45 minute read
ASK THE EXPERTS
Circling for parking creates congestion and frustrates both drivers and parking and mobility professionals. What step or steps do you think can be taken to reduce the phenomenon and help people find parking without the circles?
Keith Hutchings
Director, Municipal Parking Department City of Detroit The City of Detroit redeployed its “ParkDetroit” application in December 2021 to provide the consumer with awareness of public and private parking availability and pricing. The service promotes the ability to purchase or reserve parking sessions with a single platform. Mobility options will be added in early 2022. The application is scaled to expand inclusion of multiple municipalities in the metropolitan Detroit region, including the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
Tiffany Peebles
Director Parking Authority of River City, Ky. Technology is our best friend to navigate the challenges of finding parking. Developing websites, apps, or partnerships with wayfinding solutions can assist parkers in improving their chances of locating available spaces as they arrive to their destinations.
Ben Wesley, CAPP
Market President, Nashville Premium Parking Simple solutions are most often the best solutions. Circling decreases when the public are given a venue and event webpage that shows the closest parking locations and occupancy, which syncs with a native payment app, which gives directions and real-time occupancy/availability, measured by sensor and/ or crowdsourced feedback. Street-level signage for additional transparency into occupancy/availability aids in guiding the car to rest in the stall and getting the parker on their way to enjoy the real reason for their trip.
Larry J. Cohen, CAPP
Executive Director Lancaster Parking Authority Operations and technology will continue to play a critical role in reducing vehicles circling the block looking for space. For operations, follow best practices and try to maintain 20 percent availability per block at all times. This can be done through effective on- and off-street pricing strategies. Mobile apps, sensors, navigation platforms, and in-car guidance systems are moving toward not only providing available garage space but on-street space based in real time.
Casey Jones, CAPP, PMP
Director, Customer Success FLASH
Cities are getting smarter— consumers are tech savvy but parking is still too often an afterthought. Mobile parking reservations, for example, will go a long way in improving the predictability parkers want while reducing endless searching for parking that needlessly exacerbates congestion.
/HAVE A QUESTION? Send it to editor@parking-mobility.org and watch this space for answers from the experts.
Roamy R. Valera, CAPP
CEO, North America PayByPhone Visibility to accurate data is key to addressing and managing traffic congestion caused by the search of a parking space. When there is clear visibility to parking environments, users will manage to find their way, transact with less friction, and ultimately get to their destination.
Katherine Beaty
VP Implementation TEZ Technology In the future I think this will be solved by having our vehicles linked into parking so that when you arrive to a particular destination, your vehicle will ask you if you want parking and then direct you to where the open space(s) are located and inform you of the rate and pay for it all within your vehicle. The vehicle will be the next “smartphone”.
Erik Nelson, PCIP
Director of Operations and Technology Consulting Walker Consultants
Communication is the key to parking happiness and reducing circling. Since parking does not selfgenerate demand, the entities that do generate that parking demand should be communicating parking availability. Technology and sound operating practices can help with the rest by measuring and reporting on parking availability in a way that is easily interpreted by users of the parking. Additionally, TDM policies can help to reduce singleoccupant vehicle usage.
Scott C. Bauman, CAPP
Manager of Parking & Mobility Services City of Aurora, Colo. Unnecessary circling can be minimized if cities can successfully leverage emerging technologies to manage and optimize the supply and demand of parking in real time. Employing on-demand solutions to eliminate the critical information gap of knowing where and when a parking space is available is essential. In addition, removing the economic incentive to circle by pricing the on-street stalls noticeably higher than the off-street offerings can create a meaningful impact on congestion and overall parking availability.
James Anderson
Market Development Manager, Building Solutions Teams MBCC Group On-street meter pricing strategies coupled with wayfinding apps and parking location signage are means of directing the driving public to safe and convenient parking. The circling for parking space phenomenon can also be minimized by efficient design and identification of street drop-off and pickup locations for TNC ride sharing services.
Bringing Understanding Cruising Phenomenonto the
Cruising Phenomenon
New FHWA tool to enable cities to measure and ultimately reduce parking cruising
By Dr. Rachel Weinberger; Dr. Adam Millard-Ball; Dr. Robert Hampshire; Allen Greenberg; Dr. Tayo Fabusuyi; and Ellis Calvin
IT HAS BEEN STUBBORNLY DIFFICULT for city officials to gain a good understanding of where, when, and why cruising for parking occurs. Often, based on anecdotal evidence, cities have conducted surveys of drivers and/or set up monitoring systems based, for example, on license plate recognition, to study cruising in places where they already believe parking to be a problem. Where a problem is identified, some cities have implemented performance pricing at the curb—raising the meter prices until an available space is almost ensured. Under this policy scenario. the thinking is that no one would have to look for parking but rather would only have to be willing to pay for it. The truth, however, turns out to be more complex.
