Society changes. Smartphones are 20 years old at this point and no longer require you to drop $1k+ up front for one. Should smart phones be required for everything? No. But progress is gonna progress. Who even carries coins with them these days?
Yes. High tech != smart.
I can put quarters in the meter.
Using coins or credit card is a far better experience downloading an app.
It is annoying though to have to install half a dozen different parking apps for the lots that have partnered with different app providers. It would be nice if public parking lot apps would interoperate.
It takes fewer “clicks” so to speak and is more accessible to the elderly.
But anything government which doesn’t require to keep track of a purchaser’s identity should accept cash. Otherwise what’s the point of cash if your own state doesn’t accept it.
This is so obviously true for non-tech elderly folk that don't already have smartphones. I can hardly believe it's in question.
Card:
1. Receive free card from bank in mail.
2. Keep card in your wallet/purse which you already take every time you go out.
3. Memorise PIN (the tricky bit, to be fair).
4. Wave or insert card for payment.
Phone app:
1. Either find a phone shop and ask for help, or figure out how to securely buy a smartphone online.
2. Figure out how to set your phone up. This involves a lot of confusing decisions such as whether to create an apple/google account, which services to enable, etc... .
3. Learn how to search for, install, and use phone apps. The parking app will vary depending on where you choose to park.
4. Set up google/apple pay or your card payment details on required apps.
5. Learn how to connect your phone to wifi if you end up parking in an area with internet but no phone signal.
6. Remember to take your smartphone with you every time you plan to drive and park somewhere.
7. Muddle your way through what is often a bloated, ad-ridden app every time you want to park.
Not even that, for a credit card.
An app often requires some account setup with spam emails to follow.
How a particular change impacts you will, of course, strongly color your perception of it.
If you're someone who always has coinage readily available, forcing you to install an app and create an account on a device you may not have, or be familiar with, plus feeding said app an up-to-date payment method (accompanied by concerns of financial loss) and eating the cost of transaction fees is not going to be seen as progress.
If you never use currency and having coinage on hand is an extra effort, and don't mind installing and using yet-another-app on your current smartphone, then doing away with coins seems much less hostile.
And, of course, if you own/operate parking meters, reducing your own overhead is a win for you, as long as the meters keep getting used enough that your profits go up.
Which ends up actually benefiting the public more, I don't know.
Seems beyond stupid to require me to have an Apple program or a Google program and specific hardware to pay for parking when I can just have the coins in my pocket.
Especially since ParkMobile could just decide not to support the version of android I’m running, so that I’m forced to purchase a new device.
Coins aren’t subject to code rot.
A bonus is that meter toll collectors would have a job.
My county forcing Microsoft 2FA as the only option for the government entity I work for, in which I'm the youngest by far and we don't accept having to buy a phone just to use an account, reeks of capitalism.