ROANOKE, Va. – On Dec. 8, PARK Roanoke announced that all of their parking garages in downtown Roanoke will change to a gateless system.
Those parking at a PARK Roanoke garage will now be able to drive in, park, and drive out. Officials believe this will eliminate wait times and other hassles of the usual parking gates.
However, some have been confused by the new system as it is currently being broken in.
When you drive into the garage, you can find a parking spot like normal. Once you have parked, you have 15 minutes to find one of the signs placed across the parking garages that offer a QR code to scan on your phone.
Scan the QR code, type in your phone number, and wait for a 6-digit code to be sent to your phone.
On some browsers, it had a little trouble.
“So just scan the QR code, not too bad,” Richard Muterspaugh said. “I had a little bit of trouble in my Safari browser with it, but once I moved it over to Google Chrome, there was no problem.”
Once you get your code, you can type that in, along with your license plate number and payment method.
After the 4-step process, you can leave the parking garage without having to worry about leaving a ticket on the dashboard of your car. As soon as you drive out of the garage, a security camera will scan your car and automatically connect it to your payment method.
There is also an option of paying at the payment station on the first floor of the garage.
While some people had issues getting the system to work, others had little to no trouble.
“For me, it shouldn’t be an issue,” Muterspaugh said. “I like that I can drive right through the gate and I don’t have to worry about a long line or getting stuck there for who knows how long with the cross traffic. It’s just going to make it a lot easier, I think to get across town and in and out of the buildings.”