Defining Cruising
The first challenge is to define cruising. For this project we determined a trip to be cruising if the driver took an indirect path to their parking destination. In the following illustration we show an actual path and the most direct path a driver could have taken. Given the relative lengths of the direct path and the path taken, we assign this trip a high probability that the driver is searching for parking.
Finding the Reasons
The next challenge is that cruising is only sometimes caused by an overall lack of parking availability. Cruising in traffic often occurs for reasons unrelated to parking search, such as when ride-hail and taxi drivers are seeking their next fare. Thus, when evaluating parking-related solutions, cruising for non-parking reasons needs to first be identified, and later studied and understood separately from parking related cruising. Parking-related cruising may occur for any number of reasons, including if available parking isn’t of the desired “flavor.” For example, if the regulation of a particular spot includes a time limit (meters often do) and the person wanting to park needs a space for longer than allowed, then that availability is not useful to that driver. Alternatively, if some parking is free and other parking isn’t,
Figure 1.
some drivers will bypass paid parking and cruise in the hopes of finding free parking.
Research by the authors of this article has shown that frequently (about 50 percent of the time in a San Francisco study) a driver searching for parking is looking for the “right kind of parking.” We showed that in about half of the cases, a driver identified as looking for parking would bypass an available meter and continue their search. Other research by this group has shown that parking scarcity— real or perceived—could lead to drivers taking a spot ahead of their destination, thereby, resulting in less driving.
In our research in Seattle, meanwhile, a recent meter price hike, though intended to enhance availability and decrease cruising, was followed by an increase in cruising trips that ended on a metered block. Higher meter prices likely made free parking on the surrounding unmetered blocks much more coveted and harder to find, thus while leading more drivers to cruise for free parking also led to more failure (meaning that drivers go back to parking at the meters). After the meter increase, we also observed cruising trips of reduced duration on average. The combination of more cruising but of shorter duration suggests that more drivers decided to look for free parking but quickly resigned themselves to paying the meter. Not surprising, having any nearby free parking was shown to tempt drivers to cruise to avoid paying. If localities see this as a problem, they could choose to make adjacent streets unavailable to parkers through regulation or by introducing new meters.
The second challenge is that cities still lack a good initial understanding of the severity of the cruising problem and the geographic hot spots and times of day when cruising is most prevalent. Cruising has often been estimated by a variety of techniques including stopping and asking drivers, or by observing how many vehicles bypass an available space and using the rate at which the spot is taken as an estimate for how many vehicle drivers are looking for parking (e.g., if, on average, three drivers by-pass a space before a driver takes it, that would mean that one-quarter or 25 percent of drivers are searching for parking). Another strategy has been to have field researchers actually look for parking in a neighborhood thought to be problematic –whether dispatched in cars or on bicycles these researchers are given instructions to circle until they find an available space. They keep track of how many blocks
they traverse until finding a space. A third technique is to detect the number of cars that pass the same point repeatedly within a certain period of time.
The Shape of Cruising
Each of these methods is imperfect. One drawback is that most people looking for parking are not doing so in a circular pattern. In the article “The Shape of Cruising,” it was shown that very few drivers actually “circle” in their hunt for parking. Rather, circling is but one of multiple search strategies, and the predominant search strategy may vary by local custom and/or factors related to traffic or parking rules. Another challenge is that most cities lack the resources to quantify cruising across every neighborhood. Thus, they look for cruising where they most expect to find it, and, thus, are likely to overestimate the overall extent of the problem. After all, University of California Professor Donald Shoup’s finding that, where studied, an average of 30 percent of cars in congested downtown traffic in selected cities were cruising is frequently misrepresented as 30 percent of urban traffic, or even 30 percent of ALL traffic is cruising. In spite of the myth that 30 percent of traffic is circling for parking, we find that the percentage of trips that include excess parking search is between 5 percent in Ann Arbor and 7 percent in Seattle. These lower rates don’t mean that cruising isn’t a problem, but rather is less universally one than previously thought.
What About the Neighborhood?
