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As COVID restrictions are lifted, the United States is seeing historic numbers of travelers on the road and in the air. July 4 travel alone is up 40% from a year ago, with 47 million people traveling across the country. In a recent survey conducted by AirBnB, the home-sharing company found that more than half of attendees said they were looking to reserve driving distance from their homes, a trend that peaked during the COVID spike. Tourist destinations across the country are seeing an influx of people looking for a nearby getaway. This means an increase in the number of people parked, permits purchased and of course quotes written in these destination towns. Passport’s end-to-end digital platform helps multiple cities manage their mobility operations during the summer vacation season with its mobile paid parking, digital authorization and digital app solutions.
A familiar way to park
Paying mobile parking continues to gain popularity after COVID, as many people look for ways to pay contactless for parking. With the Passport Parking Application, towns and villages across the country are able to offer an easy, convenient and familiar way to pay for parking. Take Provincetown, Massachusetts located on Cape Cod for example. During the high season, the population of the small island increases from 3,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. With only 1,200 spaces, parking can be difficult. With Passport, however, the city is able to promote a simple and secure way to pay for parking and encourage traffic in spaces. According to city officials, tourists often say they are already using the Passport Parking app, which makes parking easy and convenient, ultimately helping to increase parking compliance.
More parking options for out of town visitors
In addition to the Passport Parking application, Passport’s digital platform also supports an open parking ecosystem through API access. This means that people can pay for their parking using the mobile apps they already use in their daily life. A tourist, for example, would not have to download and enter their information into a new application. Austin, Texas, a city that has seen an increase in tourist numbers over the past decade, allows residents and visitors to pay through Google Maps, a feature powered by Passport. “By giving people the ability to use the apps they already have on their devices to pay for parking, people can get to the places they care about faster, †said Gina Fiandaca, deputy municipal director. “We are working hard to make the parking system easier for residents and visitors to Austin.
Streamlined execution processes
To pursue unpaid quotes can be a difficult process, especially during peak tourist season when visitors from out of town make up a large percentage of the population. Kennebunkport, Maine, for example, used to manually search the addresses of violators and deliver outstanding ticket letters by mail. In a city with more visitors than inhabitants during high season, correlating tickets, tracking in a spreadsheet, sending to town hall and then posting was a full-time job. The Passport system can automate this manual process through integrations with the DMV and has saved the Kennebunkport team 15 hours per week during peak season.
Ease of searching for rental car offenses
As the number of rental cars on the road has declined during COVID, we are already seeing that the rebound in air travel will positively impact the rental car industry. The quotes associated with rental cars can cause serious headaches for fulfillment departments in tourist towns, as the plaques are associated with rental companies, not individual renters. Passport offers integration with WILL SEE. This allows Passport to get driver information for quotes issued to rental cars so cities can send letters and collect payment of the driver of the car at the time the citation was issued. If the driver information is not transferred to Passport, the rental company processor VERRA will pay the citation on behalf of the rental car company / driver within weeks.
To learn more about how Passport’s digital platform can help your city, contact us today.
About the passport
Passport puts cities in motion, helping to create more livable and more equitable communities. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Passport is a transportation software company, which provides the operating system that enables cities to manage vehicle interactions with streets and sidewalks. With Passport, city leaders increase convenience, efficiency and compliance today and in the future. Recognized by more than 1,000 cities, universities and agencies, including Chicago, Toronto, London, Los Angeles and Miami, Passport is one of the fastest growing companies on the Inc. 5000 and Deloitte Technology Fast 500 lists and has named Fast The world’s most innovative companies for 2020.
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