Paying for street parking with your smart phone is coming to Toronto

You can now pay for street parking in Toronto with your smart phone

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If you’ve ever driven in downtown Toronto, you know this has been a long time coming.

Not only does it take forever just to find a decent spot to park, but once you’ve managed to beat out 10 other honking cars and wedge your pay into a too small spot, paying for parking at the pay-and-display machine forces you to feel like your living back in the 80s.

Seriously, in an age when we can tap our phones to pay for pretty much everything else, who is carrying twoonies around in their pocket for parking? Sure, you can also currently pay with your credit card, but again, we all know that sometimes it seems like our info has to be beamed off to Mars before we actually receive a response from the ancient parking machine.

But I digress.

Thankfully, today the City of Toronto has announced that drivers will FINALLY be able to pay for on-street parking through the Green P mobile app.

In announcement and demonstration made earlier today, Mayor John Tory had this to say about the development:

This is all about making people’s lives just a bit easier. The Green P app is an example of how we can modernize the services the City offers and the way the City delivers them. The people of Toronto want a city that works at their speed, which is why I am glad to see progress that finally meets the needs of the 21st century.

Yup, 16 years into the 21st century and we’re finally catching up to Y2K standards. Hazaa.

All jokes aside, the option to pay for parking from your smart phone, be sent a reminder when your time is going to run out, and then be able to top it up remotely is simply a game-changer for most Toronto drivers. And one that will certainly cause less fights with parking enforcement officers in the future.

According to the release, “the rollout begins this month and will be complete by the end of the year.”

Here’s the 1:50 too-long video that explains how it works.

Happy parking, Toronto!

Torontonians can now pay for on-street parking through Green P mobile app. Learn more: https://t.co/N7xLE3u3zC pic.twitter.com/nBRZ6tkYIX

— John Tory (@JohnTory) October 24, 2016

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