Boston parking tickets down, revenue up since release of new app

A new app that allows people to pay for parking on their mobile devices has helped the city collect more parking revenue while writing fewer tickets.

Since the introduction of the ParkBoston app in early 2015, city figures show 10 percent fewer citations for unpaid meters have been written while money collected from parking is projected to increase to $15.5 million from $14 million last year, the Boston Globe reported.

“The more options we can provide to people to pay the meter … people are more likely to pay,” Gina Fiandaca, the city’s transportation commissioner, was quoted by the Globe.

The ParkBoston app works by allowing users to set up an account and then pay for their parking with their smartphone, CBS Boston reported. Users can also add time remotely if their meter is about to expire.

Other cities that saw similar results with increased parking revenue when people had easier options for payment include Minneapolis, New York and Omaha, according to Boston.com.

All of the Boston’s 8,000 metered spaces can be used with ParkBoston, according to the Globe, which added that the app has been downloaded 219,000 times and has handled 2.1 million transactions.