The City of Clayton, MO blends a bustling business district with charming residential neighborhoods. As the county seat for St. Louis County, the City experiences swelling populations during the day (upwards of 46,000), and is one of the only municipalities in the region that manages on-street paid parking.
Partnership with Passport
Like many growing urban areas, the need to drive operational efficiencies and enhance both the staff and customer experiences led the City of Clayton to seek out a digital solution: one that is built upon enforcement and allows for holistic parking management.
Gary Carter, Director of Economic Development for the City of Clayton, first met the Passport team at one of IPMI’s annual conferences. After learning more about Passport’s solutions, Carter helped drive the City’s transition to a digital parking management system.
“Passport’s ability to facilitate integrations with other technologies and the ease of use were the driving factors for making the transition,” says Carter.
Increased Compliance with Mobile
In addition to revenue increases, the City of Clayton has also seen a significant increase in parking compliance. The availability of multiple payment options, especially the Passport Parking app, which allows parkers to pay on-the-go and manage sessions remotely, promotes convenience and reduces instances of parking violations.
“Having the app available gives people another convenient way to pay,” says Parking Supervisor for the City of Clayton, Ron Middleton. “If it’s easier for the parkers, they’re more likely to pay and compliance goes up.”
Another benefit to digitizing its enforcement operations is the ability for violators to easily resolve their citations online: In 2023, 98% of paid citations were paid within 90 days and 87% of those were paid online.
Since launching Passport’s Parking Management Software, the City has seen Passport Parking app utilization and parking revenue continue to grow: The number of app transactions has increased by 198% and parking revenue has grown 188% since the first full year of launch (2017 vs. 2023). In the past year alone, the City experienced a 17% increase in parking revenue (2022 vs. 2023).
Covering More Ground with LPR Technology
The City of Clayton’s municipal staff is small but mighty: There are three parking enforcement officers, including Middleton, covering an area of 2.5 square miles with more than 7.5 million square feet of office space. Before switching to a digital system, the team was handwriting enforcement tickets.
“That is a lot of area for three people to cover,” says Carter. “So that was really the impetus behind the switch to technology, especially License Plate Recognition technology.”
As part of Clayton’s strategic move to overhaul its parking and enforcement operations, the City transitioned from its previous enforcement provider to Passport. This upgrade allowed Clayton to integrate License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology into its enforcement toolkit, enabling the team of three to cover more ground while increasing accuracy in identifying violators.
“The switch to Passport’s enforcement solution has increased efficiency and compliance considerably, compared to the process we were using in the past,” says Carter.
A Scalable Solution
As the City looks ahead, its ultimate goal is to transition to a mobile-pay-only parking environment. “As parking hardware ages, it becomes increasingly expensive to maintain, not only in capital costs, but in operational costs with staffing,” explains Carter. Slowly transitioning away from meters will help the City reallocate funds more efficiently.
Passport’s platform is trusted by cities of all sizes to power and operate digital payments for parking, enforcement and permitting, providing them with real-time mobility data in a centralized place. Its scalable nature allows for seamless integrations, so as the City of Clayton’s needs evolve, Passport’s technology can adapt and grow alongside them.