Green P parking launches pay-by-phone option on mobile app

Finding a parking spot isn’t getting any easier but paying for one will, as the Toronto Parking Authroity (TPA) has announced a pay-by-phone option at some Green P parking lots.

The mobile payment option will only be available at five lots for now, with more rolled out weekly in phases. The lots are:

  • 13 Isabella Street
  • 35 Erindale Avenue
  • 87 Richmond Street East
  • 44 Parliament Street
  • 271 Front Street East

 

With the Green P app, users will be able to extend their parking time, purchase parking and track their parking history, TPA board chair Michael Tziretas said at a news conference on Thursday morning.

It also alerts users when their parking session is set to expire.

Lorne Persiko, president of the TPA, said they are “initially concentrating their efforts on the off-street parking lots.”

Persiko said officials will observe how the mobile payment option works for a two week trial before rolling it out across the city’s 200 lots, at a rate of 20 lots per week, by the end of spring.

When asked why this service is not offered for on-street parking, he said they wanted to see how it works in off-street lots first and then, if all goes well, rollout the option in 2016.

There is also a delay in enabling the app for on-street parking because Toronto police controls enforcement, Persiko said. They would have to work with police to bring the option to street parking.

The Green P app is free and there are no transaction fees — users just have to pay for parking.

Persiko said it will cost the TPA 10 cents per Green P transaction, which is less what it currently costs to use the current payment machines.

He said implementing mobile-payment technology was a slow process because they “wanted to get it right” and provide a “branding solution.”

Mayor John Tory said the mobile payment option will give customers the “best possible experience.”

“I just think this kind of approach makes sense — it’s going to make lives easier for people in the city,” Tory said.

He said this is another example of how the city and services can be modernized to make things more convenient for people, by bringing the “services of this city into the 21st century.”

“Our role at city hall isn’t to fight the future,” Tory said when talking about modernizing the city, adding that he is “not satisfied” with the slow-moving progress.

Mobile users click here to see a map of the Green P parking lots accepting mobile payment.

With files from Toronto staff

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