Is Birmingham getting cashless parking?

Paying for and finding parking spaces in Birmingham with an app? Yes, please.

More Parking Options

On Monday the Birmingham City Council Transportation Committee met with Parkmobile LLC, an Atlanta-based parking app recently purchased by BMW. The city is exploring ways to expand its meter-based parking system. While the meters won’t be going anywhere, the app would provide another way to pay for parking.

Parkmobile provides cashless on-street parking via an app and helps users find, reserve and pay for parking, both on the street and in garages. The company offers digital parking in more than 1,000 cities, with more than 22 million customers in Europe and North America.

A Modern Way To Park

Darrell O’Quinn chairs the council’s transportation committee, and he introduced the idea of a smarter way to park in early 2018 by bringing two companies to talk with the committee: Paybyphone and Parkmobile. During the meeting this week, Parkmobile met with the transportation committee.

O’Quinn noted that Parkmobile doesn’t typically charge municipalities for its service model.

Other points taken from the meetings included:

• The payment system can be integrated with coin-operated meters.
• Parking enforcement officers can reconcile the difference between the meter display and payments through Parkmobile.
• The City of Birmingham would continue to control the meters and would be able to monitor and change them via Parkmobile’s system.
• The city would be able to thoroughly track parking revenue through Parkmobile’s analytic system.
• Customers who use Parkmobile in Birmingham can use the app in any of its other 3,000-plus locations.