Forget rushing to top up the meter, Ottawa residents may soon be able to pay for parking using their cell phones.
The city released a request Friday asking companies for bids to provide a pay-by-phone parking system by the end of the year.
The tender, released on MERX.com, asked for a company that could provide a system “capable of live processing payments of City parking customers.”
The system, according to the tender, would need to be ready no later than Dec. 15 of this year. Bids must be placed by Oct. 13.
The initial contract would be for one year, according to the tender, and the city would reserve the right to sign an extension for an additional two years.
The system would be similar to the one Carleton University adopted this summer, which allows drivers to top up their parking minutes by text message. A Carleton graduate student, Dwight Deugo, developed the technology used by the university.
Ottawa is already in the midst of rolling out new pay-and-display parking machines. Some parking meters in Centretown have been decommissioned and replaced with the new machines.
The machines allow drivers to pay for parking using cash, credit or parking cards.