The revenue major U.S. cities derive from parking tickets is substantial. In 2013 alone, the revenue generated from parking tickets issued in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles topped $1 billion. Naturally, cities prefer to have parking tickets paid in full and as promptly as possible. That being said, making it easier for consumers to pay parking tickets is in the best interest of all parties involved.
Which brings us to a recent MarketWatch story which relays that the city of New York is contemplating bringing its ticketing system into the modern age by enabling users to pay for parking tickets with their smartphones. Indeed, one such payment option being mulled by the city includes Apple Pay.
The city's finance department is looking into alternative payment methods like Apple Pay, PayPal and Bitcoin for the roughly $600 million in parking ticket revenue it collects annually by issuing up to 10 million tickets.
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As of now, the parking bureau's system is pretty outdated. Drivers currently pay for tickets online, via mail or in person at the courthouse. However, the online system is not mobile friendly and credit and debit card payments are subject to a 2.5% convenience fee.
As it stands now, everything is still in the preliminary stage with the city set to examine various mobile payment alternatives early this year. Of course, seeing as how Apple Pay is naturally an iPhone-only service, one would expect that any solution the city implements would, ideally, incorporate, more than one payment option. And call me crazy, but I'd bet good money that Bitcoin doesn't make the cut.
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