Somerville, MA, Dec. 3, 2014 – On November 24, the City of Somerville a new smartphone application that allows users to pay for parking directly on their phone, and even notifies them when their meter time is running out.
“The Parkmobile app will be a phone app which allows for consumers visiting, living, or doing business in Somerville to be able to have a more customer service, user-friendly application to park their cars,” Mayor Joseph A. Cutatone told Somerville Neighborhood News (SNN). “, you don’t have to rummage through your pockets, or bags, or your car, or your seats, for those extra quarters.”
Somerville is the first city in Massachusetts to register for the Parkmobile app, but officials predict that it will extend throughout the state.
“Boston, Cambridge, I think all the municipalities will have this soon,” Director of Traffic and Parking Suzanne Rinfret told SNN.
City officials involved in the Parkmobile initiative predict that they will be bringing in less parking tickets, and thus, less revenue for the city. However, Rinfret insisted, no jobs will be lost.
“We won’t be adding any parking spaces, or having any losses,” she noted. “This convenience is really for the customer. That’s why the city is doing it. It will not change anything as far as employment goes in the city… This is a win-win for everyone.”
“What we’re looking for is not to ‘get’ you or ‘catch’ you ,” Curtatone laughed. “We want to advance good policy, and we want advances in mobility that make sense for the community.”
Curtatone said he also gets parking tickets – he held one up to SNN reporters – and noted that he will be downloading the app soon.
“That gives us so many opportunities,” he noted. “It’s important for customer service… but also for local businesses. We want repeat customers coming to their businesses.”
“It’s another step in Somerville’s innovative, creative, curious, way of thinking about what it wants to be when it grows up,” he added.
One Response