City to use Parkmobile app

Parking meters downtown will allow drivers to download the Parkmobile app as another option for payment starting the first week of November.

The app will serve as an alternative to putting in physical payment at the meter.

“We decided to do it as a customer service function,” Susie Johnson, Bloomington director of Public Works, said. “We thought it would be something that folks that are parking downtown might find convenient, an easy way to pay the meters or to reload time on a meter if you are away from the meter when it expires.”

Drivers can download the Parkmobile app for free on their phones and register with Parkmobile by providing them with a plate number and credit card number.

Parkmobile charges a fee of 50 cents per transaction.

For those drivers that set up an electronic wallet, where they preload money onto the wallet, it will cost 40 cents.

“When you pull up to a parking meter you activate a parking session and it will send a message to our parking enforcement staff,” Johnson said.

The message will inform the parking enforcement staff that a driver with that license has paid though a certain hour.

“If the officer encounters that plate number, they would enter the plate number and see that the person has paid, and they would not be ticketed,” Johnson said.

Alex Collignon, a senior at IU, said the new parking app seems to be a lot more convenient for the students.

“I think it’s a lot better,” Collignon said. “If you’re in class and you ended up staying late or if you wanted to stay late at the library, it would be nice to just stay there and upload the money to the parking meter instead of trying to find change.”

Follow reporter Alli Friedman on Twitter @afreedz.