ParkRTC Developer Has Big Plans for Reston Town Center

RESTON, VA — The ParkRTC app has been delayed until early 2017 as Boston Properties gets to work trying to better explain -- in their words -- what exactly they're bringing to Reston.

Patch.com is speaking to people involved in the project, who are invited to fully explain what the platform brings to Reston residents. In today's edition, we interview Daniel Bliley, Director of Marketing for Passport, the company that developed the ParkRTC app itself. Passport is based in Charlotte, N.C., and has produced similar apps for multiple cities nationwide.

Where else are Passport apps used in the United States?

Bliley: Passport is used in a variety of markets across the country. Park Chicago is one of our flagship pay for parking apps. There's Park Boston, Detroit, Omaha, Toronto, we're in Salt Lake City -- it's used in a very similar fashion to how it would be used in Reston Town Center. Once you park your vehicle, you would have the option of paying through a mobile app versus having to use a credit card.

What's different about ParkRTC compared to what you offer in some of the other cities?

Bliley: There are some differences in terms of some functionality and features we've implemented specifically for Boston Properties. When we have the opportunity to private-label -- what we mean by that is branding and customizing certain features to a client -- that gives us the opportunity to do specific things with it. So there are some integrations, like LiveSafe. Having that be integrated into the app is something that's unique here in this specific location. This is one of the only integrations we have with LiveSafe. (For more on LiveSafe, click here.)

Reston residents are greatly concerned about privacy with this app. What can you tell them to reassure them that their personal information is safe?

Bliley: I think in general when it comes to applications, pretty much any one that you download is going to ask for certain things to enable the app to work. I use Nike run apps, and every time I launch the app, it's tracking the neighborhoods I'm running in. It's part of the nature of applications. It is optional, so you don't have to use these things. We take very stringent precautions to safeguard credit card information and to safeguard personal information. We require multi-factor authentication, and none of this is really identifiable. We're not collecting names, social security numbers or anything like that. It's very low on the level of information that's provided.

Is any information collected through the app sold to third parties at any point?

Bliley: No, we currently do not sell any client information to third parties.

What future plans do you have for the ParkRTC app?

Bliley: With this app, it's really about the entire experience someone is going to have at Reston Town Center. Parking is really the beginning of that journey. You're going to shop, to eat and do a variety of different activities. We'll start that journey with the parking app, and end that journey with the parking app. Allowing you to dine in a restaurant and get parking discounted is certainly something that would be very unique to Reston Town Center. That's certainly something that is the future, and is going to be a big part of that experience.

Paid parking is scheduled for implementation in January, is that when ParkRTC will be fully functional?

Yes. January is the go-live date. The actual payment and functionality of the application will be live in January.