City hall is testing out the effect of removing all but one of the 14 parking pay stations in the Sutherland Business Improvement District and nudging people to pay using the smartphone app.

The pilot project will help the city decide whether to switch to a digital-only option if paid parking areas expand or when stations, which were first introduced in 2015, need to be replaced.

The experiment is expected to last a year. The report says Sutherland was chosen because of its small size, with about 100 parking spots that require payment. The Sutherland business district tends to have "historically low parking terminal usage," the report adds.

Just over half of people who pay for on-street parking in the city's five business districts use the app, the report said. About a third pay with credit or debit cards, and nearly 15 per cent plug coins into the devices.

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The app definitely needs to be improved if this is going to be the new standard...

Coin usage would probably be higher if the meters weren't always broken. The amount of complaints we get from customers at my work about the parking meters not working properly is ridiculous.