Community Corner

VIDEO: How to Pay for Parking in Norwalk by Phone

Dashing out to feed an expiring parking meter may soon go the way of scrounging for change to feed the pay phone, if a new biller app for phones proves useful in Norwalk.

The weather's bad, and you don't want to stay out on the street to feed the parking meter. Or you're on a date, and you realize the meter where your car is parked is about to expire—two blocks away.

You've met the love of your life in the coffee shop, and as you gaze joyously into his or her eyes, the vision of a parking ticket suddenly destroys the mood.

Relax. Life just got a bit easier: The Norwalk Parking Authority has teamed up with a company to provide you with a biller app for your cell phone: One that pays your parking meter from the comfort of your own hand-held device (you can also pay from your computer or by regular telephone—and you can always pay the traditional way, with coins in the meter).

Find out what's happening in Norwalkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

See the video attached to this article for a demonstration of how it works. You do need to preregister, and there is a small fee (cents, not dollars) over and above the regular cost of parking each time you use the service. The fee covers the cost of the new service—no taxpayers dollars are involved, according to parking authority officials.

All Norwalk Parking Authority meters will be subject to the new system, including some of the parking at the East Norwalk and South Norwalk railroad stations, but it won't be used in the authority's parking garages. 

Find out what's happening in Norwalkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

To register for the service, go to the Parkmobile website, where a mobile app can also be downloaded. Registering takes two or three minutes, parking authority officials said. Customers can use the service with the mobile app or through the Internet or by regular telephone. To get the service in which the company alerts customers when there's only 15 minutes to go on the meter, customers will have to choose the option during registration.

The new service got going on Tuesday, when there were already 50 people preregistered for it.

During a ceremony to inaugurate the service that day, Mayor Moccia said: "Parking is never easy. People don't like to pay tickets. [...] This is one step forward to make parking a little easier, and I hope the merchants in the area will make their customers more aware of this, so that if they are running a little late, they can get that text message, and they can pay online."

Ed Musante, president of the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce and former executive director of the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency, said parking is a significant subject for a retail district in which businesses don't have their own individual parking lots.

Norwalk is the first city Parkmobile has brought its technology, and so far, it's the most sophisticated system for parking by phone in the state, Norwalk Parking Authority officials said. The system is also the first pay-by-phone payment option in Fairfield County, according to the parkign authority.

Parkmobile, a U.S. subsidiary of a European company (but also owned by some American investors), was founded in 2005 and is based in Atlanta. Parkmobile provides services in 24 states, including 270 locations around the United States.

"Our new program, Pay by Cell, did not happen overnight or in a vacuum," said Kathryn Hebert, director of the parking authority, "We talked about this conveneince for a while, waiting for the technology to catch up to the reality and searching for the right business partners. We wanted to make sure the implementatio was seamless; that it resulted in an easy, convenient way to pay for parking by the public."

"We are a big part of the overall experience that the public has when they come to our city," Hebert said, "and we want to make sure that the experience continues to be positive, so we are forever looking for new ways to improve."


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