St. Louis’ Parking Division has passed 2.5 million parking transactions using its mobile apps, ParkLouie and ParkMobile, from 120,000 unique users, according to St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones, whose office administers city parking.
Jones launched ParkLouie as its mobile parking payment solution in 2015. Customers can now pay for city parking using their smartphones at every meter in St. Louis. “When I took office, St. Louis was stuck in the 19th century, with people forced to carry around coins,” said.
With ParkLouie, a customer can pay for parking by registering with the app, entering the zone number labeled on the parking meter, and beginning a parking session. Customers can receive notifications before the session expires and pay for additional time remotely. Customers without mobile phones can also now use credit cards at the meters.
A portion of parking proceeds go to the College Kids program, a public-private partnership to create college savings accounts for St. Louis public school students initiated by Jones. In addition to parking revenue, the program is funded by donations from the public. It now has over 12,000 savings accounts, with over $865,000 saved for college or vocational school. Studies show that even having a small amount saved for college increases a student’s likelihood of attending post-secondary education by 3 times.
To donate to College Kids, visit https://tinyurl.com/CollegeKidsSTL.
