HotSpot CEO hopes for Charlottetown parking pilot extension

The owner of HotSpot Parking is hoping the City of Charlottetown will extend its smart metre parking program for another six months.

The program provides drivers with a mobile parking app so they can pay for parking with their cell phone.

Drivers can also get discounts or free parking from businesses who have signed on.

The pilot began at the end of October and the agreement with the city expires this month.

Hotspot Parking's CEO is pleased with the pilot program, noting that it came close to reaching its goal of having 500 users.

"We have 450 [users] right now. The bars in Charlottetown are currently using the service to give out free parking Downtown Charlottetown is going to do a free parking day to promote it, but they eventually held off at this point simply because of the amount of snow that's currently been in Charlottetown," said Phillip Curley.

Curley is hoping the city will consider a way to get rid of the user fee. Whenever people reload their HotSpot account, they must pay a $1.99 fee.

City officials say councillors haven't met yet to discuss a possible extension.

Moncton, Saint Johnand Fredericton have also tried the program.