DC sees parking ticket revenue slump because of mobile payment app

Oh noes! The District has been awarding less parking tickets, a result of the widespread use of mobile payment technology.
A majority of drivers who park on the street are now using the Parkmobile app, a payments system first launched in 2010.
And since 2011, the District’s parking ticket count has declined by 300,000, according to a Washington Post analysis. The D.C. Council is now considering whether to raise fines or extend when “premium zones” are in effect.
In the wake of these findings, the Post waxed nostalgic about the fast-approaching disappearance of common parking headaches:

These are the waning years of the search for parking as we’ve known it. Even with things such as feed-the-meter-by-phone apps, technology is way ahead of the applications on the market. Circling the block in search of a space won’t be necessary once everyone gets one of the find-me-a-space apps now available.

ParkWhiz lets you reserve and pre-pay for a parking spot near your destination; Parking Panda helps you find parking near a sporting event or other activity. ParkMe and SpotHero offer similar assistance.

But the revolutionary hour for urban parking may begin when on-board car computers begin chatting with one another and culminate once fully autonomous cars become the norm. It’s not far-fetched to think that one day you will tell your car to drop you at the front door and then find a parking place on its own.

Read the full story
This ticket shortage is not what parking officials in Philadelphia want to hear, by the way: The City of Brotherly Love just announced its plans to roll-out of a mobile payment system this summer.