Boston’s Parking Ticket Payment App Collaboration Expands
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh Isabel Leon / Boston Mayor's Office
Connecting state and local government leaders
“The numbers show brisk demand for this service,” Mayor Marty Walsh says.
The successful launch of a new parking ticket payment smartphone app shows how local developers are working with state and city governments to come up with forward thinking solutions for residents.
If you’re getting stuck with a parking ticket, paying it might as well be convenient. At least, that’s the approach of TicketZen, an app that allows users expedite the parking ticket payment process.
On Monday, the city of Boston announced it would extend a contract with TicketZen for a full year after experimenting with the company’s app for the past three months. BostonBeta reports that during the trial period, more than 5,000 people used the app to pay more than 7,000 parking tickets, raising more than $250,000 in revenue for the city.
“The numbers show brisk demand for this service,” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said in a statement. “Thanks to a common sense innovative solution, paying a parking ticket is a little bit easier to take care of. I’m thrilled that the City is able to partner with the homegrown talent at TicketZen to get this done.”
TicketZen partnered with the Boston Transportation Department and the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics on the project.
TicketZen works by allowing people to scan a photo of their parking ticket with their smartphone camera. Once the app processes the ticket information, the user can then make a quick payment with their saved account information in the Apple iTunes stores. If the user’s smartphone is unable to scan the ticket barcode they can also manually type in the violation number.
The city of Boston is also testing out a payment version through the Google Play store for Android devices.
Although the app itself is free, the company charges users a $1 “convenience fee” to pay parking fines through the app.
As TicketZen spreads to other cities and states, it is creating a unified payment apparatus that can expedite the payment process. That’s an obvious benefit for local governments but it can also help save money for users, who may otherwise forget to pay their ticket on time or have trouble navigating an online payment system through a local government’s website.
“Cities that leverage this unifying product will not only be able to take advantage of making it easier for their citizens to interact with their government but also take advantage of making it easier for tourists to do the same," co-founder Cort Johnson said in an earlier interview with Mashable.
The app is also used in other major cities including Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. The app is available in more than 100 cities across the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia.
Reviews for the TicketZen app are largely positive, receiving an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars in the iTunes store. “As one of our pioneer partners, the City of Boston has demonstrated a commitment to mobile innovation, benefiting the city and its citizens. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Boston to make paying for parking tickets a stress-less experience,” TicketZen co-founder Ryan Neu said in a statement.