The days of turning out pockets for spare change while running late for class are over at USC for students with smartphones. University officials announced Tuesday that anyone parking on campus can now pay by the hour using the Passport Parking app.
Derrick Huggins, USC's vice president of facilities and transportation, praised the move to embrace a new technology.
“We anticipate this addition will help our students, facility, staff and visitors find parking and enjoy our campus even easier than before," he said in a release announcing the change.
Passport is available for free for both Apple and Android devices. Drivers register their car and a credit card then enter their parking "zone" to pay for their metered spot. Users can also set up notifications for when their time is about to run out and can add time from the app.
The City of Columbia adopted the same system in 2015.