{"id":22719,"date":"2025-04-11T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-modernizes-parking-meters-with-pay-by-cellphone-feature\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:16:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:16:31","slug":"durango-modernizes-parking-meters-with-pay-by-cellphone-feature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-modernizes-parking-meters-with-pay-by-cellphone-feature\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango modernizes parking meters with pay-by-cellphone feature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Marcos
Marcos Martinez, with Branson Road Works, places stickers on parking meters Tuesday informing users they can now use an app to pay for parking meters. The ParkMobile app allows users to feed meters from afar. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Paying for parking just became a whole lot easier in Durango. The city has introduced a new pay-by-cellphone feature to its 978 downtown meters.<\/p>\n

Traditional methods of paying \u2013 coins, credit cards and GEM smart cards \u2013 remain available for drivers who prefer doing things the old-fashioned way. But the new option allows users to pay via smartphone using the ParkMobile app.<\/p>\n

Former Parking Manager Wade Moore, who retired last month, said the city partnered with ParkMobile to offer the remote payment feature. Users can scan a QR code on the meter, enter their license plate and submit payment.<\/p>\n

The time purchased and remaining on the meter appears on the ParkMobile app, where users can also add more time. The app also sends a notification before time expires, Moore said.<\/p>\n

Users are likely to notice a discrepancy between the meter display and the time shown on the ParkMobile app. Because meters aren\u2019t connected to the internet, they don\u2019t update with the purchased time. So a meter may indicate it is expired, but the time shown on ParkMobile is valid.<\/p>\n

Parking enforcement officers check both meter displays and license plates entered into ParkMobile.<\/p>\n

Moore said the city would like to display ParkMobile time onto the meters, but that will require networking all the meters.<\/p>\n

The pay-by-cellphone option only required city officials to attach a QR code sticker to each meter. Each code is specific to the meter.<\/p>\n

When an officer scans a license plate, they can see if the space is paid, said Parking Manager Tracy Shauinger, Moore\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n

Moore said cities that rely entirely on remote payment technology \u2013 including payment kiosks \u2013 tend to enforce parking with mobile license plate readers, driving up and down the street scanning for unpaid meters. When they find a plate with no paid parking, they issue a ticket.<\/p>\n

But in Durango, parking enforcement officers will continue to walk the streets, check meters and issue tickets as needed. They are also equipped with handheld license plate scanners to confirm if someone paid via ParkMobile.<\/p>\n

\"Matt
Matt Martinez, left, and Bill Hahn, with Branson Road Works, place stickers on the city of Durango\u2019s parking meters Tuesday, informing users that they can now use an app to pay for parking at meters. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Shauinger said tight parking and busy traffic make vehicle enforcement impractical. Officers would need to stop in the middle of traffic, exit their vehicles and issue a citation.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, mobile meter readers provide face-to-face interaction with visitors and locals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still get asked where to go to lunch, how do I find the train,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThey could be within a block of the train and they still don\u2019t know where it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The app adds more payment options, he said.<\/p>\n

Shauinger said city meters only accept Visa, Discover and Mastercard, but not American Express. Through ParkMobile, users can pay with American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay and others.<\/p>\n

ParkMobile charges a 40-cent convenience fee per transaction. Moore said the fee may be preferable to interrupting a meal or a meeting \u2013 and it is far cheaper than a $25 parking ticket for an expired meter.<\/p>\n

\"Former
Former Durango Parking Manager Wade Moore said the city has long considered implementing remote parking payment options. (Courtesy of city of Durango)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Cellphone technology drives future of parking<\/div>\n

ParkMobile is the largest parking payment app in the world, Moore said. Visitors from Oklahoma, Texas, Denver and other regions often have the app already installed. When they arrive in Durango, they\u2019ll be notified they are in a ParkMobile city and can use the app.<\/p>\n

Moore said people quickly come to realize the convenience of the app. When the city updated meters to accept credit and debit cards in 2020<\/a>, only 18% of purchases were made with credit cards. Today, that number is up to 64%.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a long time for those people to figure out, \u2018I don\u2019t have to carry change, I can use my credit card,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201c(It\u2019s) becoming an expectation around the world. This is not an American phenomenon. \u2026 Anything you can do with your cellphone is moving into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said someone who lives in Saudi Arabia and uses the ParkMobile app can visit Durango and use it without a hitch.<\/p>\n

Some cities never bothered to update their meters to take credit cards, but they are making the leap from coin-only payments to remote payments, he said. Compared to those places, Durango could be considered ahead of the curve.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll those towns \u2026 suddenly have the most modern thing, and those people are used to it,\u201d he said. \u201cSo when they come here, they\u2019re thinking, why don\u2019t you guys have it?\u201d<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

payment option adds flexibility, avoids fines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[364,950,28,360,557],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-community","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-technology-general","tag-traffic"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77825,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22719\/revisions\/77825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22719"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}