News Release: Web platform to ease parking challenges in Pasadena


Ziba Design spin off Citifyd to extend parking app service to Pasadena. 

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Citifyd, the smart city technology company connecting people to parking providers and merchants, announced today an agreement with smart city development company P3GM  to facilitate private parking sharing in the city of Pasadena, California through the Citifyd shared parking solution.

The Citifyd platform will allow private commercial parking spot owners to list their unused and available spaces for a period of time and price of their choosing. Residents and visitors will then be able to book and pay for parking using the Citifyd mobile application. With the Citifyd platform, drivers will know where they’re parking before they go, and will be navigated directly to their spot. This will avoid the congestion and traffic that is created by people circling looking for parking, which is estimated to generate about 30% of inner city traffic.

By tapping into underutilized private parking spaces in Pasadena’s Central Business District, the city of Pasadena is encouraging additional visitors to the city’s business districts. By facilitating a much more “user friendly” parking experience for visitors, the program is expected to be a boon for local businesses. Through the Citifyd ecosystem, merchants can validate customer parking, further promoting commercial activity.

The first phase of the service is scheduled to go live in Pasadena in December, 2016. “We believe no one should waste precious time hunting for parking, and no merchant should ever lose a sale because of a lack of parking,” says Sohrab Vossoughi, co-founder of Citifyd and founder of innovation and design firm Ziba. “Through our agreement with P3GM, we are on our way to fulfill our mission of creating friction-free urban living.”

P3GM and the city announced their contract in May of this year, which marked the country’s first public-private partnership to solve urban parking challenges through the shared economy that does not cost the municipality any taxpayer money.

“Our goal is to foster public-private partnerships that promote smart city innovation and we’ve chosen Citifyd for its unrivalled potential to make everyday parking easier and more accessible, at no cost to the city of Pasadena,” says Jeff Thomashow, Director of Project Development at P3GM.

The Citifyd web and mobile parking platforms enable pre-purchased and on-demand parking creating greater convenience, less anxiety and more engaged consumers. The agreement in Pasadena follows a successful partnership with the Portland Trailblazers (NBA), the Portland Timbers (MLS) and the Rose Quarter event garages.

Citifyd plans to begin rolling out its services with public garages in popular commercial and entertainment districts in Portland, Oregon.