. San Francisco will be testing three different services for 90 days and collecting feedback from users and residents. We’ll be watching and hoping the pilot program goes well.