I love it how they can't think of any other way to pay for parking than via smartphone, but if you just park there without paying, they'll offer you many ways to pay the fine.

For how long until paying the fine requires a smartphone? And then for how long until you go to jail for not having a smartphone ?

They can think of other payment flows, they don't want them because an app gets them data they can resell or abuse.

I was (pleasantly?) surprised when my office parking lot implemented paid parking because it's doable via SMS and webpage (not an installed app). [thankfully my employer is picking up the tab, so I didn't have to do anything beyond providing my license plate numbers]