Yes but not always applicable unfortunately… e.g. the other day I was in Italy, I needed to park on the publicly available parking which was paid to the municipality.

No other parking available anywhere near in 30 mins walking distance. (paid or free)

I had to download a 3rd party app that asked me to register. This app isn’t by the Italian government, it’s affiliated though.

So in that situation, I want nothing to do with your website or app, because I wouldn’t able to park.

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ivanjermakov 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Have exactly the same situation with parking in Italy. Having a private company operating all paid parking on an island is not very healthy.

	▲	echelon 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Having a handful of companies that can contact you has created a land of monopoly hyperscalers. It's so hard to build anything big and durable because they've created these steep gradients.
	▲	gedy 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It's too bad there's no one willing to be a parking lot attendant on an Italian island.

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drnick1 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Can you not pay with cash or card anywhere? What if you don't have a "smart" phone? I would categorically refuse to park anywhere that requires running a proprietary app on my device. Fortunately, in the States at least, I have not encountered such a place yet.

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cassianoleal 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In the UK, I believe parking companies need to have a way to pay without the app but it's usually so bloody inconvenient that it's about the same as requiring it.

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qalmakka 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You need to find a working parking metre which may or may not work, accept cards or give back change. Also most if not all of parking apps allow you to pay by the exact minute and extended your stay dynamically from the go, while with a paper ticket you need to go back to the car and get another one before it expires

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Slash65 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In my city in Northern California our downtown uses an app for parking now. I don’t use it so it’s still an option, but you have to goto a kiosk, enter your license plate number, and pay with card. It’s made the downtown more of a ghost town (admittedly it was already dying) and the boomers with cash just don’t go. The younger 20somethings all complain “boomers are too stupid to use an app” and have no concern for privacy apparently. Welcome to the future I guess.

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autoexec 4 hours ago | parent [-]

> The younger 20somethings all complain “boomers are too stupid to use an app” and have no concern for privacy apparently.

They were literally trained not to value their privacy. The first generation of ipad kids now have driver's licenses.

	▲	mingus88 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I hear some take pride in being “digital native” and only knowing a world where smartphones are a ubiquitous part of your life. I’m quite content having grown up without being always online. The childhood I had where what I did between school time and when my parents expected me home for dinner were mine alone. Every event was not recorded by 50+ cameras with bad seats and posted online for nobody to watch. A truly excellent time to be alive that I doubt we will see again

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calvinmorrison 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Essentially too bad. Look at the parkmobile disaster.

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HeatrayEnjoyer an hour ago | parent [-]

The what?

	▲	calvinmorrison 6 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		basically you have to use parkmobile in many places unless you carry literally rolls full of quarters due to the depreciation of the USD, some places dont even have machines anymore. ParkMobile is a moneygrabbing operation that municipalities use to run their parking stuff - yay saas. They got hacked and leaked everyones phone numbers, license plates, history, and more. The settlement in court was - you got I believe a $1.00 coupon to use parkmobile again - but you could only use .50 towards each transaction

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ABS 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

you can pay at the parking meters directly, no need for a 3rd party app

	▲	qalmakka 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, but - the apps almost always allow you to remotely increase your stay - the apps almost always allow you to pay by the exact minute instead of by the quarter/half an hour