City of Detroit to Upgrade Its ParkDetroit App
City of Detroit To Upgrade Its ParkDetroit App
Improvements Will Empower Visitors With New Tools to Enhance Their Experience in the City
Today, the city of Detroit will launch its updated ParkDetroit app to make it one of the premier and technologically advanced municipal parking apps anywhere in the country. The revised app will depart from the original in every conceivable aspect, both in terms of functionality and capability.
“It’s important for us to match our world-class city with a world-class parking app,” said Keith Hutchings, director of the city’s municipal parking department. “The improvements to our ParkDetroit app will make it a one-of-a-kind system unlike anything else in the country. We must continue to push the envelope to ensure today’s sophisticated consumers have the means to make their lives easier, and we believe the revised ParkDetroit app does that.”
The new ParkDetroit app will give visitors the capacity to check parking availability in public and private garages, parking lots, and on-street metered parking. A new map interface will complement the parking zone concept found in the app’s original iteration, and it will allow users to zoom in and pinpoint a specific garage, parking lot, or on-street metered parking to check and compare pricing by the block.
Additionally, the new ParkDetroit app will allow visitors to prepay for parking in garages and some off-street parking lots. The app generates a QR code once the payment is made, which visitors would then use to scan to gain access to the garage or parking lot. What’s more, if visitors are planning a trip downtown for a specific event, the app gives them the ability to check for available parking using the name of the event or the venue in which the event is taking place. And if a visitor forgets their parking location after the event, the app can help navigate them back to their vehicle using turn-by-turn navigation.
Beyond parking, visitors to the app can also use it to help guide their entertainment plans, as it will include a list of events happening in the city.
Those who currently have the app on their smartphone will have to delete it and upload the new version. It will not automatically update. Those without a smartphone will have the ability to reserve and prepay for parking using the ParkDetroit.us website.
This is the first of three upgrade phases the city plans for the ParkDetroit app. The subsequent set of upgrades, which will include multi-modal transportation options, a merchant discount program, and other features, is scheduled for the first half of 2022. The city will house short tutorial videos on its ParkDetroit website to help visitors get acclimated to the new system.
City officials anticipate the new app will improve congestion by cutting down on visitors driving around looking for a parking space. They also expect that it will drive business activity among city retailers and businesses, as well as enhance the overall experience of visiting downtown.