City pauses digital residential parking permit rollout amid protests

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Finding a municipal parking spot is now as easy as using a mobile app in Edmonton — and paying for it is almost as simple with HotSpot, as of May.

But last week, public outcry paused the implementation of a digital residential parking program in a handful of neighbourhoods from the same dot-com company.

On June 18, the city’s urban planning committee moved to pause the residential parking program (RPP) due to resident feedback. It will be discussed at the July 3 city council meeting.

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The pause doesn’t affect the HotSpot application that EPark transitioned to in May. They’re separate programs, said Shewkar Ibrahim, Edmonton’s director of traffic operations.

The city waded into digital parking with HotSpot in EPark zones. In real-time, app users scout spaces and parkades — paying for it when they get there with their HotSpot account or using the familiar cash/credit payment options at EPark machines or online. FastTap lets drivers scan the machine’s QR code to a payment page.

“We are excited about this feature because it helps make finding parking easier and more convenient, and helps with trip planning,” Ibrahim said.

“Customer service is also available 24-7 for those who need assistance with paying for or managing parking through the HotSpot system.”

In 2023, an average of 8,757 parking sessions each day used 4,500 spots in EPark’s 245 zones on the HotSpot app map. That’s roughly 3.2 million parking sessions in Edmonton alone.

HotSpot’s price bid for the contract was $2.52 million over its lifetime, based on a fee-per-transaction model and with no additional operating cost associated with changing HotSpot, Ibrahim said.

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For the time being, the city will no longer be moving forward with digital permits for the residential parking program, Ibrahim said.

“Residents who have discarded their RPP physical permits as they applied for a digital permit are asked to reapply,” he said.

Residents in Belgravia, Belvedere, Boyle Street, Central MacDougall, Century Park, Commonwealth Stadium, Garneau, Glengarry, Groat Estates, McKernan, NAIT, Northlands, Parkallen, Rossdale, Royal Gardens, South Belgravia, Southgate, Wîhkwêntôwin (formerly Oliver) and Windsor Park are to continue to display their 2022 or 2023 issued permits in their vehicles.

Not a Luddite

Lorne Wensel’s voice is one in the chorus of protests on residential permits in his university-area environment.

Wensel’s no Luddite. He likes technology — when it works.

“There (are) digital things that work wonderfully, and there (are) others that need to be called out because they’re not functioning,” he said, noting confusion among his neighbours over the postdated parking plan.

“Some seniors are given a phone for messaging the kids or making a phone call if something happens. But am I going to be downloading an app to park in front of my house?”

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For people who are technology averse, absent a grandchild as a digital concierge, using a new app requiring an iPhone or Android can be daunting.

“There’s plenty of people that either don’t have phones or they’ve got some little tiny phone from 15 years ago,” Wensel said.

He traces the conflict back to when, he said, the city told the neighbourhood, “You have a parking problem.”

“And they said, ‘You’ll need a pass on your car to prove your residence, so we can ticket anybody else over two hours.’ That went on for many years. Every September, you’d get a notice. You’d put a new sticker on. It was good,” he said.

“Then they came in and said, ‘Oh, no, we’re changing that. We’re going to charge you $120 a year for parking in front of your house for the same parking pass.’ So that one passed city council.”

Wensel said, “Everybody in our neighborhood is like, ‘What the heck? Why do we have to pay for parking in front of our own house when we pay taxes?’

“But we couldn’t fight it. They shoved it down our throat. They said, ‘Now there’s no more stickers, and there’ll be a new program coming where it’d be a digital licence plate on your car.’

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“If a family member comes and stays over the weekend, they have to move their car every two hours or find someplace else to park it.”

Demand in a ‘vibrant city’

Phillip Curley has parked hundreds of millions of cars. Well, the company he founded at 21 has.

“There was a whole phase with mobile phones. When we started, we had a Blackberry app. That’s how long ago we started,” he said.

HotSpot handles parking for 150 municipalities across Canada, including Red Deer, Jasper and Airdrie — to name a few — as well as some universities, including NorQuest and Mount Royal.

A dot-com entrepreneur, Curley started it while in university in New Brunswick, with Fredericton as an early adopter. He sold it a decade later to Netherlands-based Arcadis, one of the world’s largest engineering services that specializes in digital services. It happens to manage Alberta’s 511 system. With a Maritimes-based staff of 50, HotSpot has one million app users across Canada.

The city’s pause on rolling out residential permits is not new or unusual, Curley said.

“As a vendor, we don’t really advise on policy. That’s kind of like a municipal governance thing. Whenever they decide on policy, we implement it. Whatever they choose to do, we basically do for them,” he said.

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That little patch of pavement in front of one’s home is a valuable space, particularly in a university centre that attracts lots of vehicles.

“People don’t think about it, but that infrastructure is maintained through your tax dollars. Paid parking is a way to say, ‘Look, if you’re using this curbside space, you’ve got to pay for it because you’re getting the benefit,’” Curley said.

It’s difficult, he acknowledged, to go from, “Well, this was included in my tax bill,” to “Hey, look, I’m paying for a specific service,” Curley said.

“As cities evolve and get bigger and more congestive, that’s just the reality of how these things are. It’s actually a good sign for your city because it means that the demand’s there. It’s a vibrant city.”

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