Program lets you pay parking meters using your cell phone

BETHESDA, Md. -- You pull into a great parking spot on the street, but realize you have no change to feed the meter. No problem.

The Montgomery County Council is moving forward with a pilot program that would allow drivers to feed the meter using their cell phones.

"You simply call (a number on the meter) and say, 'I'm at meter such and such, and then you tell them how long you'd like to park,'" says Steve Nash with the Montgomery County Department of Transportation.

"The system will credit you as being at that meter, and having paid for parking."

The meter does not display an amount of time on it, but parking enforcement officers can punch in a code and see how much time is left on the meter.

Perhaps the most customer friendly aspect of these meters is that they send the driver a text message when time is running out. The driver has the option to remotely add time to the meter.

"Then what happens if you finish early, you call in and say, 'OK, two hours have passed, I'm done.' It will only charge you for two hours for actual time used," says Nash.

Users do have to pay a 25-cent charge to use the cell phone meter system. That money goes directly to the operator.

Some council members expressed concern the meters would not bring in as much revenue for the county because fewer parking tickets would be handed out. Drivers also are less likely to overpay at parking meters when they use this system, another potential hit to the coffers of Montgomery County.

Still, council members called the pilot program the right thing to do.

"My peeps really want this," joked Council member Roger Berliner who represents the Bethesda location where this program will be set up.

The cell phone meters are expected to be up and running as early as summer. They will be implemented south of Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda.

(Copyright 2009 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)