Vendor: Pay for parking by phone

Evanston's Parking Committee took a look Wednesday at a new technology that could have residents paying for parking meter time with their cell phones.

The system, from ParkMagic Mobile Technology Inc., bears some resemblance to highway toll transponders or prepaid mass transit pass cards.

It involves a small dashboard-mounted display device that parking enforcement offers could view to see whether parkers had paid for the meter space they were using.

The driver makes a phone call to authorize payment for the parking slot from a prepaid account and the ParkMagic system transmits a message to the display device showing that the payment has been made.

Public Works Director John Burke said he's not prepared to recommend that the city adopt the system, but that he's impressed with the apparent ease of implementing it and the fact that it would not require any capital investment by the city.

He also noted that ParkMagic is currently conducting a pilot test of the system with 1,000 users in the City of Chicago.

ParkMagic's business development manager, Mark Celli, said that in addition to Chicago, the system is in use in Lansing, Mich., and two New Hampshire towns -- Portsmouth and Manchester.

ParkMagic, which is headquartered in Ireland, says the system can handle varied parking zone rates and adjust rates for time of day or special events.

The system would not replace existing parking meters -- since not all potential parkers could be expected to participate in the ParkMagic system. The company makes its income from charging a percentage fee to the city from the parking revenue collected by the system.