ParkDetroit Reviews

Where to begin. ParkDetroit is mediocre at best. Glitchy. Flashy but laggy. Seems to be more effort into a “clean” UI than actual functionality. More than half the time when trying to pay, an error message pops up stating “payment has not been processed” or “your ticket id cannot be processed.” It’s even more frustrating because the former app never had these issues. And the .15 cent service fee? Is this a joke? Why am I paying a service fee for PAID PARKING. I almost want to feel bad for the devs here, cus surely they called out these erroneous errors and frustrating bugs. But Detroit leadership ceases to surprise. Would be 1 star but ParkDetroit has improved quite a bit since launch (which again, torts joke. You released a broken app and dozens of residents got parking tickets) 2 stars just because ParkDetroit has made improvements upon launch. *update- thank you for the developer reply. It’s great to know y’all are staying actively involved. I will indeed reach out with suggestions for improving. But also, my detailed feedback should be enough for you to start an investigation to these bugs. Thank you.

Bring back the old app/user interface PLEASE. I have tried to use ParkDetroit multiple times and it literally tells me that it cannot connect to the internet. I am downtown, I have full LTE, my data is turned on, like yes I DEFINITELY have enough connection from my end! I was able to at least get through to the screen where you pick your “zone”. This is also a terrible experience. The old app was way better in that you simply typed in your zone, your license plate, and card and you were done. Now it takes forever (if it even loads - like I said, I’ve never been able to complete my transaction because it tells me I don’t have an internet connection. Thankfully my boyfriend got through somehow on his phone, but it still took a solid 5 minutes of sitting there waiting for it to load.) It’s honestly just a bizarre user experience where you have to find yourself on the map and then select the correct “$1” bubble on the map to pay. Seriously? Why make something so much more complicated than before. It’s literally parking. There’s no need for something so complex.

Hey guys I have an idea, let’s ditch the simple app and create one that is extremely difficult to use.. let’s confuse the crap out of the city of Detroit and turn people away from coming downtown because they’re so afraid of getting a parking ticket - ya that’ll do it!

What is wrong with this team to where you have to start to wonder if the developer team of ParkDetroit has ever used their own technology? With the old app all you had to do was type in your zone and then pay, now, surprisingly, ParkDetroit tracks your location tries to guess where you are, then you have to select on a small tiny map your street intersection in hopes you tap the correct parking meter for what side of the street that you are on… (by the way I am not joking this is literally what you have to do every single time) then it takes you to another screen to input your time and then another screen to input your card and then another screen to confirm everything… worst created app on the planet!! Thank you Park Detroit truly you have created a masterpiece

This is a very useful app for parking in Detroit. The one problem I came across is that it states you can pay in advance for parking, but I did not find that function to work. Even after you select the exact time and location you want to pay for ParkDetroit defaults to the current time. It would be great if that function worked, for example if you arrive somewhere at 6:30 a.m. but the meter doesn’t start until seven you could pay for 7 to 8 a.m.

Just got a ticket while actively paying for a spot. The old version made you actively choose which vehicle you’re paying for so there was no chance of accidentally paying for the wrong vehicle. This version notes the license plate number in small type in the top right corner so if you often switch vehicles it would be very easy to accidentally pay for the wrong vehicle and get a ticket on the car you’re actually parking. Can’t imagine how that made it through the several rounds of design reviews i assume this must have gone through. Perhaps a lack of testing. UI in general is less understandable from a user standpoint. Adding the map is a good feature and was desperately needed but the execution (UI) is bas and not clear - don’t need to select the exact meter just tell me the zone I’m in i don’t need to then pick the exact meter lol.

So many problems with ParkDetroit; I’m guessing the city is trying to make more money from tickets because the old app was too easy to use. Not only do you need to download a new app, make a new login, put in all your info again (and it wouldn’t save my credit card), now you need to use a map to find your parking location and guess which bubble is “closest to you and on the same side of the street.” I was trying to park in midtown but ParkDetroit was reading my location as downtown; furthermore, the closest bubble on my side of the street was 3 blocks away. I live in Detroit and have a good sense of direction; good luck if you’re from out of town or don’t know your way around.

Supposedly ParkDetroit can help you find open parking spaces, so look forward to more people driving around downtown staring at their phone screens and running over pedestrians to reach those open spaces!

The new app is unintuitive and extremely confusing. The old app was much simpler to navigate. We had three people (Engineers) by the way try to use it yesterday to make a payment For metered parking and it was a nightmare - this was on 3 separate phone by the way. We had to go outside in the frigid cold to do the old school method. In my opinion, this upgrade was an epic fail and needs lot of improvements/ clarity/ simplicity to it. Over complicated for no reason. I also don’t understand why I can’t add and save my credit card information at initial setup. Seems counter productive of why you would want to use an app for convenience. Not impressed.

I honestly cannot say enough bad things about ParkDetroit. The only reason to download it is because there isn’t any other option.

As glitchy (even with the newest update) as ParkDetroit is, it gets even worse with the request of location address or zone. Zone only would be ideal. The location aspect tries to force you to use it and then doesn’t work a majority of the time. It routinely logs you out, is clunky, now requires more clicks to accomplish your goal, and is much more difficult to use. It very much feels like an exercise in futility to drive more tickets in the city. I live a short distance from downtown and would rather take a Lyft than bother fighting with ParkDetroit.

