Portland Launches Mobile Parking Payment App, Parking Kitty, Powered by Passport

Portland, Oregon is changing the city’s parking experience. Doing away with a few of the hassles traditionally associated with city parking, Portland has launched Parking Kitty, a mobile payment app powered by Passport, the global leader in mobile payments for parking and transit. The mobile application will also be available throughout the region at Washington Park and Portland State University.

Parking Kitty is like a meter in your pocket. More convenient than paying at the meter or worrying if you’ll make it back before your time expires, Parking Kitty utilizes the industry’s most advanced parking technology, offering parking payment, reminders, and parking extension options to simplify paying for parking. The app will be available at 15,000 parking spaces across the city of Portland.

“We want it to be easy to pay for parking in Portland. We also want it to be fun. Parking Kitty helps us do both. As a mobile app, it makes it convenient for Portlanders and visitors to pay for parking. We chose the name to reflect some of our city’s creativity and hopefully bring a smile to Portland’s drivers,” said Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Leah Treat. “We want it to be simple and efficient to find and pay for parking because well-managed on-street parking is good for drivers, good for business and good for our transportation system.”

Why did Portland choose the name, Parking Kitty? A community with a unique culture needed a standout product to match. The name also represents a play on words, in that “kitty” refers to a pool or reserve of money. Additionally, the city is extremely welcoming to cats and it wanted to celebrate that culture.

Portland has made significant investments to better understand the city's parking needs and strategize for its growing population. With estimates of Portland households growing by 122,000 and daily trips an additional 1.2 million by 2035, Parking Kitty allows the City to continue its renowned quality of life while growing gracefully.

“Our goal at Passport is to help our clients take the stress and inefficiency out of parking and transit through our innovative payment platform,” said Bob Youakim, CEO at Passport. “We’re proud to serve and partner with the City of Portland to introduce this new service to their community and create a customized and seamless parking experience.”

The Parking Kitty app is free to download from the App Store and Google Play and parkers can also manage their parking online at parkingkitty.com. Parking Kitty signage is being displayed at Portland parking locations, which will direct parkers to download the app.

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.