Attempting to understand cruising is complicated by the fact that the proportion of traffic looking for parking is highly dependent on the characteristic of the area as the destination or as a place that is being passed through on the way to another destination. One study in New York City found that among “residents of a neighborhood,” some 65 percent of people driving said they were looking for parking. When surveying motorists at or very close to their destinations, and deliberately excluding passthrough drivers from the survey, it is likely that a very high proportion of those surveyed will be “looking for parking” even if not cruising (e.g., motorists keeping an eye out for an available space prior to reaching the destination are not cruising). At the extreme, in a parking lot,
Figure 2.
every car driver is either looking for parking or on their way out.
In other words, a high proportion of people searching for parking says as much about the characteristics of a neighborhood as it does about any excess traffic from parking search. There is a subtle distinction between searching for parking—involved in almost any trip that does not end in a reserved space—and cruising for parking—excess vehicle travel, with its negative consequences for congestion and pollution.
Professor Donald Shoup has characterized parking search as waiting in a queue of undetermined length and expecting your turn to be called at random. The confounders we discussed above support this characterization.
The problem is to identify excess driving due to parking search, as that is what contributes to increased pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, traffic, crash risk, and aggravation on the drivers’ part, which implies a degraded quality of life. And, further, there is a need to develop robust policy and infrastructure solutions that might mitigate excess parking search but also will not encourage excess driving unrelated to parking search.
To advance these objectives, and as alluded to earlier, some of the authors, in previous work, developed a system of characterizing trips as likely cruising or likely not cruising according to circuity observed in GPS traces that show a driver’s path. While looking at all trips across an urban area is infeasible, studying a sample of trips allows the identification of the areas, across any geography, where excess driving due to parking search occurs with some regularity. Depending on data availability, cruising in cities at any geography and over any time period can be understood; thus, allowing the development of strategic, targeted interventions.
FHWA’s Cruising Assessment Tool and Its Applications
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is in the process of completing its development of a cruising detection and measurement system which will be shared with IPMI, cities, and the public at large. The research team used multiple data sources including GPS traces that are collected by a data broker from navigation devices, statewide travel surveys that included GPS sample components, and data that were collected in connection with safety studies wherein the vehicles of volunteers were instrumented with GPS trackers.
The team is now in the process of testing the system with location data collected from a variety of cellphone apps that identify the phone’s geographic location throughout the day. Thus far, the team has found significant differences in data quality, ranging from instrumented travel surveys/safety studies which have been the best, navigation devices which have provided data of somewhere in between quality relative to other data sources, and generic app location data which has been the least reliable. The purpose in using all the different sources in development is ultimately to determine, through systematic comparison among data sources, if the lowest quality data–that which is most widely available— can be sufficient for municipalities to identify and understand their parking problems.
By tracking the same data sources before, during, and after major occurrences (e.g., COVID lockdowns or large stadium events) and parking policy changes, FHWA has been able to assess impacts. As part of the current FHWA study and in previous work, to date, the team has looked at San Francisco, Ann Arbor, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. and, in each case, identified a particular difference in pricing or urban configuration. In San Francisco, we looked at the city generally and specifically in the SFPark meter areas. In Seattle, we looked before and after a programmed meter price change. We also looked in Seattle during the COVID-19 pandemic before and after the meters were suspended. They were turned off in April 2020 in recognition of the low demand for on-street parking in metered districts and as a way to accommodate essential workers. In Washington, D.C., we looked at cruising around stadiums on event and non-event days and at different patterns of parking search in Metrorail station catchment areas and outside of those areas.
Findings
The top line finding is that cities have likely overestimated their parking search problem by abstracting from the areas
Figure 3: Periods A, B, and C refer to pre-pandemic (business as usual price change), early pandemic (meters turned off) and early pandemic (meters restored at a uniform rate)
known anecdotally to be the worst. In spite of the myth that 30 percent of traffic is circling for parking, we find that the percentage of trips that include excess parking search is between 5 percent in Ann Arbor and 7 percent in Seattle. These lower rates don’t mean that cruising isn’t a problem, but rather is less universally one than previously thought. That’s good because it also means that cruising is likely more solvable through targeted measures. Solving cruising is a nuanced undertaking, though, and application of the measurement methodology over time will provide more insights on that subject.
