Jerusalem City Hall has decided to remove the 1,300 parking meters still operating in the city and beginning in 2017, drivers will use cellular apps exclusively to pay for parking.
This comes after the city spend millions in 2014 to modernize parking meters which today work on WiFi and accept credit cards and cash and while they generate about NIS 1.3 monthly, maintenance and repairs have become too expensive.
The decision will impact motorists who do not have a smartphone; the elderly and chareidim as well as some others. It will also make payment difficult for tourists and other foreigners that rent cars.
Jerusalem officials explain the move was inevitable, following other cities in Israel that have already removed the meters. One will be able to use ‘Easypark’, or the smartphone apps ‘Pango’ and ‘Cellopark’.
As far as tourists go, city officials explain that as is done in other cities, they can avail themselves of the many parking lots available in the city. City officials are working on persuading car rentals to offer Easypark to facilitate parking for tourists and others.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
You can use Pango from a Kosher phone too – it has a dial-in number *4500
Why doesn’t the city leave the parking meters as a convenience but make the minimum charge say, NIS 10? That of course doesn’t answer the question as to why I can use a credit card to pay for just 25c worth of parking [15 minutes] in New York. Presumably New York doesn’t lose money by charging NIS 3.80 an hour, so why does the Jerusalem Municipality at NIS 5.40 an hour? Wages for the meter attendants and service people are also higher in New York.