Every year, Memorial Day vacationers flock to Miami Beach for a whole lot of sun, sand -- and parking stress. Just in time to help reduce some of that hair pulling, the Miami Beach Parking Department has released two smartphone apps.
ParkMe helps drivers find nearby parking, and for some locations, how full a specific deck or lot is. The other, called Parkmobile, lets drivers to pay for parking on their smartphone.
“We’re very excited about it because it just makes a lot of sense to have that service here,” says Saul Francis, the parking director for Miami Beach.
He was one of the people who brought the apps to the city. Thing is, this is a different app than the one used across the bay in the city of Miami, called PayByPhone.
“There were proposals submitted by a number of different service providers and Parkmobile provided a very integrated solution,” Francis explains. “In addition to that, they also provided, a convenience fee waiver for Miami Beach residents.”
On top of the fee waiver, residents will also pay reduced hourly parking rates: $1 per hour instead of $1.75 for nonresidents.
So far, the app is averaging around 1,000 transactions per day and about 4,000 people have signed up to use the app.
