Pay parking meter from your phone — no matter where you are

Corpus Christi became one of 16 cities in the U.S. now using a smart phone parking meter ap that allows drivers to pay the any meter for parking and receive a warning when time is running out. Drivers can then add time to the meter without having to leave what they are doing and go to the car — it can all be handled by phone.
“My goal is to reduce parking citations,” said Marc Denson, the parking control supervisor for the city’s police department. “I have successfully reduced it by 50 percent in the last three years, while meter revenues have gone up.”
Of the 1,163 meters in the city, 300 of them take credit cards. To convert the rest would cost $600,000, Denson said. 
“Now all 1,163 can be paid for with a credit card from your phone,” Denson said. “And we didn’t have to do anything to them except post information on them.”
Each meter has a decal. The credit card meters have two: one explaining how to use the phone ap and one explaining how to use a credit ard. Downloading the ap, which has only been available for about a year now, takes no more than five minutes. 
“It’s so easy to use,” Denson said. “I have free parking downtown and I’ve run up about $10 on my credit card demonstrating how this works. It’s so cool!”
He has a right to be enthused. Along with adding convenience and preventing parking tickets, the ap is saving the city about $600,000 — the cost of converting the 863 coin operated meters to credit card versions. 
Money from parking meters goes to fund downtown improvement, including poor lighting, he said.
“The whole purpose since I came into the job was to fix problems in downtown to make it more attractive at night and for people to feel safe,” Denson said. “This is such a positive message. We are reducing the number of citations and increasing revenues.”
Besides, he added, “nobody carries change with them anymore. You can’t buy anything for change.”