MOTU - Grand Rapids Parking

• Free

Last verified 7 Aug 2026

3.3 592 ratings · App Store

1. 1/5Disappointing

   Parking Services seems to continually succeed at making it less than desirable to own a business downtown. Our office building in central downtown was 100% occupied 1 year ago and is now maybe 60% occupied. Why? Parking. Our parking rates increased substantially - almost over night a year ago. We lost Area 4 & 5 and the solutions were far from desirable (e.g. the failed DASH bus experiment). Now we have MOTU. Not only was the initial implementation an embarrassment - the continued rollout of it has been equally as bad. Parking Services is now punishing users of the mobile app by “enforcing” the two hour limit, however, that’s the only way it’s being enforced. There are not any postings about parking spaces being 2/4 hours - just an unenforced city ordinance. If I use the pay station or “feed” a meter, there is and has been zero enforcement of this ordinance through present date. My guess is that it will not be enforced because of the challenges in doing so. I’m now expected to tell my clients that are going to be at my office that they can’t park for more than 2 hours or need to fight for a spot in the almost always filled parking ramps. Hopefully the city takes note and recognizes that the ideas and leadership behind Parking Services is failing us long term. Downtown doesn’t succeed without continued M-F business growth. Restaurants aren’t filled with lunch and happy hour patrons. It’s time to wake up GR. Stop allowing short sighted thinking to be detrimental to our long term success.

   Dissapointed Business Owner · 7 Aug 2026

2. 1/5Park Mobile is so much better! Not a fan of MOTU:(

   I have used park mobile for years and loved it and found it easy to use. The city I live in just switched all it’s meters to MOTU and after just one week I am terribly disappointed and begging to have Park Mobile back. #1 with MOTU you have to enter a “zone” and a parking meter number. The “zone” is in such small print that you must get out of your car to read it in the meter. So if it’s snowing, pouring rain or your in a hurry this extra step is such a hassle. #2 I have had to pay for the entire meter time at each meter I have used so far with MOTU. (Maybe there is a different way but I have not found one) so if I park at a 3 hour meter but I know I will only be there one hour I must pay for the 3 hours. That’s so stupid. It’s enough of a reason for me to start carrying change and stop using the app all together. With park mobile one could “start” the meter and then “stop” the session which would stop the fee. With MOTU I have been charged the full amount of the meter and even when I “stop” my session before the meter expires I still pay the same amount. I understand the city I live in must have found a way to get paid more by MOTU thank Park mobile was paying them but unfortunately MOTU Is a huge disappointment for the people actually using the app for parking.

   DissapointedDowntownGirl · 7 Aug 2026

3. 1/5Please bring back park mobile

   This app is far inferior compared to park mobile. Unfortunately, I guess we have to live with it however. If we are going to do so, and the developers hopefully read these reviews. Here's a great piece of advice. Why must we enter a zone number which is so small on the little sticker that it can barely be read from the car. The large number at the top of the meter should be the number that is used which I guess is the space number. Again, park mobile made this much easier as they only required the space number. It doesn't make sense to have a zone number and a separate space number. Just run the Space numbers higher in sequence and get rid of the zone number. Come on Grand Rapids, you can do way better than this. Additionally, when you go to pay, there should be away on the app to get rid of all the options like wallet and validation coupon. And then when you finally select pay with card, I have one card listed, but it wants to verify that that is the card I'm going to use. Duh! If I only have one card listed, then that is the card I'm going to use. If I wanted the ability to add another card, thar should be in a separate menu.

   Twiseldorf · 7 Aug 2026

4. 1/5Thumbs down

   The old parking app, ParkMobile, was MUCH easier to use. This app has a clunky UX, and takes longer to set up your parking spot – why do I need to type in two long numbers? It was also SO much more convenient to set a payment timer on ParkMobile and stop it when you leave, instead of having to choose from 15-minute increments ahead of time. Isn’t that the whole benefit of being able to use an app rather than feeding a meter? Also, it was nice to be able to use ParkMobile in other cities when traveling. As far as I can tell, Motu is only for Grand Rapids, and it’s annoying to have to use a different app for every city I ever go to. Should have just left it to the professionals at ParkMobile instead of trying to take it into your own hands, GR. Big ol’ thumbs down from this downtown resident.

   abbyvh13 · 7 Aug 2026

5. 1/5Worst choice. What a mess

   Not only is this app a pain to use, it also charges you for the full time you select to park even when you stop it early. At the same time parking can’t be renewed - causing a problem when needing to stayed parked more than 2 hours is out of your control. With the very limited parking already in downtown, this creates loads of extra time searching for a spot in a ramp and walking to a meeting. And for those with a physical disability- no on-street ADA parking and without renewable parking in the app, these folks now have to somehow get from whatever ramp they can find to park in to their destination when convenient on- street parking that was renewable was once an option. Horrible app and horrible limits on parking by the city of GR.

   amyj4291 · 7 Aug 2026

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