A Montrealer's free smartphone app aims to outsmart parking meters by allowing motorists to share information on credit remaining at any given parking spot.
The app allows drivers to upload a photo of their parking receipt for subsequent occupants of the space to see. The new parking space occupant will then be able to use whatever unused time is remaining.
Accountant Oliver Bleuer dreamed up the GetPrkd Android app after realizing that many people were paying for parking spaces that had already been paid for.
Bleuer considers the app a high-tech version of a longstanding practice which saw people leave their tickets near a meter in an effort to pass their credit on to the next person parking in the spot.
“People in Montreal for years have been leaving these wonderful little pieces of paper in the crack, so what we designed is an application where you can electronically leave this in the crack for the next person to use,” said Oliver Bleuer.
He said that a developer asked him for $43,000 to create the app but instead he found freelancers to build it for just $2,400.
Bleuer said that he is waiting for approval from Apple to have it also available for the iPhone.
