You soon won’t have to worry about feeding a meter to park in St. Augustine.
The City is formally launching a new “ParkStAug” mobile app on February 4th, although it is already available for download. The app will allow you to pay parking fees at City-managed parking locations, will alert you when your time is running low, and will allow you to add more time without having to return to your vehicle. The City is going to be removing parking meters in conjunction with this launch, although there will still be pay stations for anyone who does not want to use the app.
“One thing we’ve found in this whole process of evaluating parking systems and technology, is no matter how advanced you get in technology, mobile apps, electronic image, you always have to have a mechanism for folks that choose not to use the technology, or also folks that are not capable of it,” says Mobility Program Manager Reuben Franklin.
To use the app, you enter your payment information and the license plate number of the vehicle you want to pay for, which you can do once you download the app, before you even head out. When you’re parked, you enter information in to the app on where you are and how long you are paying for. There will be signs posted to help you know what location you’re in.
By using the app, the City is also moving away from the current “pay and display” method, where if you use a pay station you have to have a ticket in your window. Instead, you will enter your license plate number in the pay station, if you choose to use that instead of the app.
The City says the cost of parking and hours of enforcement are not changing, although you will be able to access discounted parking rates, like what’s available through the ParkNow Card, through the app. They are ultimately looking at phasing out the ParkNow Card in the future, but not the discounts. Instead, they will gradually be trying to migrate people to access the discounts through the app, instead of on a physical card. That won’t be in motion until the app is integrated with the garage, according to Franklin.
It will still cost $2.50 per hour, and parking will be limited to three hours on-street or four hours in lots. Parking is enforced Monday through Saturday from 8AM through 5PM, except on Cathedral Place and King Street, where enforcement is 10AM through 5PM, and in the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument lot, where parking is enforced every day, including Sunday.
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