cars-vehicles-street-parking

Pango President Offers Tips On Using Mobile Devices To Prevent Parking Tickets

July 26, 2024         By: Mike Dautner

Neil Edwards, president of Pango, a FinTech company providing mobile payments for smart cities and transit, is sharing tips to allow drivers to avoid parking tickets during the summer months.

There are over 200 million licensed drivers in the U.S. currently, and a great deal of them has received at least one or more parking tickets.

With these tips, Mr. Edwards hopes to enlighten Americans with simple do’s and do not’s when it comes to potential parking ticket headaches.

Neil Edwards expanded on how drivers can use their mobile devices to avoid receiving parking tickets.

  • Read signs carefully and know the rules

“Read the signs carefully and don’t necessarily rely on memory. Always take photos so you can refer back to them. Also, some rules are not written on signs. They’re simply meant to be known and understood, like don’t park in crosswalks, don’t park in front of garages or driveways, and don’t park too close to a fire hydrant. If you are aren’t sure of the exact details of these explicit rules go ahead and use your mobile device to look them up for the city you are parking in. Some technologies like ParkMe and Pango show you what the parking rules are on the map-making it helpful to avoid parking incorrectly.”

  • Pay the meter

“It sounds simple but many drivers still don’t pay the meter. They may be in a rush and not have the time, they may have no loose change available, or they may only need to park for a few minutes and are willing to take the risk. With the recent trend of parking apps, like Pango, many cities are allowing you to use your mobile device to pay for the parking and only for the parking you actually use. And if you are in a rush, you can even take care of the transaction while you are on the move. Statistics also show that most people who park under 15 minutes do not feed the meter and risk getting caught.”

  • Check and remember the max parking time

“Most people that receive parking tickets do so because the meter had expired, meaning they have reached their max parking time. Mr. Edwards suggest putting a reminder in your phone with an audio notification set to remind you several minutes before your max time is reached. You can also use your phone to time how long it will take to get from your vehicle to your destination and factor travel time into your notification. Many mobile apps for parking will automatically send you a text alert when your time is about to expire.”

  • Remember where you parked

“Sometimes we don’t necessarily mean to miss our max time, but we forget where we parked and take too much time trying to locate our vehicles. Before leaving your parked car behind, you can take photos of the street signs including cross streets and store fronts so that you can remember where you are. GPS technology is embedded in many of the mobile parking apps that will help you track down your car with or without the photos.”

  • Make sure to extend your time

“If you want to extend your time, use your mobile device to quickly get back to your location or even better if the parking space is compatible use a mobile parking app to extend your time without the hassle of having to go back to your car.”

“Technology advances, especially when it comes to mobile, are to help improve our lives and receiving parking tickets is a hassle no one wants to bother with,” said Neil Edwards, president of Pango. “There are ways you can use your mobile device to help prevent the unnecessary headache. Also depending on the city you are in, there may be a mobile app available that will help make paying for parking easy and avoiding a ticket even less complicated.”