Though usage was less than anticipated, Phoenix City Council granted an extension to its pay-by-phone parking meter service on Wednesday.
The contract with the service’s provider Pango will extend through Nov. 30, 2016. The contract has generated roughly $15,000 within the last year and extending it will not cost the city.
A City Council report stated that Pango performed well and met the city’s requirements in the contract.
The city of Phoenix parking program manager, Ben Carpenter, praised the Pango application.
“I have honestly not heard a single complaint that has come my way regarding the app,” he said. “I have been in the industry for a long time, and I’ve seen various apps and this is one of the more sophisticated, good-looking, quick apps that I have seen.”
The Pango app has received around 2.5 and 1.5 stars from Google Play and iTunes App Store user reviews. The majority of reviews are highly critical, but a few users say they find the app convenient.
The service accounts for roughly 1 percent of transactions and revenue for parking meters, which is below what Pango had predicted. Carpenter said that the usage would go up when the city expands the service to coin-only meters as well.
Pango declined to comment for this article.
Pango only works with parking meters that accept credit cards. Once the program extends to the coin-only meters, the convenience of having the Pango app would outweigh carrying spare change, and the app’s usage would increase drastically, Carpenter said.
Pango will expand to coin-only meters starting Nov. 16. City parking enforcement will also be given access to a website that would track whether a meter has been paid – something the coin meters could not do.
As an example, Carpenter said if a meeting was running late and time was running out on the meter, a person could simply add more money to the meter through the app as opposed to leaving the meeting and feeding it manually.
Carpenter said the contract with Pango would give more options to those who use a parking meter.
“It gives people an additional option,” he said. “Some people don’t want to put a credit card into a meter. It gives them a third payment option alongside coins.”
Contact the reporter at Kmlane5@asu.edu.
