Neck guard sales jump after Sask. hockey player slashed by skate
8h ago
More adult players are now investing in the protective equipment.
Drivers peeved by pesky pocket change for parking meters now have an app for that in Regina.
On Tuesday, the City of Regina rolled out a new pay-by-smartphone method that ditches coins and uses an app called PayByPhone. That said, the city stressed that coin payments will still be accepted.
The app is made by developers out of Vancouver. A user can download the app, plug in his/her credit card info and licence plate number, and then punch in a given parking meter’s location number.
The app will charge the credit card the amount for parking the driver chooses, plus an extra 17-cent fee. Users also will get a reminder that their time at the meter is running out.
“You can activate that anywhere you want to, as long as you stay within the two-hour time limit,” Mayor Michael Fougere said. “If you’re unable to get back to your car, you can just simply use your app and do it that way to pay for it once again.”
The city confirmed drivers can now use the app at any parking meter in the city. The University of Regina has its own system, but it’s also connected to the PayByPhone app.
The city put out a request for proposals in February and the successful program went into effect Tuesday.
“This app is used by many, many cities in North America,” Fougere said. “It’s very easy to use, very simple to use and we think it’s the best one.”
Dawn Schikowski, the city’s manager of licensing and parking services, said the app was selected over other ideas. One of those was the system by which people pay for parking spots at one station in each block rather than at meters.
“The current parking infrastructure (in Regina) is the individual parking meters, so in order to implement the pay stations, we would have had to invest more funding in moving to the pay station,” Schikowski explained.
Referencing the 17 cents, Schikowski said: “That’s the fee PayByPhone makes for making the app available.”
The city is keeping in place the two-hour time limit for each meter. Parking enforcement officers will have access to information about who has used the app, and which driver’s time limit is up.