Tap or wave and the parking fee will be paid.
That will be one of the payment options for new pay-by-phone parking meters the City of Ottawa is launching early next year, according to a city staff report.
The upgraded meters will let car parkers holding smartphones equipped with near field communication technology – allowing short-range wireless transmissions between the phone and a receiver – touch their handset against the meter’s reader or wave their phone near it to charge their credit card, speeding up the payment process.
Though the tap-and-pay technology is used in only a handful of smartphones right now, many gadget watchers expect it to become standard in high-tech phones.
The pay-by-phone system will also let users start or extend parking time using a regular phone or the Internet.
Payment by credit card, coins or parking tokens will still be accepted at the meters, though plans for a new reloadable parking card have been shelved.
The new meters aren’t the only upgrade coming for transit-related payments in Ottawa.
Last month, OC Transpo announced plans to switch over to the province-backed Presto fare card next summer. Presto is loaded with funds like a gift card, and is used by tapping it against a reader.
It will replace pre-bought tickets and monthly passes
The parking meter report says that credit card payments have skyrocketed since “Pay & Display” meters were rolled out in 2010. Payment by credit card now makes up 39 per cent of revenues drawn from the city’s 4,000 parking spots.
The report will be sent to the transportation committee on Wednesday.