Why does the City of Vancouver need 6 different parking apps?

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]This is this is a real bone of contention for a lot of Vancouverites, isn't it? Six parking apps in total.

[00:00:06]What what's going on?

[00:00:07]>> Well, I mean, those those are just the six apps by my count. I I may have missed something, but six by my count at that are, you know, at when you're parking on city-owned properties. So, uh, parking on the street or parking in parks and beaches and things like that, or parking in, um, easy park lots, which is, uh, you know, the parking corporation that's owned, majority owned by the city of Vancouver. So, there's, yeah, six different apps. Um, and depending on where you are, you you may have to get another app or a new app uh, to do it. And then of course there could be other apps at privately owned lots as well, but for the purpose of this I was sort of just focused on uh the the parking spaces owned by the city. Um and then when I spoke with the city councelor because I had this had bothered me before, but I wasn't sure if I was the only one. Maybe I'm just terrible at using technology and figuring these things out. And I spoke with the city councelor who told me that yeah it is one it's something she frequently hears complaints about is the number of apps and the situ the frustration of being in a rush and trying to park and go somewhere and you need to uh download another app and enter your financial information. So apparently I'm not the only one who's had this challenge in the past.

[00:01:25]>> Well, pay by phone was one of the originals, right? that's been around for years already. And it does work in most city lots and you can use it along most city streets as well instead of using a a parking meter, but it doesn't work in some areas. For example, Queen Elizabeth Park, and I was one of the people I know you you talked about in your column, you have to line up to use your credit card there if you don't have one of the many apps that that is on offer in Queen Elizabeth Park, which I which I didn't have. I mean, do do you know why that is? Why why don't they just add the like the the pay by phone to to that particular lot?

[00:02:01]>> Well, I was I was trying to get some information about this and and and it's not just Queen Elizabeth Park. I mean, I think Stanley Park, >> right, >> beaches and a lot of these parks that have um I I believe they're operated by Easy Park, which again, you know, Easy Park is majority owned by the city of Vancouver, but they're separate entities. So, I reached out to Easy Park and that was kind of the answer they gave me. I said, you know, if like why can I park why do I use one app to park on the city of Vancouver street and then at the parking lot right beside it um or or or you know the beach across the street from it. I got to use a different app. Their answer was basically just that easy park operates as a separate entity from the city of Vancouver. Even though it's mostly owned by the city of Vancouver, they have their own technology and their own operating model. So that's why there's differences in the mobile apps. Um, but it was a little bit validating to know I'm not the only person who has struggled a little bit with this.

[00:03:00]>> Well, so many options again and if you go from one municipality to the other, they've got their their own options. I mean, the Northshore, for example, you can use different apps as well. And I don't know how many parking apps people want to even carry on on their phones.

[00:03:13]But let's just talk about the the finances of this. How how much money does the city bring in in parking? Well, parking revenue parking it's an important source of revenue for the city of Vancouver. Um they uh I think it was it's more than $90 million uh that the city's projecting to bring in this year through parking and uh and that's a significant increase from last year. I think it's about a 10 or 12% increase from last year. So um you know it's it's not nearly as big as property taxes or utility fees in terms of city revenues, but it is significant. It's one of the larger uh ways that the city generates revenue. Um and and I think it's a bigger deal in the city of Vancouver than it is in some other municipalities where there's not as much paid parking and street parking uh with meters and things like that. But in Vancouver, it's a it's, you know, it's a significant deal.

[00:04:07]>> Do you think we've reached the limit though with with new apps with this? You know, this hotspot app is the the newest one on the block. But uh do you think I mean are you bracing for more? Well, I was surp I was surprised. I didn't expect I didn't expect that that was going to be um that we were going to be getting a new one. And you know, to be fair, the city says one of the reasons they've added it is in case one app is down, you could use a different one. Um so, fair enough. But it does create this frustration where if depending on where you are, if you only I have this one and that one and that one, but not this one and that one. Um and this was an issue in the UK. In England, the federal government um is urging local councils to enter what they're calling a a national parking program. So like a na national parking uh app where you can basically use any of the major apps. I'm not sure how many major ones there are and it'll be recognized by the other ones to try to avoid this situation where you have one app but not the others.

[00:05:09]>> Oh, exactly. You would imagine that would benefit all to have some kind of coordination, but I guess that gets rid of some of the competition in the in the process. But uh Dan, thank you very much for taking us there today.

[00:05:21]>> Thanks, Gloria. That's >> that's Dan Fumano. He's the city columnist for the Vancouver Sun in the province.