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Mobile Apps

CivicSmart has developed its own mobile apps and has partnered with the world's leading mobile parking app providers to deliver Smart Parking benefits to the palms of the hands of motorist’s and city staff.

 

These apps combine dynamic information from sensors, meters, payment systems and mobile LPR vehicles with static program information and transaction portals to deliver an array of parking related benefits and information.  These capabilities save motorists time, improve City field staff operations, reduce back-office work via motorist self-service applications, and improve customer service.  These features include:

 

  • Real-time on-street parking availability

  • On-street parking reservations

  • Parking payments

  • Payment receipts

  • Static maps of public parking spaces and permit areas

  • Maps of private parking lots and garages

  • Enforcement software

  • Permit information, permit applications and online permit purchases

  • Online citation payments

  • Online citation appeals

  • Online parking accounts to receive alerts about enrolled vehicles

  • Online business fleet accounts so businesses can enroll and manage vehicle fleets

  • Report broken meters and damaged signs

  • Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the parking program

  • Support for hundreds of languages

Guidance

When a motorist uses a mobile app to find a specific space, they can link from the guidance app to the mobile payment app to facilitate payment. Our app provides real-time map-based guidance to public parking spaces including:

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  • On-street Spaces

  • Surface Lots

  • Garages

Reservations

While private parking operators have selectively allowed motorists to reserve parking spaces for the last 5-10 years, US cities have been slow to consider reservations for public parking spaces, especially on-street spaces.  There is a perception that this is inequitable and, in any case, the technology didn’t support the practical deployment of such programs.

 

However, with the technology available today and the growing acceptance of demand-based pricing, we offer the opportunity to not just use demand-based pricing to set a different rate across a city zone, but to set premium prices for a select number of short-term on-street and parking lot spaces. In summary, a reserved parking program would operate as follows:

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  1. Subterranean Sensors will be installed in each parking lot and on-street parking space in the City.

  2. Instructional signs will be posted at each Reserved Parking Area informing motorists not to park in these spaces unless they have booked a reservation through the Smart Guidance Mobile App.

  3. When a motorist wants to reserve a parking space, they will open the Smart Guidance Mobile App Reservation feature, find a Parking Area convenient to their destination, and determine if there is an available space for the time they need to park.

  4. If there is an available space, the motorist can book a reservation for up to 24 hours or the maximum duration set by policy.  The motorist can be charged on arrival or can be charged immediately when the reservation is booked though they may not arrive for some time.

  5. When a space is reserved, the system will adjust its available inventory.  The total inventory for each Reserved Parking Area will include a buffer or flex spaces to accommodate violations and exceptions.  This buffer will be adjusted over time based on experience.

  6. When the motorist arrives at the Reserved Parking Area, they will find their reserved space and park.

  7. When the sensor detects a reserved space being occupied, the system will proactively send a push notification to the motorist asking them to confirm that they have parked. If the motorist says they have not parked yet or there is no response, exception handling processes including manual verification, enforcement and assigning an alternate reserved spaces will kick in.

  8. When the vehicle departs the space, the sensor will communicate the vacancy to the management system which will halt the billing process and calculate the time/cost from when the reservation was booked until the vehicle departed.

  9. Payment transactions will be processed by the motorist’s preferred mobile payment app (if the City accepts multiple ones) from the Smart Guidance App and deposited to the City’s account as with any other mobile payment. 

  10. Transaction information will be sent to CivicSmart’s management system for reporting and reconciliation.

  11. If a motorist needs to cancel a reservation, they will be able to do so through the app and can be charged a cancellation fee.

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