Originally appeared on CR80 News

Michigan joins growing mobile pay-for-park user base

February 9, 2016

By: Andrew Hudson

The University of Michigan is the latest university to climb on board with mobile pay-for-park, with the implementation of the Passport app for students and campus visitors.

The Passport mobile app enables drivers to pay for parking directly from a smartphone, as well as manage their meter time from any phone, tablet or computer on hand. Users can extend their parking session from the app without having to walk back to the parking pay station.

“The use of this evolving technology to provide an additional method of payment for our students, visitors and guests offers not only convenience and efficiency for those parking, but potential savings from reduced operating and maintenance costs for the University,” says Diane DeLaTorre, Associate Director of Parking Operations and Maintenance at the University of Michigan. “Card payment now comprises up to 80% of the payments received at our typical visitor parking location, so now is the right time to introduce the Passport app.”

The Passport app is free to download for Michigan students and is ready for immediate use. Once parked, signs in the campus parking lots will instruct users to download the PassportParking app via Apple’s App Store or Android Google Play. Smartphone users can also use the new service by going to ppprk.com to create an account.

The app, which is active now, will be piloted on 144 parking spaces at Michigan’s North Campus Lot, but will eventually expand to all 850 parking spaces on campus.

Passport’s mobile payment systems are deployed in 47 states and provinces across the US and Canada, with deployments of the mobile payment services in a number of large cities including Detroit, Boston, Toronto, Chicago and Salt Lake City. In Michigan, Passport has also developed the ParkDetroit app, a mobile payment application made specifically for Detroit parking.