Parking Made Easy in Buffalo! Passport and Mayor Brown Announce the Official Launch of Mobile Parking App

Mayor Byron W. Brown rolled out a new Citywide mobile parking application, called “Buffalo Roam”, which went live today. Over the Memorial holiday weekend, city parking crews installed signs and decals on the sides of meters, listing new zone numbers, as part of a new custom citywide mobile parking application. The new signs and decals identify each of the designated parking blocks with a distinctive six- digit zone code. Mayor Brown, the Buffalo Common Council and the City’s Parking Department, worked closely with global parking app leader, Passport, to create “Buffalo Roam”, a customized parking app specific to the Buffalo community.

“We’ve launched a citywide customized pay-by-app parking application to keep up with the increasing demand, further improve the downtown experience and improve parking operations,” said Mayor Brown. “Buffalo Roam is the latest example of our work to continue to enhance parking and driving in Buffalo. Passport’s advanced mobile payment technology is the clear industry-leader and they were the best choice for developing our official Buffalo parking app.”

This system, the latest in a series of advances to improve the ease and efficiency of parking in Buffalo, allows motorists to forego coin/credit card payments at the meters, and instead pay on the go with their mobile device. The technology will also warn motorists when their time is about to expire through the app, and gives parkers the Flexibility to extend their parking session (up to the maximum allotted time).

The parking app provides users with the ability to park, pay, manage, and extend their parking session through their smartphone. In conjunction with the City’s Parking Department, the new “Buffalo Roam” app will allow parkers to:

• Pay for parking using a debit/credit card
• Receive alerts when parking session is about to expire
• Extend parking session remotely
• View parking history
• Receive email receipts
• Get traffic and parking updates & alerts

Beginning today, May 30, 2017, “Buffalo Roam” is available for download at no cost. To download, go to www.city-buffalo.com. The City of Buffalo website will include more information about registration and FAQs, as well as incentives for the first 1,000 potential pay-by-app users who sign up for “Buffalo Roam”.

“Passport is extremely proud to partner with a City that is both rich in history and progressive in its outlook on technology and the future of the region. This initiative will help to stimulate new ideas and ways to advance the community, beyond the traditional methods of mobility, payment and planning,” said Conor Kelly, Regional Director at Passport. “We are witnessing the resurgence of a great City and we are thrilled to be a part of it.”
Passport powers the parking apps of other large cities, including Boston, Chicago, Toronto, Detroit, Portland, Miami, and most recently Westminster, U.K. and has been a pioneer of the private label application. In the state of New York, Passport has successfully implemented in White Plains and will be coming soon to the capital City of Albany.
The Buffalo Roam app is free to download from the App Store and Google Play and parkers can also manage their parking online at www.BuffaloRoamApp.com.

About Passport

Passport is North America’s leading mobile technology company specializing in enterprise business applications and payments for the public and private sector. Passport's product lines--parking payments, transit payments, enforcement and permit management--collectively serve to deliver dynamic tools for agencies to better connect with their communities. Its services have been adopted by over 20 of the top 50 cities in North America and over 2,000 locations including Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Portland, and Miami. Passport’s mission is to reduce operational complexity and deliver intelligent data to improve decision making for its clients.

Passport is backed by a group of investors, including Grotech Ventures, Relevance Capital, and MK Capital. For more information, please visit www.passportinc.com.