Uptown Normal is upgrading payment system in parking decks

Posted on December 14, 2023

*Signage with QR codes for the app is being put up in all three parking decks now, but the change won’t officially start until January 2. (WJBC file photo)*

NORMAL – All three parking decks in Uptown Normal will be getting an upgraded parking system that requires an app.

The current gated entry to the parking decks will cease to exist. The system that is currently in place, and that is original to the decks, will no longer be manufactured after December 2023. This has caused all three parking decks to start implementing a new system.

The new system will be a gateless entry that now has license plate scanners. Drivers will download the Passport Parking app to pay for the time they park there. There is still an option to pay with cash at the Uptown Station, but that can occasionally cause a longer wait time, especially when trains and buses are unloading.

Director of Communications, Cathy Oloffson, said that the change will create an ease is use and flow of the parking deck. “So when the system, the current system goes down, which does happen from time to time. Then we end up with bottlenecks and some traffic jams. This new system is a gateless entry, that will no longer happen.”

Signage with QR codes for the app is being put up in all three parking decks now, but the change won’t officially start until January 2.

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