Getting a parking ticket sucks, but paying for it shouldn’t have to be. That’s what the folks at Boston’s Terrible Labs think anyway — they built an app called TicketZen to take the trouble out of giving the state your money. Here’s the gist of it: once you’ve installed the iOS or Android app, you can use it to scan a barcode on your parking ticket to import all the pertinent data and pay it off with a touch. Don’t see a barcode? That’s fine, too. Not every town is that forward-thinking, so you can punch in the violation number instead.
Getting a parking ticket is horrible enough, the process of paying it — as some of you may know — only adds to the headache. TicketZen, a mobile app for paying parking tickets, is trying to change that. TicketZen, available on both iPhone and Android, enables users to pay a parking ticket as soon as the moment they see it on their windshield, all through the mobile app, regardless of the city they are in. With the app, a user simply scans the ticket, confirms payment details and is on their merry way. For ticket titans looking to save time, this option enables payment in just a scan and a few clicks after payment details are input (and saved for later use). This option, even for the first-time parking violation offender, is a win. With the existing system, naughty drivers were forced to either wait in line at city hall, mail in a check, or attempt to navigate the city government’s cumbersome, 1990s-looking forms.