By Dilara Kurtaran
Green P parking logo (Photo by Toronto Parking Authority)
No cash or card to pay for parking?
No problem. The new Green P app will allow drivers to pay for parking with their phones.
“I think this kind of approach makes sense,” said Toronto Mayor John Tory on Thursday at a news conference at City Hall.
The app will let drivers find Green P lots, buy parking, track how much they’re spending on parking, extend their parking time and receive alerts when parking time is about to expire.
The app is free to download for iPhone and Android users and is available for use at selected off-street Green P lots.
The parking rates will stay the same.
“It makes life easier, so you don’t have constantly get out of your car, worry about your credit card working or if you have money on you,” said Rob Klopot, who works for a landscaping and snow removal company in Toronto.
Drivers have to create an account at Parkgreenp.com to prepay using a credit card. The city is planning to increase the new service weekly until all non-gated lots have this new system in late spring. The current pay and display machines will remain in place.
“I just think we need to move forward,” said Tory at the conference. “We have to bring the services in this city into the 21st century and I think that’s something that the parking authority in process of doing.”
The app doesn’t require drivers to put a receipt on the dashboard. The parking attendants will verify the purchase of parking by entering the plate number of the car into a hand-held device.
“It makes life easier, so you don’t have constantly get out of your car” – Rob Klopot
“The city has been frozen in time with respect to moving ahead to adopt the kinds of technology and kinds of modernization of the way we deliver services to make it more convenient for people,” Tory said at the news conference.
“It takes one of our city divisions, which is parking, and brings it into the modern era,” said James Pasternak, Toronto Ward 10 City Councillor.
“It allows people the interactivity between hand held devices and the use of their personal vehicle so it’s convenient with sufficiency and it’s user friendly,” he said.