San Francisco We found that cruising for parking in San Francisco occurred in tourist destinations more than in the downtown where it might have been expected. The most instructive finding from San Francisco was that cruising increased dramatically in some metered areas the minute meters were turned off for the day (see illustration). The importance of this finding for cities generally is that meter hours of operation could be tailored carefully to match the adjacent land uses. Rather than shutting meters at times when demand is thought to decrease, leaving them operational but charging lower rates may be a better strategy. Similarly, in a restaurant or evening entertainment district, data on cruising may show a spike if meters are turned off at the end of conventional business hours, which would be averted if meter hours were extended.
Seattle Overall approximately 7 percent of trips in Seattle include a cruising component, and the average time spent cruising was just over one minute. Trips that end on metered blocks have a cruise rate of 9.6 percent, reflecting denser busier parts of the city, and the average time cruising is 2 minutes. While cruising trips are relatively concentrated in the downtown, the amount of time people spend looking for parking is fairly uniform across the city.
Seattle’s Department of Transportation (SDOT) annually adjusts meter rates (up or down) to meet established performance targets. Changing meter prices has potentially opposing impacts on cruising. First, a higher price discourages people from “consuming more parking than they need.” This is the critical principle underlying performance pricing. By discouraging parkers from staying too long, parking spaces are made more available. This is the way that performance pricing works. The price is set to ensure availability. At the same time, a higher price incentivizes some drivers to look harder for a bargain, so while parking spaces are available, some drivers will cruise more if there is nearby free parking. Indeed, this is what we saw when studying parking search behavior immediately before and immediately after a routine price change. We see an increase in trips that involve cruising ending on metered blocks in areas where the meter price was increased - i.e. there was both more availability and more cruising at least as the drivers settled into the new price patterns.
In all three conditions—when meter price increased, decreased, or stayed the same—we saw a decrease in the amount of time spent cruising. As Seattle’s price changes (whether up or down) are based on block demand, adjustments designed to balance demand to
better match supply should lead to overall reductions in cruising, although there is no obvious explanation as to why cruising would go down when prices went down or stayed the same (except, perhaps, if sometimes-higher prices were widely publicized and led to fewer driving trips, especially to blocks with high-priced meters, and less competition for parking throughout the neighborhoods).
Finally, in Seattle, we looked at the time periods immediately before and immediately after the meters were suspended as part of the City’s COVID-19 response. While trip-making was dramatically different in the early months of COVID, with about 1/3 the number of trips being made, the proportion of trips that were cruising remained constant.
Washington, D.C. Similar to Seattle, the proportion of trips that involve cruising across the city is relatively low at 6 percent (versus 7 percent in Seattle); in D.C., the average amount of time spent cruising is higher at almost two minutes (versus one minute in Seattle). With no price changes to examine, we examined cruising around stadiums and in Metrorail station areas and compared that with the rest of the city. Cruising is notably higher on weekends when travelers face the double impact of reduced transit service and abbreviated meter hours.
On event days, cruising around the stadiums was 50 percent higher than the citywide average and cruising was worst around Audi field which is the furthest from transit of the three stadiums.
We also found cruising to be more prevalent around the Metrorail stations—those areas represent the densest parts of the city—than elsewhere.
We are currently analyzing two other cities: Atlanta and Chicago. The Atlanta analysis will be cross-sectional and show different patterns of parking search across the city. The Chicago analysis will be longitudinal and show annual changes in cruising from 2018 through 2020.
We are also taking a second look at Seattle using a lower quality but more available dataset. Our expectation and goal is to create a tool that any city can use with the most readily available data so they can study their own parking search landscape in the most robust way currently possible.
Experts say 30 percent of urban traffic comes from cars circling in the hunt for parking—but recent research says that’s not necessarily true. Join experts from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration during an IPMI Webinar Thursday, Feb. 17, to learn why that number is usually much lower and how they’ve developed a new tool to reduce circling even more, potentially transforming the way people find parking and how professionals manage it. Bring your questions and thoughts on this article and get ready for a deeper dive: click here for details and to register. Conclusions
We have reviewed research about misconceptions related to parking cruising, the benefit of focusing on cruising instead of space availability as a performance metric (due to restrictions on some vacant spaces precluding various parking uses), and the need to distinguish cruising for parking versus for other purposes. We have shown a comprehensive way to identify parking cruising, along with the viability of using the tool to understand the geography and time of day/day of week of cruising. The tool is robust to available data. While experience is thus far limited, the tool is already beginning to show value in guiding the evaluation of an array of parking policy approaches and regulations and steering policy improvements toward better outcomes.
