Many drivers in Appleton are complaining how hard it is to park and find change for the downtown parking meters. Leaders of the city are thinking about a parking app which could make coins unnecessary.
Catering manager Margitta Furnner tells that customers face problems with parking: "We have so many people coming in saying, 'can we have quarters for the meter?' And they complain,". "They're like, 'parking is so hard!' But they love downtown, They love shopping here," she said.
Therefore the city is considering to make parking meters more user-friendly by starting to use a “Passport” parking app. "With the way we use technology at our finger tips these days, having the ability to pay for parking with your phone, it's kind of a no-brainer at this point," explained Appleton's communications coordinator Chad Doran. "We like the synergy there of having that same app that Green Bay has, because we know that people who live there come here and vice versa," Doran enlightened.
According to him, this technology would not be a financial weight for the city. "It's about a $2,500 investment for us to build out the technology. So the parking meters that people will see downtown won't change," he said. All 866 meters would be involved in the system and people could chose if either they prefer to pay using coins or the app.
"So people just download the app and there will be a sticker on each meter that indicates where you've parked. So you just punch in the meter that you're parked at, fill it up with how much time you wanna put on and away you go," explained Doran. Furnner told that it is crucial for city to make parking as simple as possible in order to keep visitors coming downtown.
Committee already approved the plans for the parking app. Appleton's common council going to vote on them this Wednesday.
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