Parking in Toronto Goes High-Tech

Once upon a time parking in Toronto meant scrounging around in your car seats to find forgotten change. Nowadays, if you want to park on Toronto city streets, you better make sure your mobile device is fully charged.

All pay and display machines across Toronto are now integrated with the Green P app.

How it works.... Each pay machine has a visible 4-digit location ID that drivers can code into their Green P app. From there, the mobile pay feature allows customers to pay for parking using their smartphone. But emphasizing the smart in smartphone, the feature also delivers a reminder when the parking session is about to expire. And it allows customers the ability to extend their parking session without returning to the car.

And now the Green P app even includes the ability to use PayPal to pay for a parking session.

"PayPal is a leading digital payments provider in Canada and we are excited to have them on board as a Green P app partner," said Lorne Persiko, Toronto Parking Authority President. "We are constantly looking for ways to improve the parking experience for our customers. Creating partnerships with great brands like PayPal adds even more convenience to the app, and is something we will continue to do."

A recent GfK study found that 65 per cent of Canadians have used PayPal to pay for online purchases in the past last year. PayPal users can pay for street parking using their existing PayPal balance, or they can connect their account to their credit cards and Visa debit cards or even link it directly to their bank account.

"Mobile payments have become popular across Canada. One in four transactions that PayPal processes is through a mobile device,” said Paul Parisi, general manager, PayPal Canada. “Just in time for the busy holiday season, we are delighted to help Torontonians and visitors pay for street parking from their smartphones.

The Green P app was first introduced in March 2015 for uses with non-gated, off-street parking lots. There have already been some 300,000 downloads of the app.

The implementation of the program to street parking in Toronto, which as been rolled out ahead of schedule, is a collaborative effort between the Toronto Parking Authority, the Toronto Police Service and Toronto Transportation Services.

For more information, visit www.greenp.com. 

Follow @MonicaPoling