The tool should enable cities with a staff that includes a parking professional and a GIS specialist to tell their own parking cruising story. Then, by closely analyzing the data and contemplating lessons from elsewhere, the tool will help direct efforts to mitigate identified cruising problems.
How will you use it? ◆
RACHEL WEINBERGER, PhD, is the Senior Transportation Fellow at Regional Plan Association and the Founding Principal at Weinberger & Associates. She can be reached at rachel@rpa.org.
ADAM MILLARD-BALL, PhD, is an associate professor of Urban Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. He can be reached at adammb@ucla.edu.
DR. ROBERT HAMPSHIRE is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology & Chief Science Officer at the U.S. Department of Transportation. He can be reached at Robert.Hampshire@dot.gov.
ALLEN GREENBERG is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Federal Highway Administration. He can be reached at Allen. Greenberg@dot.gov.
TAYO FABUSUYI is a member of the faculty at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). He can be reached at Fabusuyi@umich.edu.
ELLIS CALVIN is the Data Research Manager and Senior Planner at the Regional Plan Association. He can be reached at ellis@rpa.org.
Back Together!
How amazing did it feel to be back in person with so many industry friends? Nearly 1,500 parking and mobility professionals gathered in Tampa, Fla., last month for the 2021 IPMI Parking & Mobility Conference & Expo and while it looked and felt a little different from other Conferences, there was no mistaking the huge smiles, waves, fist bumps, and hugs across the event.
Rethinking Mobility
A fantastic panel of municipal members and experts kicked things off at the first general session, talking about how mobility operations and services are evolving, with a focus on cities and their leaders. Panelists included: ■ Gary Means, CAPP, Lexington & Fayette County Parking Authority, moderator. ■ Alejandra “Alex” Argudin, CAPP, Miami Parking
Authority. ■ Thomas Woznick, CAPP, City of Milwaukee. ■ Scott Petri, Philadelphia Parking Authority. ■ Ken Husting, PE, City of Los Angeles DOT.
Panelists shared what’s work and what hasn’t, trends, challenges, pilots, programs, and even some laughs from their unique cities, offering valuable perspective to attendees looking ahead to a different future.
Shoptalks and Exchanging Ideas
Shoptalks, which have become a staple in virtual industry get-togethers, led the week’s agenda as hundreds of industry members gathered together for sector- or challenge-specific, moderated conversations. As always, they were very popular and a bit hit, and led to solutions, ideas, and contacts being exchanged. (Keep an eye on the IPMI calendar for upcoming online Shoptalks—always free for everyone—and make a note to attend in-person in New Orleans in July—registration’s open now.)
Education, Education, Education
From mobility to curb management to traditional parking and everything in between, there were plenty of education sessions to meet everyone’s needs—and some were presented twice just to be sure everyone who wanted to attend could make their schedules work.
Speakers and moderators presented their expertise in a host of ways, from case studies to lively TV-style games to roundtables, and offered information and ideas—and the chance to ask questions—applicable to every industry sector. Attendees earned CAPP points for every session they attended as well. Thanks to all of our speakers for presenting this year!
Two full days of IPMI Expo were a great leap back into the in-person event format. Aisles were busy and exhibitors showed off products, services, and technology while sharing tons of expertise with anyone who stopped by—and they did in droves. Booths were bright, creative, and fascinating, so it was no wonder they saw so much foot traffic throughout the event. IPMI is fortunate to have so many wonderful industry partners and it felt wonderful to welcome them all back.
CAPP Recognition
IPMI proudly recognized its newest CAPPs, who’ve earned the industry’s leading credential for individuals—the one that screams “professional.” It was a joy to watch them walk across the stage to applause, and as you can see, they were pretty darned happy too!
Awards and Recognition
As always a host of awards were presented this year. From new and renewing Accredited Parking Organizations to our annual Awards of Excellence, Professional Recognition Awards, and Marketing Awards, it was a thrill to hear about accomplishments, innovation, perseverance, and success on the stage.
A few special awards were given to industry professionals who’ve had a particularly big effect on parking and mobility:
Lifetime Achievement Award: David Hill, CAPP, MA, CD Dave has parked cars for a living for over 30 years. He was founding CEO of the Winnipeg Parking Authority, the Canadian Managing Director for Ascom Transport and T2 Systems, Senior Transportation Planner with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and has led several other organizations. He was an officer in the Royal Canadian Navy, was one of the first CAPP graduates, and has served regularly with the IPMI Board and committees. He has received awards from the International Downtown Association, IPMI, the City of Winnipeg, the Canadian Parking Association, the Association of University Business Officers, and the Consulting Engineers Association of Alberta. He was a Parking Professional of the Year and received the Chair’s Award in 2010.
