Calgary’s parking app gives refunds for unused time, so why can’t Vancouver’s?

The City of Vancouver is facing questions about why drivers who pay for parking with its mobile app don’t get a refund for time they don’t use.

Drivers parking at a meter in the city have the option to pay with coins or to use Vancouver’s Pay by Phone app, which links time at the meter to a specific vehicle’s licence plate.

For those using the app, the city encourages people to only pay for the time they know they need, and extend it when necessary. Unused time cannot be refunded or banked on a driver’s account.

According to the City of Vancouver transportation director Lon LaClaire, that’s because calculating credits through the app is complicated, with parking rates fluctuating by location and time of day.

“One of the challenges with banking unused minutes from another location is our rates vary across the city,” he said.

But it isn’t a problem that other Canadian cities don’t seem to have.

Both Calgary and Edmonton use parking app technology developed by the City of Calgary.

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Calgary, like Vancouver, varies parking prices based on demand, but officials there say crediting drivers for unused time at the meter is no problem.

“If you come back early and it’s not full, let’s say, two hours, and you actually stop a parking session, we’ll actually refund you the money that you haven’t actually used,” said Kurt McCaw with the Calgary Parking Authority.

Apps used by Victoria, Edmonton, Halifax and Fredericton also allow users to either get a refund or to keep credit for unused time on their accounts.

Another issue with Vancouver’s app system that’s drawn the ire of drivers is the fact that time spent at a meter is not transferable to other vehicles.

If a driver pays with coins, the time they purchase is displayed on the meter; if another driver pulls into the spot afterwards, they can use that time.

Not so with the Pay By Phone app. Paying associates the time purchased with a specific vehicle and does not put time on the meter. If one driver pays for more time than they need, the next driver to use that meter still must pay again.

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The City of Vancouver doesn’t track how much money it collects through such double payments at meters where the price varies from $1 to $8 per hours.

Asked whether it was fair for the city to be charging twice for the same parking spot, LaClaire defended the app.

“Like I say, I think we have an excellent product right now and the people are extremely satisfied with it,” he said.

The city is looking at a pre-pay system that would allow users to end their session early and have the extra parking time cancelled, but provided no timeline on when drivers might see it.