The parking meter has come a long way. We started with a coin-operated eye sore at every parking space and have arrived at a towering pay machine for every dozen spaces or so. Yes it’s true, we no longer need coins to pay for parking, we can conveniently use a credit card or even a mobile application.

However, I hate parking meters. Here’s my short-list of why:

• rain
• snow
• wind (ever had your voucher snapped out of your hands on a windy day?)
• line ups
• broken machines
• walking back and forth from our cars (see: rain, snow, wind)
• machines out of paper
• having to calculate how much time to buy
• fear of overpaying
• fear of underpaying

And that’s just the short-list.

I used to pay for parking at a machine every day. I could insert my card and hit the right buttons in my sleep. It would take 47 seconds for the transaction to process and the parking voucher to print out. It may not seem like a lot, but those 47 seconds were excruciating. It meant an extra 47 seconds between me and my morning coffee. And if I was late, it meant 47 seconds less time to catch the elevator to the 22nd floor. And if there were people in front of me in line to pay for parking, each of them took 47 seconds. And if they hit the wrong button a small piece of my soul would die. My entire day seemed to hang in the balance of those 47 seconds. *shudder*

Day after day, we deal with paying for parking in all sorts of strange and unpredictable situations. The unpredictability is caused by parking meters and their various configurations, requirements and states of working order.

No more.

PayBySky is parking meter kryptonite. There is no waiting in line, braving inclement weather, navigating broken machines or not having the appropriate means to pay. PayBySky pays for parking automatically and in doing so, saves our soul from death by a thousand parking transactions.

Being a PayBySky customer means paying for parking is no longer an issue. It means I can get out of my car and walk away. I never overpay because PayBySky stops paying for parking as soon as I leave the parking space. I never get a ticket because PayBySky communicates with municipal parking systems so by-law officers can see that I’ve paid.

I have been liberated from the drudgery of paying for parking. It’s a gloriously uplifting experience and I hope to bring all of those poor souls I see at the meters and pay machines from the darkness to the light. I’m spreading the word and saving souls, one parking transaction at a time.

“PayBySky has saved me the anxiety that comes with unpredictable parking.”