Montreal parking app deciphers ‘confusing’ street signs, helps avoid tickets

Parking in Montreal is notoriously difficult – from the lack of spaces to the complexity of the street signs.

So four Montreal software engineering students developed an app to help drivers avoid getting parking tickets.

Park Usher was created by Alireza Ziarizi, Sevag Eordkian, Lujain Khalaf and Rayan Moarkech.

“Everybody knows how complicated the signs are but everybody accepts the fact that they are complicated,” said Ziarizi, the company’s co-founder and co-CEO. “They accept the ticket, they accept the fines, they accept everything about it. So they just go on and living their life by accepting it.”

“It just gives you the peace of mind,” added Eordkian, co-founder and COO. “You’re 95 per cent sure you’re OK to park, then you want to go someplace hang out with friends but in your head that five per cent is killing you.”

The idea for Park Usher began a few years ago – and it all started with a fine.

The friends were studying for midterms at the Concordia University library downtown until 1 a.m. When they left the building and got to their cars, all of them had gotten a parking ticket.

“We have to find a solution to not go get those tickets,” Ziarizi said, recounting the group’s mindset at the time. “Even though we speak French, we understand those signs and everything, but we still got the ticket because we misread only one thing, and we were just getting so mad. And we tried to, as a fun joke, try to find a way of not getting those tickets.

“We’re talking to some friends of ours, ‘hey by the way we have this idea of the app, that’s what we’re doing,’ and you can see the light in their eyes. They’re like, ‘oh my God is it on App Store, can I download it, can I get it?’ And we were like OK, so maybe there’s a need actually bigger than we thought at the beginning.”

The software engineering students have invested $65,000 in the creation of the business and spent months taking more than 3,000 pictures of parking signs in the city to train the AI.

CityNews spoke to Montrealers who agreed parking in the city was not always straightforward – especially for non-residents.

“The vignette concept I think is really complicated for people if they don’t live here,” one person said.

“It is confusing sometimes but I feel like if you’ve lived here for a while and you have a car you kind of figure it out,” said another. “But it is confusing if you don’t live here, I think, and if you don’t have a car all the time.”

“On my street the other day I got lucky because I know which side I can park on and not and sometimes I just get confused because life is busy,” added a third. “And I came out and I was like wow I just saved myself an $80 ticket because someone didn’t do their job today, so bless you. But if there was an app and it was free and people could use it, why not?”

As of Nov. 15, parking metre hours will be extended in five sectors of downtown. Drivers will have to pay for metered parking between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays. Sunday hours will remain the same, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The founders of Park Usher are hoping the app can help some Montrealers navigate those changes.