Saskatoon's new parking app 'every city councillor's nightmare,' Davies says

Ward 4 Coun. Troy Davies doesn't pull punches when it comes to describing the rollout of Saskatoon's new parking app.

"Unfortunately, it's like every city councillor's nightmare. You go into July and all of a sudden you have a parking app that isn't working probably the way that it should," Davies said Tuesday on CTV Morning Live.

June 30 marked the last day for WayToPark, the app previously used by the city. The app was "discontinued by the vendor," according to the city.

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The new app, ParkedIn, went live in June, and users reported bugbears such as having to re-enter license plate and credit card information each time you want to park, consistent freezing and crashing of the app, and the amount of data the app collects from users.

According to the city, some of the improvements in the works include the ability to store credit card information "without completing an initial transaction with the app" and extending parking time.

The fixes are expected to be rolled out in July by Precise ParkLink, the company behind the app.

"We had reports that they do know of the issues that are happening and that they're working on it, but from the City Council perspective or the city perspective, we didn't have any say in this and it was the vendor who changed apps," Davies said.

"So there are definitely growing pains going on here and they've got to be fixed. So the city has heard loud and clear that this is an issue and needs to be fixed, basically now."

He said people experiencing problems should contact City Hall, and that council is "very interested" in how the app will be handled.