EDWARDSVILLE - Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is adding a free, new app to its array of parking services – Whoosh!
Effectively immediately, those needing to pay for parking in SIUE Lots B (Morris University Center lot) and C (behind Rendleman Hall) will have an additional payment option. Students, faculty and staff will be able to use their cell phones, tablets and computers to pay for parking with the new system.
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Whoosh! can be downloaded from the App Store onto an iPhone or the Google Play Store onto an Android device. Users register their license plates and credit card with the Whoosh! system or through whooshstore.com.
Drivers without either smartphone can access Whoosh! by visiting its mobile website, m.whooshstore.com.
To pay for parking, patrons don’t even need to use a kiosk. Drivers can sit in their cars, open the app on their phone, choose their parking area, select their vehicle, enter their space number and choose the amount of time they want to park.
“The ease of accessibility is the most important facet,” said Bob Vanzo, SIUE director of administrative services. “If the weather is bad or there’s a line, you can pay right from your car.”
When a parking session purchased through Whoosh! is about to expire, the application can send a reminder via text message.
Users can extend their parking session from anywhere, even if their original transaction was not made with Whoosh! This means that users will no longer have to run out and check when their meter expires, and the fear of receiving a parking ticket almost vanishes.
Whoosh! charges a convenience fee of 35 cents for each parking transaction. “When you weigh the cost to use the app against the cost of a citation, using the app is far more economical,” Vanzo said. “This is an example of Parking Services’ ongoing effort to reduce the number of tickets issued. Since 2005-06, Parking Services has put into place a number of initiatives that have cut citations by 32 percent (through the 2013-14 academic year).”
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