The old-west town of Deadwood is using modern technology to change the way visitors can pay for parking.
Gone are the days of having to dig for coins to feed the parking meters in Deadwood. Visitors can now use their smart phone to pay for parking with a credit or debit card instead of using coins. Visitors just need to create an account with PassportParking.com.
Deadwood’s Chief of Police Kelly Fuller says before the Passport Parking option was available in Deadwood, many visitors complained that they could only pay for two hours of parking at a time.
“Once that two hours was nearing completion they’d have to go back to their vehicles and put more money in the meter. This way they can do it with the simple convenience of their phone. Let’s say you use Passport and you put two hours of time on, Passport will send you a text message when your time is about to expire and then you can extend using your phone from whatever location you’re at within our community so you won’t have to actually physically walk back to the meter and plug it again,” says Fuller.
Chief Fuller says the same parking meters are still in place and visitors can still pay for parking with coins, but he says there is now a sticker on the meters with information on how to register with PassportParking.com.
“Our goal is to increase our customer service, to provide another option for our customers, and hopefully we keep people downtown longer to enjoy everything our community has to offer,” says Fuller.
Fuller says paid parking in Deadwood is enforced every day of the week from 8am until 8pm. Deadwood is the first city in South Dakota to implement the new Passport Parking option.
