You can already pay for parking in some parts of D.C. via solar-powered credit card meters, and starting Monday, another pilot program launched by the District Department of Transportation will allow drivers to pay for parking by phone.

The pay by phone option is being offered at 700 parking spaces in three areas of the city: around Dupont Circle, Union Station, and downtown on K Street, I Street, and New York Avenue NW. Meters that offer the service will be marked with a green sticker like the one at right, which lists a location number specific to that space.

DDOT has contracted with Verrus Mobile Technologies, Inc. to run the pilot program. In order to take advantage of the option to pay by phone, customers must first sign up for an account at paybyphone.com. You’ll need to provide a mobile phone number, license plate number and credit card info.

Once you have an account established, all you have to do to pay for parking is call 1-888-510-PARK (7275), enter the location number on the sticker at your space, and then enter the number of minutes you plan to park there. The amount will be automatically charged to your credit card. Parking enforcement officers will then be able to see your license plate and parking time on the handheld devices they carry.

You can also keep track of how much you spend via the paybyphone.com web site, a service that could come in rather handy for those tracking work-related expenses. There are no additional fees associated with the service apart from normal parking rates.

Another potentially excellent feature of the service is that you can select an option to receive a text message that reminds you when your time is about to expire. At that point, you can either head back to your car, or you can call again and add more time to the meter via phone. The only wrinkle is that parking time limits still apply. If you park at a 2-hour meter and stay for the entire 2 hours, you will be blocked from purchasing time again in that zone for the following 30 minutes.