Need parking during Hawkeye football games? This app can help
A new app, Drivewayz, hopes to give Iowa City more parking options on game days, while allowing residents near Kinnick Stadium to make a little extra money.
Saturday, November 10, 2018. Fans tailgate in the Adler parking lot for the Iowa vs Northwestern game.
September 26, 2019
Football game days are busy and filled with crowds of people all with the same goal: attempting to travel to and from the stadium. For fans who drive, there are often problems when scouring the area for parking spots.
A new mobile app, Drivewayz, aims to solve the problem of parking on game days by allowing users to rent out parking spaces in their driveways near Kinnick Stadium.
The app is currently in its pre-launching stage in Iowa City, hoping to allow residents living near the stadium to make a little extra money by selling a parking space for the rest of the games this year.
Initially founded in Boulder, Colorado, Drivewayz manifested in a commercially viable version of the app in San Diego last July, Chief Operating Officer Carter Strickling said.
The creative minds behind the app are in the process of increasing usage and running in the Iowa City area, Strickling said. The application began with a focus on urban areas that typically see large crowds for concerts and sporting events, he added.
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“People on the app, they get to know exactly where they’re parking instantly,” Strickling said. “Then the community receives less traffic, just because parking generates a significant amount of traffic.”
More specifically, the Drivewayz team works on connecting with students at universities to alleviate parking issues on game days, Strickling said. The search for a University of Iowa student liaison to encourage people in the area to use the app is currently in the works.
The owner of the parking space can set their own price, Strickling said. However, the app uses an algorithm to keep prices competitive with the public markets in the area, he said.
Iowa City residents or landlords living near Kinnick already sell parking spaces at their homes on Hawkeye game days, UI student Emily Rossiter said.
Rossiter lives near the stadium and said she frequently faces the challenge of traveling between her home and her work on game day. Usually, her landlord rents out the parking spots in the driveway if she or her roommates will not be home, Rossiter said.
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With Drivewayz, Rossiter said, residents such as herself could likely sell their parking spots personally instead of via landlord, and it could also make the parking situation more organized.
“It seems like everyone tries to fill up literally every square inch of their yard [and] of their driveway for people to park in,” Rossiter said. “It’s just a mess.”
As part of their expansion process, Drivewayz connects with students at colleges across the country, the app’s student liaison at Colorado State University Carter Blink said.
Students involved with the business are responsible for going door to door handing out flyers and talking to people with homes near stadiums and event centers, Blink said.
The app is also working towards a sponsorship with an energy drink, he said. The ultimate goal is to hand out energy drinks to students and encourage them to download the app, Blink said. Drivewayz will hopefully alleviate general parking issues at universities across the country, he said.
“I personally believe Drivewayz could be as big as [an] Uber or Lyft type of app,” Blink said. “I think that parking is just a giant problem.”
