Pay-by-phone parking app comes to Columbia

A new pay-by-phone parking app is coming to Columbia Monday allowing residents and visitors to use mobile parking payment technology in all of the city’s 5,000 parking spaces.

City officials announced that the app Passport will now give smartphone users a much simpler option when paying for a parking meter. The app will also notify users before their time expires, allow them to extend their parking session up until the maximum allotted time and validate their parking at participating locations.

“This installation of Passport is a large component of the city’s initiatives to revamp our parking program,” Columbia Parking Director John Spade said in a statement. “We know that parkers in Columbia will embrace this upgrade in technology, and it will make the process of parking one less thing to think about.”

The company has also launched the “Catch the Comet” app, which allows bus riders to pay for their bus pass and display payment information directly from the app on their phone.

The Charlotte-based company has been launched in over 1,000 locations throughout Canada and the U.S., including cities such as Chicago, Boston, Tuscon and Charleston.

The app is now available for download, and users can begin using it immediately, officials said. It can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play. The city’s parking meters will also display signage instructing users to download the app. Smartphone users can also use the new service by setting up an account at the app’s website.

This story was originally published August 3, 2015 at 8:54 AM with the headline "Pay-by-phone parking app comes to Columbia."