Somerville will be the first local city to enable drivers to pay for public parking space via mobile phone, according to an article by Steve Annear today on Boston Magazine online.

The move, from the “why don’t we have the ability to do this on my phone yet” file, is a big one showing that Somerville is truly ahead of the curve when it comes to enacting civic-minded technology.

Somerville will be rolling out the program starting the week of Nov. 24, and is partnering with Atlanta-based Parkmobile to finally make digging into the dark abyss that is the area under your driver’s seat in search of a quarter a thing of the past.

(I mean, once this becomes ubiquitous and someone figures out a way to pay by phone at laundromats, will we even need coins anymore?)

Anyone looking to use the online system to pay for parking in Somerville will need to download Parkmobile’s app and then enter their credit information. From that point, users can pay for spaces by calling a toll free number an entering the spot number of scanning the QR code on the meter and selecting the amount of time needed.

The best feature of the app: A countdown timer in the app tracks how much time a user has remaining on the meter and let’s them pay for more time.

In a statement, Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said, “This is a huge benefit to residents, visitors and our business community, bringing the convenience of different payment options that’s already available at multi-space and credit card-accepting meters to every meter in the city through Parkmobile.”