Portland’s Innovative Parking App Earns Transportation Award

PORTLAND, OR - From The Portland Bureau of Transportation: The Portland chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) International is pleased to announce the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s Parking Kitty as the 2017 WTS Innovative Transportation Solution award winner. The Parking Kitty project team will be honored at the Portland Chapter’s 32nd Anniversary Winter Gala at the Downtown Portland Embassy Suites on December 7, 2017 at 5:30 p.m.

The Innovative Transportation Solution award is given to a project with notable leadership and involvement by women that has been particularly innovative from initiation to completion. The Parking Kitty mobile app gives Portlanders the option to pay for parking with their mobile phones. The multi-faceted initiative, which included developing a new system and protocols to integrate the mobile parking app into Portland’s parking enforcement program, creating a strong brand identity and a marketing and communications campaign to bring the app to Portlanders, was led entirely by women.

The successful launch of Parking Kitty in May 2017 led to a six percent adoption rate of the app by the end of August. Parking transactions using the app rose from six percent in August to over 13 percent by mid-November, following the release of the Parking Kitty rap and music video starring Portland artist Moshow the Cat Rapper.

“The launch of Parking Kitty has been a first step for PBOT into a new era of parking management and technology,” said Transportation Director Leah Treat. “We’re honored to win this award from WTS and thrilled to have a happy pink kitty icon and a tremendously talented cat rapper leading us towards the future of parking in Portland.”

Registration information for the Winter Gala and award ceremony can be found on the WTS Portland website: http://www.wtsinternational.org/portland//events/2017-winter-gala2/

Image courtesy of The Portland Bureau of Transportation