MPLS Parking

This is Minneapolis. It snows. It rains. It gets very cold. Who wants to walk down to the street-side payment machine (if you can find it) and stand in the rain or snow or cold while navigating a menu with your gloves on? Or, worse yet, wait until the person in front of you at the payment machine figures out how to use it? This easy-to-use app lets me just pull into a parking space, stay in my warm & dry car, bring up the app, enter the space number and length of time I want to park there, and start it. What could be easier? And if I run over the scheduled time period, it texts me a warning and I can extend the period right from the app - wherever I am. No need to go back to the car. If I forgot where I parked, it even shows me on a map! If a 25 cent transaction fee scares you away, don’t bother with the app. But it’s a trivial charge to save time and stay warm and dry for me.

I love this app. It works perfectly. I had to laugh at the reviewer who gave it one star because he couldn't remember his own password. I would give the reviewer one star, but I wouldn't blame the app. Then there was the reviewer who complained because there is a $0.25 charge per transaction. If it's too expensive, don't use it, but that doesn't make it a bad app. This app provides a service you cannot get by paying at the meter. You do not need to return to the meter to add more time. Very nice if you've gone to dinner and underestimated how long it would take. Just add 15 or 30 minutes with a few clicks while seated at dinner. Tell me that isn't worth $0.25.

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I can’t think of a reason to use this app other than staying out of pouring rain or being confronted with a parking meter pay box that refuses to work. I arrived 30 minutes early for my clinic appointment, parked in a metered spot, and found that the pay box did not work. I watched two other customers have the same problem I did. Remembering that I could pay at any box, I tried again around the block. And again at a third, fourth, and fifth pay box. All failed in exactly the same way. I called 311, as suggested on the outside of the box. On hold with 8 people ahead of me. I gave my report, including the pay box number, and was told I could download this app to pay. By this time, I was late for my appointment, and had to walk a couple of blocks back to my car before I could continue registration. Having done so, I got to experience the joy of paying extra to feed a meter that refused both my credit card and my coins.

This app is a huge convenience for anyone who parks in mpls pay zones, but has a few bugs that have existed for a little too long. I’ve seen the first mentioned in other reviews - once every few days the app will crash and sign me out, which is not a huge deal, but will also forget all of my saved cars, payment information and favorited parking zones. The only fix I have found is a hard reset of the device. The app also shows every parking zone at the same location on the map (somewhere around Washington and 3rd downtown), meaning that the “Find My Car” option always leads the user to that location. For me not a problem, but for a first time user this could be intensely frustrating.

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The prior version of this app was wonderful. It was really intuitive and functional. The new version is a disaster. No. It aspires to be a disaster. I can’t get it to ID the parking spot number that starts the process. I’ve deleted the app and reloaded it, spent time on help, prayed to the parking gods and nothing happened. Don’t try to change your default vehicle. That’s expressly forbidden by the app. I’m now back to parking, finding change and fuming at the developers that couldn’t leave well enough alone, test what they did or provide just a little support for us worthless users. But, the icing on the cake is that this is the only app that the city offers. Yay Minneapolis. Yay developers. Please give me a human to help me with this. I promise not to yell no matter how much I want to.