Seattle is known as a tech-savvy city, with a growing biotech sector and deep connections to companies like Amazon.com, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Microsoft, T-Mobile USA and Nintendo. Now the city has joined the roster of locations where drivers can use their cellphones to remotely pay for on-street parking.

According to a news release, the city will partner with PayByPhone, which was selected through a competitive procurement process by the Seattle Department of Transportation. The new initiative is expected to be fully rolled out by the end of summer.

The service isn't limited to smartphones; regular cellphone users can dial a toll-free number posted on streets signs and pay stations and follow prompts to buy parking. Receipts will be e-mailed. The system will also send reminder texts before a meter's time expires, and accept a remote top-off.

PayByPhone has also integrated with the enforcement vendor Advanced Public Safety, the release said, which will show the city's parking enforcement officers a real-time view of license plates that are paid up through PayByPhone.

The service is available for Seattle's more than 13,000 on-street spaces as well as many off-street and privately operated parking lots, the release said, and residents and visitors will soon be able to use a PayByPhone account to charge electric vehicles, rent bicycles or pay for taxis through a single secure secure app.

"Surveys have shown that parking has long been a barrier to entry for people coming to downtown Seattle," Downtown Seattle Association President and CEO Kate Joncas said in the release. "With PayByPhone making on-street parking faster and more convenient, visitors benefit, and that helps maintain downtown Seattle as the region's preferred urban destination."

PayByPhone has operations in New York, Vancouver, London, Paris and Melbourne, and claims more than 5 million registered users and hundreds of cities, universities and private operator locations, including San Francisco, New York, Miami, Seattle, Dallas, Vancouver, Ottawa and New Orleans.

Learn more about in-app payments.