Little Rock board to vote on parking app; downtown visitors could pay by phone before leaving home

Little Rock is looking to provide downtown visitors a new way to pay for parking with a smartphone app.

The city Board of Directors will vote Tuesday on a contract with ParkMobile LLC to provide Little Rock with a new mechanism to charge for parking that works even if an individual doesn't have change in his pocket.

The contract with the parking payment technology costs the city nothing. ParkMobile operates on a 30-cent user fee charged in addition to what a person pays for parking.

Ronny Loe, assistant director of the Public Works Department, said individuals will be able to pay via phone app anywhere a coin-operated or electronic meter exists.

If city directors approve the contract, Loe said, the staff hopes to have the new system in place by the end of 2019.

Right now, there are no plans to remove the existing meters, Loe said. The Public Works Department plans to track numbers on how many people continue to use the coin-operated machines.

"We still get revenue from the meters, and this provides us flexibility to maybe add parking and charge for parking in areas where we don't have meters also right now," Loe told city directors at Tuesday's agenda-setting meeting.

The new system won't affect downtown's parking decks and privately-owned lots. Public works staff members plan to put signs and stickers on existing meters to let people know about the new way to pay.

Loe said Little Rock looked into implementing a pay-by-app system "several years ago," but at the time didn't have the parking enforcement technology to match up its ticketing system with the payment system. Since then, many other cities have started using it, he said, including Dallas, Kansas City, Mo., and Shreveport. ParkMobile is used in more than 3,000 locations across North America.

He also noted that Little Rock has had some problems with the eight electronic meters in the River Market district. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in 2014 about the meters frequently being out of order and in need of repairs.

To pay with ParkMobile, users will enter their license plate number, which will show up on an interface that the city's parking enforcement officers will use to check to see whether a spot has been paid for, since it won't show up on the meter.

The app allows users to extend their time without returning to their vehicles. It also allows individuals to reserve a parking spot before leaving home, according to the app's website.

Paid street parking costs $1.25 an hour in the River Market area and near the Old Statehouse Museum on West Markham Street, and 50 cents an hour in other downtown locations. The city has a total of about 1,200 meters downtown.

The contract with ParkMobile is on the city board's consent agenda, a set of items voted on as a group and generally approved.

Metro on 09/16/2019

Upcoming Events