By Carol P. Bartold     

Mar. 2, 2016: The Pango team didn't let a hard driving rain dampen its spirits or efforts for the February 24 launch of the automated parking payment system in Bronxville.

The Pango system, which allows customers to pay for parking via a smartphone app, computer, or the 1-877-MyPango telephone number, offers a viable payment option for people who would rather not carry quarters for the village parking meters.

Pango will operate in addition to the coin-operated meters. "It's not one or the other; you can use them both," said Matthew Browne, Pango representative. Customers who opt to use Pango to pay for parking need not have any interaction at all with mechanical coin meters. The meters will remain functional and in place for parkers who prefer to pay by coin.

Browne spent much of Tuesday in the downtown business district visiting merchants to introduce the system and the services it offers. Businesses that sign up with Pango have the capacity to create advertisements and coupons and to validate customers' parking. "What we're creating is a powerful marketing tool that markets merchants directly to parkers," Browne explained. Merchants have the option to extend special offers through Pango to parkers within a certain distance of their establishments.

The Pango team held a launch party in the evening at J.C. Fogarty's to introduce the system and answer questions. Members of the public, merchants, and village officials attended the gathering, where they learned that, since a soft launch on December 18, 2015, approximately 1,800 people have signed up to use Pango.

According to Neil Edwards, PangoUSA president, 977 of those sign-ups came from Bronxville residents. The remaining sign-ups have come from nonresidents who come to the village and use the system. Edwards added that, since the soft launch, approximately 4,611 Bronxville parking transactions have been processed through the Pango system, with an average parking time of 2 hours and 38 minutes per session.

"We're going to have a lot of interesting data for the village government and local merchants," Edwards said. "You will know where your parkers come from, which will help in understanding who your visitors are and help develop better pricing policies and better services to the community."

Matthew Browne predicted that once people see the simplicity of the Pango app and experience its convenience, "they won't go back to paying with coins."

Customers who use Pango will pay a convenience fee of $0.25 per transaction to pay for parking or extend meter time using the app. There are no other mandatory fees. Customers can receive free alerts via the app to notify how much paid time remains on their parking space. Text alerts can also be customized for $1.99 per month, but this is optional and not required to use the Pango app.

The most common Pango glitches, said Neil Edwards, are expired credit cards and errors in entering the proper 5-digit/letter parking space identification that appears on each meter. As part of its customer service, should a customer enter the wrong parking identification, Pango will pay the first parking ticket.

Edwards said that Pango will deploy a street team to Bronxville for the first few weeks of the rollout to help parkers and businesses acclimate to the system.

"We're hoping a lot of people use it," said Mayor Mary Marvin.

Pictured here (L to R): Neil Edwards, president of PangoUSA, Mayor Mary Marvin, Deputy Treasurer Peggy Conway, and Village Administrator Jim Palmer.

Photo by A. Warner