Lifetime Achievement Award: L. Dennis Burns, CAPP Dennis is a Senior Practice Builder and Regional Vice President for Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. and has over 35 years of parking operations, management, and consulting experience. He has led international research and analysis efforts in parking system strategic planning and smart parking. He co-chaired the IPMI taskforce (along with Dave Hill) to develop the Accredited Parking Organization (APO) program. In 2020 Dennis was elected to IPMI’s Board of Directors. He was its Parking Professional of the Year in 2010 and was invited by the White House to speak at the first Green Gov Symposium in Washington, D.C.
Chairman’s Award: John Bushman, PE John Bushman, PE, joined Walker Consultants in 1980 and was appointed Chairman and CEO in 2003. He brings over 40 years of experience in managing a wide range of projects throughout the U.S. and in Mexico, Panama, China, and Dubai. He continues to be Project Advisor on large and complex projects. Under John’s guidance, Walker has grown to over $60 million in annual revenue and 25 offices. John has been co-chair of IPMI’s Planning, Design & Construction Committee since 2012. He has been a presenter at IPMI’s annual conferences and co-authored articles for Parking & Mobility magazine.
Along with individuals, organizations were recognized. The Accredited Parking Organization program welcomed new APOs:
The City of Columbus, with distinction. Parking Authority of River City, with distinction. California State University, Fullerton. Georgia Institute of Technology. City of Lincoln, Neb. UF Health Shands.
Fore!
It wouldn’t be an IPMI Conference without a golf event to benefit the CAPP Scholarship Fund and this year wasn’t any different. Dozens of golfers played TPC Tampa Bay—some newbies even took advantage of club pro lessons—and had loads of fun and got in a lot of networking in the beautiful Florida sunshine while raising money to allow more industry professionals earn their CAPP certifications. As always, a wonderful time was had by all.
By the time we bid Florida farewell, our heads and hearts were full, which is a terrific thing. We can’t wait to see you in NOLA this July!
Thanks to Our Strategic Partners!
IPMI Awards & Recognition Programs
IPMI’S ANNUAL AWARDS AND RECOGNITION PROGRAMS celebrate individuals and organizations in the parking, transportation, and mobility industry. Winners in two major award categories—Awards of Excellence and Professional Recognition— exemplify industry excellence.
Awards of Excellence
Showcasing outstanding parking and transportation facilities and innovative programs in a number of categories, the Awards of Excellence require a formal entry submission and judging process. Many winning projects receive state, regional, national, and international media coverage. Owners, operators, and project team members may submit their projects in these categories: ■ Innovation in a Mobility, Transportation, or Parking
Program ■ Marketing & Communications, Public Sector ■ Marketing & Communication, Private Sector ■ Surface Parking Facility Design ■ Surface Parking Facility Restoration ■ Standalone Parking & Mobility Facility Design ■ Mixed-Use Parking & Mobility Facility Design ■ Structured Parking Facility Restoration ■ Sustainable Design ■ Sustainable Management Program ■ Architectural Design
Professional Recognition Awards
Professional Recognition Awards recognize the individual contributions of parking, transportation, and mobility industry professionals—our industry’s best.
Entrants for these prestigious awards may be self- or peer-nominated. Nominees must be IPMI members in good standing and there is no nomination fee. Categories include: ■ Industry Professional of the Year ■ Organization of the Year ■ Emerging Leader of the Year ■ Professional Excellence Award. This category recognizes all staff, from the frontline to management. Awards will recognize outstanding performance in a variety of areas, including Customer Service, Operations, Marketing,
Leadership, Innovation, Technology, Human Resources, and more.
How to Enter
IPMI offers a streamlined awards entry process via a sophisticated online platform. We encourage entries from all market segments and sectors; all IPMI members are invited to submit in all categories.
Submit your best people, programs, and projects—and be sure to share great pictures and visuals as part of the process.
Download comprehensive awards details and entry criteria at parkingmobility.org/awards.
