Pay By Cell Parking Expands Citywide

By Chuck Sudo in News on May 6, 2014 4:30PM

The “pay by cell” parking meter option that was one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s new wrinkles negotiated into the still-noxious parking meter privatization deal will roll out across the city Tuesday. This is after a one-month pilot period in the West Loop which Emanuel’s administration has already declared a success.

The ParkChicago program drew 1,600 users and more than 3,500 app downloads during that period and will now expand to Chicago Parking Meters LLC’s network of 36,000 meters across the city. To spread the word on the program’s availability outside the West Loop, 42,000 current street parking signs across the city will be replaced with new versions bearing the ParkChicago logo alerting drivers of the service's availability. The rollout will begin on streets in areas surrounding the pilot area over the next several weeks, beginning in the South Loop and Near South Side, West Loop, River West, Near West Side, River North and Near North Side, before being installed at all neighborhood meters this summer.