Paying for Parking in Central Square Gets Easier

The City of Cambridge announced the expansion of the Passport parking app to the Central Square area as a way for drivers to pay for metered parking

Beginning on September 25, visitors to Central Square will be able to use the Passport parking application at all the square’s metered parking spaces, including the City’s off-street metered parking lots. This expansion is taking place following the successful Harvard Square pilot that launched in December 2016.
 
“People who park in Cambridge have high expectations for customer service and convenience, and deploying – and now expanding – the availability of the Passport mobile pay app is critical to trying to meet those expectations,” said Joseph Barr, Cambridge’s Director of Traffic, Parking, and Transportation. “Passport has been a great partner to our city and has helped us offer an innovative way of paying for parking.”
 
With the app, users can: 

• Purchase parking using a debit/credit card
• Monitor their session 
• Extend their stay remotely (up to the maximum allotted time)
• View all parking history

 “The Passport parking program has been very successful,” said Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager. “We’re always working to provide a customer -friendly experience to our residents, business, and visitors. Passport has allowed drivers to quickly and conveniently pay and manage their parking fees from their phones.”
 
Since the Passport parking mobile pay option launched in Harvard Square last December, there have been over 160,000 transactions to pay for parking, averaging about 18,000 transactions a month. The City of Cambridge is excited to now offer this mobile payment option to its residents and visitors who come to the Central Square area for both business and pleasure, and to continue expanding the program citywide in the coming months. 
 
Cambridge is among several Massachusetts cities and towns that are using the Passport service, including Salem, Acton, Springfield, Newburyport, and Haverhill. Passport also powers the ParkBoston mobile pay app in the City of Boston, and users can also use the ParkBoston app to pay for parking in Cambridge
 
Cambridge plans to expand the app to the city’s over 3,000 metered parking locations by the end of 2017. 
 
The PassportParking app is free to download from the iPhone App Store and Android Google Play. Users can also manage their parking online at www.ppprk.com.