Credit cards that work one day and are saved in ParkDetroit won’t work another day (or won’t work at all to begin with, despite working everywhere else); Can’t change car I’m paying for without going all the way into the settings and changing the default each time; App will park you in the wrong zone if you don’t explicitly enter the Zone ID and attempt to use the map. It’s a travesty that the city of Detroit went with a French company to build this monstrosity instead of someone from our vibrant local tech ecosystem, and it’s an absolutely shame this company doesn’t have a UX designer who knows the first thing about software design. Absolute trash.

I don’t know if ParkDetroit is just a horrible mistake or it’s a conspiracy to get more parking ticket revenues. I’ve spent hours trying to use this and usually give up & pay at the outside pay station.

ParkDetroit is extremely difficult to navigate. Every time I open ParkDetroit , it defaults my location to some random place nowhere remotely close to where I am. So I am stuck moving the map around trying to figure out where I am. Which is impossible with the poorly labeled map. If it takes longer than 30 seconds of navigating around, ParkDetroit crashes and I have to start over.

Once I figure out where I am, ParkDetroit rarely lets me select a zone. Sometimes I can select a zone and then the interface changes back to the lots from what I am guessing.

If be some act of the universe I am able to get past both of those issues, I then have to hope it remembers my credit card. Sometimes it just forgets and I have to re-enter it which takes three tries before it works.

All in all, the old app was simple and always worked. I have no idea why we changed to this new app that is impossible to navigate and use. I can’t imagine an older person attempting to make it work.

I downloaded ParkDetroit and tried a couple times to create an account. ParkDetroit hung part way through the process both times. I did some searching online to see if I could make an account some other way (I can, they have a web app as well as ParkDetroit), but I stopped when I learned that there is a service fee for using this service.

Based on the other reviews, ParkDetroit doesn’t sound like it is actually that much more convenient than paying at the meter, certainly not more convenient enough to justify an added expense that may be half as much as the parking fee itself.

I tried multiple times to purchase meter time. It never worked. Multiple problems with this (did not have WiFi password for business I was parked in front of, would not connect to the internet, told me today's date was in the future, timed me out of ParkDetroit by the time I got to the payment, GPS location sucked). ParkDetroit was not functioning for me. If I get a parking ticket, I'll be irate.

The older app was so incredibly simple to use. Park in a zone, record the number, select duration, pay. Though this new app has more features, it is not as easy to simply park by zone. The map feature doesn’t seem to visually differentiate between zones very well which can make parking at the convergence of two zones fairly frustrating. If I could simply input the zone number like I could previously, it would be a much more straightforward experience.

The old app worked great! This is garbage. Got downtown and had to upload the new app, then spent over 10 min trying to enter my info, eventually gave up and parked in a pay lot 😡Wouldn’t bring up the user agreement, had to close and reopen twice to cancel it trying, so I have no idea what I agreed to. Wouldn’t take my license plate info, kept bringing me back to No vehicles added Add a car. After 3 tries and the spinning circle of death it’d say I had no internet connection (not true). Got to my office and looked again and my car was in there twice. Total junk👎

Sometimes, new and improved only works for those who create it. This new parking app in an inconvenience when you’re pressed for time. It’s not as straight to the point as the previous app. Typing the Zone number should be the only thing a driver needs to do. What they can change is to allow the driver to switch Zones without having to start another session and loose money. Example: if the driver parks in Zone 106 only for 15min but has an appt in Zone 206, they should be allowed to move that extra time that they didn’t use , to the new Zone.

This is a horrible update. Like everyone else says…the old app was great. Enter a zone number, pay, and go. This new update is over-complicated and wastes so much time. Couldn’t find my parking area, crashed, slow. Just give us back the old app or a way to enter a zone number and be done with it. Nobody wants to play with their gps settings and look for address on buildings…especially since it could be dark and you might be parking blocks from where you are going (did anyone consider that?).

There are many things about ParkDetroit that are frustrating but primarily is that the payments do not always process. And on occasion they don’t process even when ParkDetroit says that they have which has resulted in me receiving parking tickets when I have attempted to purchase parking through ParkDetroit . It is extremely frustrating to re-download ParkDetroit put in the information over again and still receive a ticket because ParkDetroit does not process the payment

The old version was much simpler and quicker to use. You simply typed your zone number and the length you wanted to stay. It was by far my favorite parking app out of the multiple ones I use because of the ease and simplicity it had. This new version however is unnecessarily complicated and often seems to glitch. They also reduced the types of credit cards they take. Not a fan of this new version at all.

So disappointed in this new upgrade!! Worst Ever!! Why fix something that’s not broke! There was nothing wrong with the old app this new app is so confusing. I’m forced to pay triple at a parking garage!!

Update.. gave ParkDetroit another try due to the fact that I work here in Downtown Detroit & been using it for years with no problem. This is still a horrible upgrade!! I always leave early to work & was late to work once again due to ParkDetroit!!! Had to pay a parking lot their out rages prices again!! Please bring the old app back!!!

ParkDetroit is garbage it reports an error when i try to park. go back to the old app please which was simple and intuitive . ParkDetroit is buggy and complicated