There are now five additional Carleton parking lots where drivers registered with iParked.ca can skip the lines at pay-and-display booths and send a text message to pay for their parking.
The text-to-park system, which began as a pilot project last summer in lots P1 and P2, has expanded to include lots P5, P6, P7, P9, and the library garage.
System inventor Dwight Deugo, a computer science professor at Carleton and CEO of Espirit Inc., said the service has seen steady growth.
In the last week alone, the number of people using iParked has grown by 10 per cent, Deugo said.
“Part of it is word of mouth because it’s been around for a year now,” Deugo said. “It’s fast, easy, and when it’s cold or raining it certainly makes your life a lot easier.”
He said the system was limited to lots P1 and P2 before because those were the only areas that received wireless access.
Ticketing officers relied on wireless to see who had parked without paying, but Deugo said they’ve updated their monitoring devices so it’s no longer an issue.
Deugo said he could see another expansion in the future, perhaps to include on-street parking, but the university will see how the current expansion goes.
“It’s important to the school from a security point of view because you’re not out at a pay-and-display machine with your credit card or cash out,” Deugo said. “You can do it from your car or go into a building.”
The text-to-park system is also expanding to a number of new lots at Algonquin College, which has been using the service since January.
