Nestled in the high plains of northern Colorado is Greeley, a city filled with rich culture, art and history. Despite being named one of the nation’s fastest growing metropolitan areas, Greeley still upholds a small town charm. Its impressive attractions and entertainment draw thousands of tourists in every year, and in 2018 the city estimated more than 436,000 visitors came through, contributing tremendously to the local economy.

THE PROBLEM

Greeley’s siloed parking operations and manual processes led to disorganization and customer service issues:

• Visitors and residents struggled to find available parking
• No accountability in citations
• Manual permit issuance
• Outdated backend operations

The city’s parking enforcement was managed by the police department. Manual tire chalking was the primary method used which proved to be ineffective– officers struggled to enforce in wet environments, vehicle owners easily altered chalking marks and there was no way to identify other vehicle issues, such as outstanding unpaid tickets or repeat offenders. An analysis by the city revealed that the top 20 repeat offenders owed $26,000 in parking tickets.

Greeley’s permit issuance was manual and time consuming. Permit holders utilized physical hang tags and records were housed in outdated spreadsheets. All of the city’s parking operations were managed in separate, disconnected systems which made it difficult to easily analyze data.

THE SOLUTION

The city recognized the need to consolidate their parking operations and to implement a modern parking management solution. After an organization restructure, and with neighboring cities such as Cheyenne, Fort Collins and Grand Junction utilizing Passport’s technology, Greeley enlisted Passport’s help to implement a solution for all facets of its parking operation.

Increased Parking Availability

After the implementation of new technology and parking management tools, Greeley saw a significant increase in parking availability in lots and on-street parking throughout the city. By offering a “pay to stay” parking option, parkers had options. They could park for free for two hours then extend their parking seamlessly through the Passport Parking app.

“Everybody from twenty-year-olds to seventy-year olds have responded positively to the app. A lot of the excitement around parking now is about availability, which Passport definitely played a part in.” – Will Jones, Public Works Deputy Director, City of Greeley.

Faster & More Accurate Enforcement

Armed with a real-time enforcement system, Greeley has been able to eliminate manual tire chalking and can now enforce digitally. The city’s LPR (License Plate Recognition) technology allows Greeley to have more accountability in the enforcement space and to cover more ground in a fraction of the time. The city estimates each officer in an LPR vehicle can scan 3,000-4,000 license plates per day.

The technology also gives the new Parking Services division the ability to track abandoned vehicles, alleviating this responsibility from the Police Department and allowing them to focus on community safety. Officers can easily access data in the Passport back office and pull reports to use for evidence in appeals cases. This new and improved enforcement has also encouraged those with permits to park in their identified lots, which has truly helped with availability as shown in the images below.

Elimination of Hang Tags

Instead of going to City Hall to pick up a physical hang tag, permit holders can conveniently apply for a permit online through the Passport permit system. This has streamlined the city’s permit process by eliminating the need to manually enter information for nearly 500 permitted parking stalls. Because of Greeley’s integrated parking operations, the city can manage a waitlist, automate renewals and turn down anyone with outstanding parking tickets from applying for a permit.

One Partner, One Back Office System

When searching for a parking management vendor, Greeley was attracted to Passport’s ability to integrate parking with other areas of its transportation ecosystem. Having one vendor to manage it all allows for Greeley’s vision to become a reality.

“My advice to other municipalities is to look for a good partner that is going to be receptive. Passport has filled that gap for us.” – Will Jones, Public Works Deputy Director, City of Greeley