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By next year, residents of Regina could have chosen to use a telephone to pay for parking instead of feeding a counter.
A city report, directed at the community's Thursday meeting and security services committee, requires updates to the city's parking infrastructure.
He advises counselors to approve the $ 50,000 spend on a consultant to design payment options for roadside parking. He also asks them to consider adding funding for a pay-by-phone system in the 2019 budget.
"The goal of parking services, to be clear, is to provide a safe and efficient flow of traffic and this essentially means that we want to limit illegal parking," said Faisal Kalim, head of parking services.
"So if people can pay to park with their phone, if it's cheaper, they have another payment option, so the amount of illegal parking will go down and later the amount of tickets will go down, which is a good one thing."
Residents or cities may cover transaction fees
The report indicates a 2014 parking study that required several initiatives, including upgrading downtown parking technology.
"Currently the overwhelming majority of paid parking infrastructures in the city have only one token payment option: these meters are reliable and cheap, yet they do not provide the modern parking experience that customers expect compared to other Western Canadians. common as Saskatoon and Calgary, "reads.
Describes how the staff searched for a pay-by-phone parking system, where people could pay via a smartphone anywhere in the city center instead of connecting a meter. The report states that park control officials could then use a portable device to check if payments were received.
Residents may pay the app first
According to the report, the management of such a system would cost about $ 100,000 a year in transaction fees, which could be transferred to customers if the directors decided.
If customers pay taxes, the city could get a pay-by-phone system prior to the 2019 budget process. However, Kalim says staff do not recommend the option as it would require changes to the regulation.
Area councilor Andrew Steven is open to the city of paying residents.
"I do not object, I think this will be on Thursday's discussion, people are asking, in fact some of the conversations I've suggested suggest that people are willing to pay a little more if it means that added convenience . "
Stevens is pleased that such improvements to parking have been taken into account, stating that they are necessary and long overdue.
He said that a pay-per-phone system would hopefully reduce the complaints he feels about parking in the area.
"You will not completely get rid of these complaints, but for those people who just need, you know, a couple of minutes more to run halfway to connect the metro, this will make things a little easier. "
Kalim said the two-hour parking limit would still be valid even if a pay-by-phone system had been implemented.
The parking staff also wants to hire a consultant to develop plans for other payment options to park on the road, which could include the installation of new payment stations.
Kalim explained that there is a need for such improvements even with an app-based system because not everyone has smartphones and some who would not like to burn data to pay by phone.
"Underutilized" current credit card counters
In terms of, the report says they are located along 11th Avenue.
The report says that the existing meters in the city where people can pay by credit card, which were installed along 11th Avenue in 2015, were "underutilized".
He says they are placed in an isolated spot where parking may be difficult to find.
The staff says that these meters have reached the end of their life cycle and must be replaced, but doing so would be expensive, so the city intends to use them as money.
