New Haven, Conn., is the latest city to let residents and visitors pay for parking in express lots via the Parkmobile application, indicating that this capability could become commonplace in metropolitan areas across the United States.

Mobile payments provider Parkmobile is powering express parking in New Haven, enabling individuals to leverage its Android, iPhone and Windows applications to start, pay for and extend various parking sessions around the city. Parkmobile already provides mobile payment capabilities in a slew of other cities in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.

“Parking headaches are a fact of life for most city-dwellers and mobile can play a big role in providing relief,” said Wilson Kerr, vice president of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce. “No one likes circling the block or feeding the meter and people searching for parking jam traffic and add to pollution levels.

“By downloading the Parkmobile app, consumers can pay for parking and be alerted when they need to reload,” he said. “More importantly, cities can see increased revenue from these services, as there are no meters to service and coins to collect.

“The data collected can also allow the app to direct drivers to lots and open-metered parking spots.”

Revving up convenience
Parkmobile is the new payments provider for express parking in New Haven. The company’s solution, which has offered mobile parking payment options for the coastal city since 2013, lets visitors and residents pay for parking sessions in multiple lots via their smartphones.

Parkmobile app users can now start, pay for and extend parking sessions in all express parking lots and on-street spaces in New Haven, as well as private lots.

Residents and visitors can begin using this solution by downloading the Parkmobile app for their Windows, iPhone or Android devices from any app store or www.parkmobile.com.

Once they have registered for an account, consumers can start using the app to complete payments using their smartphone’s number.

Additionally, individuals will receive alerts when their parking time is nearing its expiration.

Users can extend their parking time remotely and print or save receipts from each session.

Law enforcement officers will be able to tell if a motorist has paid remotely via the Parkmobile app, thereby eliminating the need for individuals to worry if their meter does not change.

Parking payments on the rise
Parkmobile sees approximately five million individuals use its solution more than 30 million times each year. The platform maintains over 1.2 million users in locations such as Connecticut’s Greenwich, Norwalk and Hartford, New York’s Yonkers and more than 20 cities in New Jersey.

Parkmobile will roll out its solution in Manhattan in the near future.

A slew of other mobile parking payments platforms have also been staking out new users and locales.

Earlier this year, the city of St. Paul, MN, was one of the latest metropolises to streamline the parking experience via mobile, allowing residents and visitors to remotely pay for metered parking using a new smartphone app (see story).

Additionally, Parkopedia and Apple are teaming up to change the way drivers discover parking and use mapping apps with a partnership that brings the former’s vehicle parking information and reservations to the preinstalled Maps app on iPhones (see story).

“Repeated transactions, like paying for tolls, buying your morning coffee, and feeding the meter, are where mobile shines, leading the way for more involved mobile payments,” Mr. Kerr said.