Montreal Parking Meters: A Quick How-To
Anyone who drives in downtown Montreal will immediately tell you that the parking situation is nightmarish at best. In recent years, the city finally made the leap to the 21st century by switching from the antique coin-insert parking meters to the digital ones.
While digitisation should have simplified matters, there still remains a considerable portion of city drivers who have yet to use the handy application. Which is a shame, because this app is simple to use and makes adding coin to your meter a breeze in comparison to running down the street to top up your meter.
If you’re not tech savvy, fear not, because the following step-by-step guide will ensure that you’re dodging those pesky parking tickets from the comfort of your bar booth!
Step 1: Installing P$ Mobile Service
a. On your phone or tablet, go to Play Store or Apple Store
b. In the search bar, type in “Montreal Parking” and tap Search.
c. Select P$ Mobile Service from the list of applications (it should be one of the top picks)
d. Once the installation is complete, open the application.
Step 2. Creating an Account
a. Upon launching the application, it will ask you to log in. Since you don’t yet have an account, take a look below the Enter button and you will notice the Register link.
b. Once you have looked over the Terms of Use portion, tap Accept, which is highlighted in green.
c. To create your profile, enter the contact information required. Note: You do not have to hyphenate your phone number but you do have to make sure that your postal code has a space.
d. Be sure to choose how you would like to receive your parking notifications (by email or by SMS).
e. Next up, the app will ask for a credit card. There’s no need to worry, the app will only charge your card when you choose to use the app to pay for parking.
f. Once you have entered the required info, tap Confirm. Your profile is now complete and the app is now ready to use!
Step 3. Ready to park!
a. Once your car is parked, the first thing to look for is the parking space number, indicated on the meter guide.
b. Once you’ve located the number, open the parking application.
c. Input your user name and password and tap the Enter button. Note: you can save this info by checking Yes next to Remember my password. This way you do not have to enter it every time you access the app.
d. Once you have entered the app, you will be automatically on the Pay tab.
e. In the box indicated as Parking space, you will need to input the parking space number.
f. Tap OK.
g. The Pay for parking page will appear. Next to Maximum Duration, you will notice a drop-down menu with the maximum number of hours that can be added to the meter.
h. By tapping on the arrow of the drop-down menu, you can choose the amount of time you would like to add by tapping on the desired option. It can be as little as 5 minutes all the way to 3 hours.
i. Once you have chosen your allotted time, you will see the exact time that the meter runs out as well as the adjusted total cost.
j. Tap the Pay button. A pop-up window will appear asking you to confirm payment.
k. Once you have tapped OK and the payment has been processed, the Receipt page will appear.
l. You can now leave your vehicle knowing that the meter is safely paid.
m. You can always check your time by tapping on the History tab. You will also receive email or text notifications (depending on the preference chosen in Step 2-d.) letting you know when the meter is about to run out.
n. If you plan to stay longer, simply repeat the above steps to add minutes or hours!
