News
Parkmobile Glitch Causes Some Unwarranted Tickets, But Rarely
By: Micaela Marshall
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Students have taken advantage of a recent technology advancement Ohio University Parking Services introduced in December 2014. The Parkmobile app makes it quick and easy to pay for parking without the hassle of digging up quarters for the meter. Last year, the Parkmobile app had more than 66,000 successful transactions by students and faculty on Ohio University’s campus.
However, lately there have been some issues with the modern parking payment method. Students and faculty have complained to Parking Services that sometimes even after they pay for their meter utilizing the app, they receive a ticket for nonpayment.
Parking Services offers options to appeal unwarranted tickets, but the process is lengthy and requires payment of the ticket beforehand.
Parkmobile Marketing Director, Tina Dyer said, “If they have paid through Parkmobile and the ticket was written erroneously, by all means they can contact the university and we have measures that are in place so that we would obviously make sure the ticket is adjudicated.”
Dyer stressed that the glitch in the app is rare.
“99.99% of the system across the board [is] working fine,” she said. “It’s that .01% where there might be an erroneous ticket.”
University Communications and Marketing Media Specialist, Katie Quaranta, explained the process of paying for parking electronically, which involves multiple systems.
“Data is loaded from Parkmobile to T2 Flex, our software system, and information is then sent to parking enforcement personnel on their iPhones so that they can check to see if a vehicle is legally parked,” she said. “On occasion, Parkmobile’s system or T2 Flex has gone down. When that happens, we work with Parkmobile to ensure that the issue is resolved quickly.”
Some students, including Kayla Young, say they would prefer to pay for parking the traditional way because it saves money.
“I realized that when you use the Parkmobile app it charges you an extra 25 cents or 50 cents to use the ParkMobile app instead of just using the meters and paying for the hours and not the app,” Young said.
The digital transaction fee is 35 cents regardless of how long the parking session lasts.
Many students agree that paying with meters is easier, but Parking Services encourages utilizing the Parkmobile app to save time.
“We do hope and appreciate that everyone does have the ability to pay through the mobile app,” Dyer said. “We know it’s convenient and it’s an app that is a benefit for folks being able to expand their time remotely.”