No quarter for the meter? Make a call on your cellphone

Instead of fumbling for change at a parking meter, John Tobin wants to give Boston drivers another option: dialing for dollars.

That's the focus of a proposal that the fourth-term city councilor unveiled late last month, when he called for a hearing to discuss launching a pilot program in Boston that would allow parking fees at any metered space to be paid using a telephone.

"Not everyone has a lug full of quarters in the car, but just about everyone has a cellphone," Tobin, who represents West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and Roslindale, said in an interview. "I say, let's put this technology to work."

With a pay-by-phone system, Tobin said, drivers can send a text message to a phone number posted on a meter and begin paying for parking time by entering the meter number and the amount of time they need. Such cities as Las Vegas and Coral Gables, Fla., have implemented similar programs in recent years. In San Francisco, which began testing the technology in September, city officials evaluated three companies who maintained transaction fees ranging from no charge to 25-cents per use to $5 per month.

More than $62 million in parking fines was collected by Boston officials in the fiscal year ended June 2007, and that figure is expected to reach about $77 million in the coming year, due to higher fines, additional parking officers on patrol, and the expansion of metered spaces.

While he acknowledged the pay-by-phone program could reduce that revenue by cutting the number of tickets, Tobin said, "I'm sure it would take money out of the city's coffers, but at the end of the day, we need to do even more to attract people to come back."

RICHARD THOMPSON