WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) -- The City of Winston-Salem is considering a new pay rate and a new way of paying for your spot downtown. The city says the current meters have to go, and the replacement is an app on your smartphone. Under the proposal, all on-street parking spots in downtown would need to be paid for through a mobile app, and it will cost you a dollar more an hour. “I don’t think this is heading in the right direction for the long term,” said Jan Wharton, who lives in Winston-Salem. She walks downtown often. If she does need to park, she says she doesn’t mind paying but is concerned it’s not that easy for everyone. “I think that is just way too much to increase it at one time, and it is just going to continue to hurt the downtown businesses,” Wharton said. Right now, on-street parking costs 50 cents an hour. That could be bumped up to $1.50. The fines would also increase from $15 to $30. “We already have a little bit of a disconnect getting people to downtown … The biggest concern for us I think is that people have safe, accessible, easy and affordable parking to get to us,” said Jamie Southern, the executive director at Bookmarks. Southern worries some might not have the means to a smartphone. “I think that is a little exclusive and presumptive that we can assume everyone has the ability to do that,” Southern said. Others are fine with the changes as technology evolves. “It is fine. I am used to it. They are more expensive, so that is kind of the downside, but we are used to it,” said Caroline Moxley from Pfafftown. The city says the extra revenue will help with parking projects downtown. They hope the new price and process will increase parking availability because people can’t sit all day in a cheap spot. But the bottom line is the current system is not working, and they need to change it.  “We have gotten to a point now where our equipment is so dated and so broken ... We have so many challenges with just inviting folks to park,” said Jeff Fansler, the director of transportation for the City of Winston-Salem. It's a problem Moxley experienced first-hand on Wednesday. “We decided to come get some lunch at Foothills, and we tried to do street parking, but my meter is broken, so I put my 50 cents in, and it didn’t accept it or anything,” Moxley said. If the parking rules push anyone to change habits, the city hopes that means biking, walking, using public transit or carpooling downtown. “I think some people are going to just not want to mess with it, so they either won’t do it and park or avoid coming downtown, which is too bad because I think we need to build our downtown instead of chase people away,” Wharton said. The city council will vote on the changes at their meeting on Nov. 4. If approved, the city plans to move quickly and implement the changes by the spring.