A Parking Meter that Talks to You

The biggest nightmare about metered parking is making sure your minutes don’t run out. Countless times over the years I have watched people racing down the streets of Manhattan to feed a meter before a traffic cop could show up. I also remember being in the movies, restaurants, and concerts when friends had to suddenly leave the premises in order to make sure their parking meter didn’t expire.

While I knew about PayByPhone quite a while ago, I never witnessed how it actually worked. Just like a neophyte, I stood there in amazement yesterday morning when a bunch of us went out for breakfast in Midtown Miami and no one left the table as we sat for hours talking. I did see a few friends pull out their smartphones, bring up the PayByPhone app, click on two bars, announce that they had just extended their parking meters by an hour…