Complaining about parking is as much a part of Victoria鈥檚 character as the legislature buildings and the Inner Harbour, but parking here is relatively plentiful, inexpensive and easy to access.
And it just got easier.
The city鈥檚 parking situation has been evolving in response to those complaints, a tweak here, an improvement there, and we鈥檙e light-years ahead of where we were a decade or two ago. Free evening and Sunday parking has been made available. In September, the city lowered the parkade rate to $2 from $2.25 an hour and made the first hour of parking free, as well as making parking in parkades free from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.
Now the city is offering a parking app that allows drivers to pay for on-street spots using a smartphone or tablet. The new ParkVictoria mobile system sends a text message or pop-up note to let people know their parking time is about to expire.
With the on-street pay stations, motorists do not need to return to where they bought the time to plug the meter when the time runs out 鈥� it can be done at any station. The new app adds another layer of convenience 鈥� you can buy more time with your phone wherever you are. And if you don鈥檛 use it all, you can get money back.
Concerns have been expressed about protection of private data, but with proper safeguards, this app promises to make a good parking situation even better.
Victorians might continue to complain about parking, but these days, they have less to complain about.
