T2 Reside Transforms Residential Permitting in the City of Aspen

Background

The City of Aspen, Colorado, a small resort town nestled in the Rockies, is known for its winter sports, ski resorts, seven 14,000-foot mountains, and up to 50,000 tourists in a day. It’s also home to more than 6,700 residents within approximately 3.7 square miles. The city also offers hiking, biking, and rafting in the summer, with fine dining and rich cultural arts throughout the year.

Like most municipal parking authorities, the City of Aspen Parking Department works to provide convenient, accessible parking for everyone. With a huge number of tourists and limited resources, the department ensures there is ample and appropriate parking for visitors and residents, with 681 on-street spaces in the city and 2,500 residential spaces. Long-time T2 customers, the progressive department was the first to try pay-and-display in North America, and the first to test T2 Flex^®.

Challenge

Short-staffed with the loss of many seasoned employees, Parking Programs Manager and 28-year department veteran Debbi Zell was working hard to ensure her department was hitting essential deadlines. A former office manager in healthcare, she had the experience of tackling disorganization and ensuring customer satisfaction.

With T2 Flex^®, the department continued to run smoothly. Every year, however, the team continued to face the challenges that come during residential permit season, particularly volume. Often hiring several temporary, seasonal employees to assist, the department had one month to issue permits for thousands of residents. As a paper-based permits operation, they were experiencing processing delays due to high volume compounded by time-consuming manual processes such as document filing and manual data entry. “It was very stressful,” Zell said. When fully staffed, three full-time staff members took three solid weeks to enter all data, and get permits issued for the year.

Zell and her limited staff were also becoming overwhelmed by the volume of residents visiting the office to have hang tags issued. Permit information could not be immediately available for patrons in real time, making parking enforcement difficult for officers. Even when permits became valid, enforcement was slow – each physical tag in every vehicle required a check. “There had to be a better way, and we wanted it done right,” Zell said. “I always welcome trying new processes, which I have explored alongside T2 over the years.”

Zell learned about T2 Reside, a residential permits solution that empowers patrons with self-service functionality while streamlining internal permit processes. As residential parking enforcement was paused for a year during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zell and her team were able to test T2 Reside as a solution.

“I didn’t choose T2 Reside,” Zell said. “It chose me.”

Solution

T2 Reside Interface The City of Aspen implemented T2 Reside in May 2020. With real-time information and seamless integration with T2 Flex^®, the department—from office staff to enforcement officers—are now up to date with permits and parking rights. Enforcement is more efficient, preventing transient parkers from occupying spaces in residential areas.

All permit-related documentation, including complete parker histories and disputes, is available in one convenient, organized location, creating efficiencies for operations and their users. T2 Reside can be used by any address- or zone-based permit system including university student housing, employee permits, and more.

In the application accessible from any device through a link or QR code, residents search to see if they live in a permit-eligible zone, then apply and pay. Once approved by the department, they are notified and can buy and use their virtual permits immediately. With T2 Reside, the time-consuming and inefficient tasks of the permit process are automated, including enforcement of permitted districts, verification of applicant addresses, and creation of virtual permits.

“T2 Reside has definitely been a game changer for us,” Zell said.

Results

T2 Reside transformed Aspen’s residential permitting process that saved the department time, resources, and expense. With a robust back end that creates efficiencies and organization for their operation, and a user-friendly and convenient portal for residents, the City of Aspen Parking Department has found great value in the solution. “T2 Reside provides us an easy view of permits we manage in our residential area,” Zell stated.

Issuing permits to residents is now a quick and easy process that has greatly improved the customer experience. Residents apply for a permit online, get approved by the department, and receive an email from Aspen with a prompt to activate their virtual permits. They are empowered with the ability to manage permits themselves, from the comfort of their own homes. “Residents don’t need to come into our office anymore,” Zell said. “I love that a resident can get right to the portal through a QR code, and doing the application online usually gives them same-day service. In addition, we receive visual information and history that helps us easily solve customer issues.”

Implementation of our residential parking software has allowed the department to reinvest time and money back into the operation. With more bandwidth and less foot traffic, Zell has been able to onboard and effectively train new staff. “The Reside solution has given us almost 75% of our time back that allows us to focus on other important projects,” she said. “It has made life so much easier, and I could never go back.”

The City of Aspen Parking Department is a long-time T2 customer and beta-testing partner because of our proven success, advanced technologies, and holistic service. Zell says that she can count on T2 to meet their evolving needs and help them reach their goals.

“T2 has the best parking management system there is,” she said. “Some companies do just a certain aspect of parking. T2 does everything and partners with all my vendors. They’re all-encompassing.”

“Aspen is a progressive city and so is T2. We like looking at new solutions and technologies, and they were interested in using our feedback to further develop their software.”

Zell credits T2 with helping her team meet the emerging needs of the city. “T2 has helped us grow in so many areas. I feel like my opinion matters,” Zell said. “We want to continue to use new technology to improve and manage parking better to reduce traffic and meet the needs of businesses and the community.”

The team is now testing QR codes on tickets so parkers can view their payment options. We look forward to their continued success and working on our next project with Aspen.

If you are interested in learning more about T2 Reside or other solutions, contact us to discuss how we can transform your operation.

About T2 Systems 

T2 is the largest provider of parking and mobility solutions in North America. With over 27 years in business, T2 now serves more than 2,000 customers and maintains the largest Customer Community with over 7,500 active members. T2 helps universities, municipalities, operators, healthcare campuses, and transportation hubs generate revenue and operate efficiently with a comprehensive, integrated suite of solutions featuring touchless and contactless capabilities. From curbside management to gateless, from mobile payments to transportation demand management, T2 strives to make every trip a smooth journey by streamlining the parking, mobility, and transportation experience with technology solutions that help organizations manage resources, achieve goals, and empower consumers with choices.