If this week’s snowpocalypse spotlights one thing in particular, it’s the long-standing and well-known horror show befalling any poor Boston sot with a car, and nary a place to park it when push comes to shove. Or, if a space saver isn’t honored (God forbid), when shove comes to tribalistic violent retribution.
But snow is fleeting (mostly) and come spring and summer, you’re still going to be going out to city events and concerts, and at some point or another will probably have a friend from the suburbs or out of town hit you up about the best place to park. Typically, your response has been “If you figure that out, be sure to let me know.” But it doesn’t have to be, because, as with everything these days, there’s an app for that.
Meet SpotHero, one of the highest rated on-demand parking apps on iTunes and Google Play, a no-sign-up-fee, immediate parking assistant for you or anyone looking to place their vroom-vroom while enjoying the city at large. Released last Spring, it works directly with parking operators (instead of venues) to offer commuters two to three times less expensive rates at garages, valets, independent parking lots, and other vehicle-storage emporiums for everything from universities (Harvard, Boston University, Tufts, MIT), sporting events (Gillette, TD Garden, Fenway), restaurants all over town—even different neighborhoods, Logan, and municipal buildings (two words: jury duty).
How it works: Download the app, and simply tell it where you’re going and what you need to park near. It sources the different partners it works with to “reserve” you a space, and allows you to roll up anytime within the range you’ve secured to have a spot guaranteed for you. You get a parking pass through the app and detailed instructions to your reserved spot, and if there is any kind of issue there you can reach the SpotHero “customer heroes” through the app to assist with anything from app functionality tofinding another spot if something went wrong.
It’s also the only on-demand parking app to accept Apple Pay at present.
So there’s that, too.
SPOTHERO. NOW AVAILABLE ON ITUNES AND THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE. SPOTHERO.COM/BOSTON
Dig Staff means this article was a collaborative effort. Teamwork, as we like to call it.
