This week, St. Louis City hit a milestone in parking modernization, reaching 2.5 million parking transactions using its mobile apps, ParkLouie and ParkMobile
News/Announcement | Office of the Treasurer | 02/14/2019

February 13, 2019
Contact: Benjamin D. Singer, [email protected], 314.239.1308
Jeff Perkins, CMO, ParkMobile, LLC, [email protected], 678-801-8855

New St. Louis City Parking Program Hits 2.5 Million App Transactions
A portion of proceeds supports college savings for St. Louis city school students

St. Louis—This week, St. Louis City hit a milestone in parking modernization, reaching 2.5 million parking transactions using its mobile apps, ParkLouie and ParkMobile, from 120,000 unique users.

The City of St. Louis launched ParkLouie as its mobile parking payment solution in 2015. Customers can now pay for city parking using their smartphones at every meter in St. Louis.

“When I took office, St. Louis was stuck in the 19th century, with people forced to carry around coins,” said St. Louis City Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones. “Now we’re operating in the 21st century, and we keep looking for ways to improve the experience for residents and visitors in St. Louis.”

Jones took office in 2013. She oversees city parking as Chair of the Parking Commission and Supervisor of Parking, in addition to serving as the city’s banking and investment officer and starting the Office of Financial Empowerment.

“We want to congratulate St. Louis on the program’s success, and we look forward to making parking easier for even more people this year,” says Jon Ziglar, CEO of ParkMobile, which powers ParkLouie.

With ParkLouie, a customer can pay for parking simply by registering with the app, entering the zone number labeled on the parking meter, and beginning a parking session. Customers can receive notifications before the session expires and pay for additional time remotely, without having to run back to the meter. Customers without mobile phones can also now use credit cards at the meters.

A portion of parking proceeds go to the College Kids program, a public-private partnership to create college savings accounts for St. Louis public school students. In addition to parking revenue, the program is funded by donations from the public. It now has over 12,000 savings accounts, with over $865,000 saved for college or vocational school. Studies show that even having a small amount saved for college increases a student’s likelihood of attending post-secondary education by 3 times.

Other key stats:

  • Since the program began in 2015, annual transactions have grown 32% year-over-year, reaching over 120,000 users of ParkLouie technology.
  • In January, 22,343 people made purchases with ParkLouie.
  • In October, ParkLouie hit 2 million in-app transactions.
  • In 2018, ParkLouie added an average of 4,400 users each month.