EasyPark Launches Locally

You may have heard, but Austin is a tech town. Everyone is envious of our Google Fiber, our Mac-to-PC ratio is way off, our nerds are the nerdiest, etc. So new apps and devices pop up all the time, and why wouldn't we be one of the first adopters? In that spirit, starting today we have EasyPark, a supposedly easier way to pay for parking.

Here's how it works. Sign up online and receive a device you can hang in the window of your car. Add funds to your EasyPark account via their website and you can skip the whole meter/sticker rigamarole. Just turn the thing on, display it when you park, and shut it down when you drive off. The yellow box will not charge you for non-metered hours and will beep if you drive off with it on to remind you to stop paying.

The device itself is $30 and there's a surcharge of a few bucks for every lump sum of money you add to your account. There is also a $1 a month membership fee. You do however get $10 worth of parking when you open an account.

Pros:

•No more guessing how long you're going to be somewhere.
•No more paying for time you don't use.
•No more little tickets in your window (so déclassé)
•It's as good as a sticker that says "Early Adopter" on your car

Cons:

•The yellow box looks kinda dorky in the window
•It's another thing to clutter up your car
•You have to park in EasyPark-compatible zones
•It's as good as a sticker that says "Early Adopter" on your car

We're the first city to have it … outside of New Hampshire. Not sure how NH beat us to the punch, but we can't win em all.

All in all, there's no doubt this thing will be helpful to people who park Downtown often. At the same time, it also reminds us of the Outbox service – moderately helpful and technically overcomplicated.