BeingReady
Preparing your parking program for a post-COVID world
By Vito Del Vescovo
AS DRIVERS RETURN TO THE ROADS and employees begin to return to in-person work, preparing your parking program with user-friendly processes and safe, attractive facilities has never been more important. Even with a sizable increase in the number of people working from home, mobility demand is not expected to be impacted in the long term. In fact, 32 percent of car-buying consumers said they would travel more frequently by private car post-pandemic, while only 13 percent said they would travel less by car.1 These statistics suggest a substantial increase expected in road travel, resulting in a greater reliance on parking facilities in cities and municipalities. Reevaluating parking facility features like lighting, technology, security, and more can help ensure your program stays efficient, safe, and reliable in a post-COVID world.
One example of a city bracing for a change in parking trends is Scranton, Pa. An innovative public-private partnership formed between the nonprofit National Development Council (NDC) and the Scranton Parking Authority involved the restructuring of the city’s parking assets, including six downtown parking structures and all on-street parking meters. The partnership allowed Scranton the opportunity to modernize its parking assets while maintaining their control and ownership. Read on to see how the City of Scranton, in partnership with the NDC and ABM, is engaging in these parking best practices and improving the functionality of their garages with upgrades in lighting, energy efficiency, technology, and more.
Energy Efficiency
With younger generations on the road comes shifting needs and desires among drivers. An increased focus on sustainability and eco-conscious options is becoming one of the largest generational trends. In order to reach more eco-conscious parking tenants, the City of Scranton made the decision to install EV charging stations in their parking decks.
Today, there are well over 1 million electric vehicles in use on U.S. roads, a number that is expected to grow to 1.8 million by 2030.2 Keeping up with driver trends will be essential in the long-term success of your parking program. A global COVID-19 auto and mobility consumer survey found that 49 percent of respondents are in favor of greener mobility infrastructure, indicating that current green initiatives should be amplified and accelerated.3 Adjusting your city or municipality electrical offerings to match consumer sustainability trends will play a key role in meeting driver needs moving forward.
Lighting
When it comes to lighting, customization is the key to achieving safe, attractive spaces. From stairwells to ramps, different areas of your parking facility demand different types of light fixtures. For example, stairwells and pathways need a brighter, more concentrated light spread that can be produced by track lights and spotlights. For general parking areas, multiple light fixtures that produce a wide beam angle are needed, like flood lights.4 An overhaul of Scranton Parking Authority’s lighting system involved the replacement of all bulbs with LED lights, a switch that would prove to be both an economical advantage and an eco-friendly enhancement.
Advantages like low-heat output, high-lumen output, and long lifespan make LED lights a practical replacement for outdated fixtures like linear fluorescent, metal halide, and high-pressure sodium lights.4 In addition to enhancing the safety and aesthetics of your parking facility, a lighting upgrade can result in substantial energy cost savings. Lighting retrofits can result in a reduced lighting load of up to 50 percent, a number than can be enhanced by applying advanced control strategies to reduce energy consumption.5
Lot Maintenance
An inconsistent maintenance routine can quickly lead to repairs and restorations that are disruptive to tenants and create unexpected costs and safety concerns. Scranton’s
parking program revamp involved capital repairs, fresh paint jobs, and lighting upgrades to improve the overall user experience and property lifespan. A goal of implementing proactive asset care and regular maintenance adds to the city’s vision for future parking program enhancements.
For asphalt upkeep, the process of sealcoating can help protect pavement against water penetration, oxidation, and oil leaks. Parking lots that are sealcoated every three to five years and have cracks filled annually can last 30 years without replacement, compared to a 15-year lifespan for a lot without regular maintenance.6 Issues like cracked concrete beams and columns, expansion joint failure, and delaminated pavement coating can all become major liabilities if left unattended.7 Implementing a regular maintenance routine can result in a multitude of benefits, like doubled pavement lifespan, assured compliance with ADA regulations, increased safety, and improved curb appeal.
Technology
When it comes to providing a seamless, user-friendly parking experience, keeping your program up to date with the latest forward-facing technologies can make a big impact. In the City of Scranton, outdated revenue systems and ticketing equipment hindered the parking experience, resulting in customer communication and usage issues. A technology upgrade from a cashier system to automation was implemented to enhance the functionality of the garages.
