Parking problems at University of Hawai’i at Mānoa are hard to solve due to the range of types of campus commuters, according to a company that is helping the university improve its parking issues.
“Your university parking is complex, annoyingly complex, but is so for a reason,” said Charles Debow, senior vice president of U.S. sales and partnership at JustPark. “No other place do you deal with so many groups of parkers, and all of them have different roles with different needs, so communication has always been a struggle on a university campus.”
This semester, UH Mānoa launched a new parking system in collaboration with JustPark, based in London. The app promises to streamline how visitors park and pay by moving the process completely to commuters’ smartphones.
The system allows visitors to scan a QR code and use the updated signage to pay for parking hassle free, said Debow, who has been conducting the training and assisting the University with the debut of the program.
JustPark has not released any data regarding the app’s usage but said the early numbers are what they expected and is a positive sign.
“It’s been a really great addition as this is particularly for visitor parking. It’s part of a bigger picture for commuter services to really make parking more efficient, and enhance the visitor experience to campus,” said Marc Arakaki, UH Mānoa spokesperson.
The change in procedure is gradually being adopted by frequent visitors to campus.
Cameron Pires, a graduate who now works for UH, visits Mānoa on a daily basis after working at other UH campuses. During her time attending the University as a student, she said, it was not uncommon to wait in lengthy lines to pay for parking and see people running back and forth at the beginning of each semester.
As a first time JustPark user, she expressed her initial confusion as the University still has the old pay stations. These kiosks now act as a beacon and display board for the new signage.
“It was a little confusing because there was still a pay station, so unless you look up, you wouldnʻt know itʻs a QR code,” said Pires.
The University of Hawai’i and JustPark established this partnership to upgrade the existing parking technology on the Mānoa campus and to serve visitors and the UH community. There are hopes for expanding the current project in the future.
“The University decided to jump all in and remove the ability to have to pay at the machine. Those were big maintenance problems for the university and cost the university a lot of money. Moving all digital, it made sense to rip the band-aid off,” said Debow.
This work dates back to 2023 as UH was working with Parkhub focusing on events and games. When the U.S.-based Parkhub and London-based JustPark merged, a new opportunity was born allowing its debut in the U.S.
“The partnership with JustPark is a three year contract that was sought out in order to replace the pay stations with modern technology,” shared Arakaki.
While JustPark and the Office of Communications have worked to inform the public about the new parking system, Debow explained that a different way of informing the public will be through the departments.
“As part of hosting an event, and part of the ‘Know Before you go’ details, departments can be linking the university website so the communication between departments and the university should get better as well. They should feel comfortable sending that information out so their visitor experience gets elevated,” Debow said.
