Windsor parking app averages 8-11% use in its first year, hits 60K transactions

Windsor's city parking app has reached 60,000 uses after a year.

The Passport Canada app was launched December 2017. While coins are still accepted at parking meters, people are able to pay with a credit card with the app as well as extend the parking time remotely.

"We knew drivers would appreciate the convenience of no longer needing to search for change to park, but the uptake and feedback have been even better than we anticipated," said Bill Kralovensky, parking compliance and enforcement supervisor.

He said when students are around, usage is more than 11 per cent. However, during the summer when they're not in town, usage drops to less than 8 per cent.

Last year, the city signed a three-year deal with PassportParking Inc. for a cost of $18,000 a year to implement the service. The cost includes the app, cost of licensing the app and new enforcement tools.

One of those enforcement tools is a smart phone with a Bluetooth printer to allow parking enforcement officers to do "real-time" ticketing. Kralovensky said the parking ticket can be seen in the Passport Canada app and users can pay their tickets through the app, or dispute it.

"Before what would happen, the officers would be on the streets from 7 a.m. until midnight. We wouldn't be able to see or act upon any of those tickets until they were downloaded into a mainframe the next morning," he said.

Early next year, the city will also begin rolling out a system that allows officers to check if a vehicle has a permit to be parking in certain locations, according to Kralovensky.

"If you don't happen to have it display, we can see from our end that you do have a permit. We can issue you a warning instead just a ticket."