UC gets m-parking

The University of California-Santa Barbara with help from IBM, overhauled its parking system a year and a half ago, enabling mobile users to pay for their parking meters with their cell phones.

Now, experts expect that more people will dig into their pockets for a phone rather than a quarter to pay for a parking spot — at colleges, businesses or just on the street. Installations are in place in Europe and in a growing number of North American cities, including Seattle; Vancouver, Canada; and, soon, Minneapolis, reports USA Today.

"Hard statistics are difficult to come by. But Neil Podmore of Vancouver-based Verrus, which is involved in the pay-by-cell parking technology, estimates about 100,000 spots are being paid for by phone in North America and 250,000 worldwide. Podmore says he thinks the worldwide total will reach 500,000 spaces by year's end".

emily | 9:23 AM | SMS and Micro Payments |
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