Parking? There’s an App (or Two or Three) for That
Parking? There’s an App (or Two or Three) for That
The first installation of In and Around Town (a humor column)
by Janine Annett
Rivertowns — Once upon a time, paying for parking was relatively simple.
You found a parking spot and put some coins in the parking meter. Okay, sometimes you didn’t have coins handy and you had to go ask for change in a store, or buy something and get change. Maybe you couldn’t remember what time of the day parking was free, or if you had to feed the meter on Sunday, or whether it was a meter holiday. Maybe you forgot how much time you had left on the meter (at least you didn’t have to deal with alternate-side parking, a true nightmare).
If you were really lucky, you’d pull into a spot that someone had just left and there was still some time left from when they’d fed the meter, so you could get free parking for 10 or 20 minutes or so.
Now, parking apps have taken over in a lot of places – including the Rivertowns and many other areas in Westchester (and beyond).
The apps are convenient in many ways. You don’t have to keep a bunch of loose change in your car (and risk forgetting to lock your car and having someone take the change!). There’s no going to the bank for rolls of quarters, no scrounging around for change, or trying to buy something that costs $1.25 so you can get 3 quarters. No trying to remember how much time on the meter 75 cents will get you (an hour?! A half-hour?!)
But sometimes, the apps are challenging – even for the technology-savvy.
If you’re in a place without a WiFi connection, the app can take forever to load, or fail to load at all. Of course, now you have no change in your car. Do you risk getting a ticket, or try to pay at a parking kiosk with a credit card? Hopefully, there’s no line, or you’ll be late for your appointment! (I estimate that 20% of my life is me running late to meet someone at the Good Witch in Hastings).
Or maybe you’re parking somewhere where you don’t have the parking app you need to pay for parking. Right now, I have three different parking apps on my smartphone: ParkMobile, ParkWhitePlains, and PayByPhone (not to mention all the other apps I use for getting around, like Waze and the MTA’s Train Time app). If I dare to try to park at Ridge Hill in Yonkers for longer than 30 minutes, I have to scan a QR code so I can use TEXT2PARK. I’ve gotten really good at going into Dick’s Sporting Goods, finding whichever piece of sports equipment my kid needs, paying for it, and running out of there in exactly 29 minutes.
Recently, I ventured to another town (Bronxville), where I had a meeting scheduled in yet another coffee shop. Just as I was pulling up to the café, a car started to pull out of a spot directly in front of it. Victory was mine! I pulled into the spot in my trusty Subaru – and I didn’t even have to parallel park. What joy! There was a parking meter right in front of the spot. Uh-oh. It required a parking app called Pango, which I didn’t have. No problem, though – there was a QR code on the parking meter. I scanned it with my smartphone, and a webpage opened up.
“Sorry, the page may have been removed, the link you followed may be broken, or it is under construction,” the webpage said.
I dug around in my car and my bag for change and came up with some nickels and dimes. But I had, as Led Zeppelin once sang, no quarter.
Fortunately, the person I was meeting was already inside the coffee shop, and when I went in to meet her she gave me 50 cents to put in the parking meter. I had some cash on me, so I paid for a coffee and got some more change, which I also fed into the parking meter. When I needed more time, I asked the cashier for change for a dollar, which he happily gave me. I felt a little bit like a Luddite.
“I couldn’t download the parking app,” I explained.
“It’s no problem,” he said, handing me my change. “You know what? It’s better to use coins anyway. Those parking apps charge you a fee!”
So no matter how you choose to pay for your parking, be it coins, apps, pulling into a spot with leftover time on the meter, or waiting until after 5 PM (or is it 6???) to get free parking, I hope the Parking Gods smile upon you. May you always find a spot, never get into a fender-bender with another car trying to angle for a tight spot, and never get a ticket. But if you do get a parking ticket, there’s good news – you can pay it online! Hopefully, you’re in a place with a good WiFi connection when you try.
Looking for another way to support Rivertowns Current?