Utilizing technology to support hassle-free parking experiences is becoming the rule, not the exception, for drivers. Contactless payment features like scanning a QR code with your smartphone are becoming the preferred solution, not only for transient parking transactions but also for customers worried about pathogen transmission in a post-COVID world. In 2020, 92.3 million U.S. consumers used contactless payment methods at least once during a 6-month period, a number that is expected to grow to 125 million by 2025.8
Security
If not properly protected, parking lots and decks can become magnets for criminal activity. According to a report conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 10 percent of all crime occurs in parking lots and parking garages.9 For the City of Scranton, an overall upgrade in parking technology included a focus on security. An upgraded camera system, in addition to contracted security patrol on weekends, enforced a safer environment for parking customers. Ensuring your customers and their vehicles are safe and secure in your facility is key to a successful parking program. Investing in closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras that can monitor and record drivers’ faces and license plate numbers can be a good place to start when it comes to enhancing your parking facility’s security. Placing clear call boxes or intercom systems can also help to provide customer peace-of-mind, as well as deter criminal activity. Additional security measures can include a contracted security team for optimal safety.
As your city or municipality adjusts to post-COVID parking trends, working with an experienced parking solutions provider can ensure your program receives a customized plan tailored to fit every need. Whether your parking program calls for integrated or stand-alone solutions, prioritizing the safety and efficiency of your facilities will ensure the success of your program in the long-term. ◆
VITO DEL VESCOVO is a regional operations manager for ABM Industries. He can be reached at vito.delvescovo@abm.com.
SOURCES
1. Five COVID-19 aftershocks reshaping mobility’s future | McKinsey 2. Why City Planners Should Install EV Charging Stations | Enel X 3. How car buying and mobility is changing amid
COVID-19 | McKinsey 4. 4 Tips to Keep in Mind When Lighting a Parking Lot |eepros.com 5. 8 Reasons to Invest in a Lighting Retrofit Upgrade | wesco.com 6. The Many Benefits of Regular Parking Lot Maintenance | Grainger 7. Proper Parking Structure Maintenance: Catching
Problems Early | CoatingsPro Magazine 8. The Benefits of Contactless Payment Options |
Wetherbee Electric 9. Parking Lot Kidnapping | Negligent Security Attorney
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Virtualizing the process and using new technologies can revolutionize hospital parking— and its customers’ experiences.
LIKE ANY INDUSTRY HEAVILY RELIANT ON TECHNOLOGY, the urban mobility marketplace continues to evolve with advances in available and emergent technologies. Today, it’s common for owners and operators to use technology to engage their customers virtually while retaining an element of personalized interaction.
VERYWHERE AT ONCE By Adamo Donatucci
During the COVID-19 global pandemic, the healthcare industry has proven to be a fascinating case study in the application of advanced parking technology to support the vertical’s broader goals of increasing staff and patient safety while simultaneously reducing hospitals’ and clinics’ capital and operating costs.
Virtualization of the customer experience was driven initially by market preferences for technology-forward service solutions that generated value for parking operators by reducing overall expenses without sacrificing the high level of service that draws traffic to their facility. While this remains an important consideration today, the continuing COVID-19 global pandemic has accelerated efforts to provide the services people need at a distance that keeps them safe.
Early efforts to virtualize the customer experience centered around providing lower-cost alternatives to on-site staffing by directing intercom calls from an attendant’s desk to an off-site monitoring station to save on staffing costs. Newer technology gives parking operators the flexibility to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) driven kiosks that help users navigate large and complex facilities; in some deployments, this includes turn-by-turn directions back to their car based on the license plate number they enter.
With a greater-than-ever demand for touchless access solutions, parking operators are developing new systems that let users
interact with the equipment without ever coming into contact with it; some suppliers have even found ways of integrating gestures to activate ticket dispensing and are leveraging Bluetooth Low Energy technology for permitted access. And now on the market are technology integrations that begin the virtual customer experience before drivers even arrive at a parking facility; the same technology that is being launched to create reservations for gated facilities is being tweaked to control peoples’ access to the facilities themselves.
With all these exciting developments in technology, parking facilities are becoming more sophisticated and promising greater customer experiences all the while continuing to deliver exceptional value to owners and operators.
Support at a Distance
Staffing a parking facility 24/7 can get expensive, especially when you need to build into your schedule redundancies for breaks as well as sick days and vacation days. And as parking equipment becomes increasingly reliable and customer preferences shift more and more to electronic payments, it’s harder than ever to justify this expense, especially outside of core business hours when there’s even less for staff to do.
Still, the occasional issue does come up: a driver doesn’t know where to scan their validation or is tapping their credit card on the wrong panel at a pay station. Using IP-based technology, parking equipment suppliers can outfit your operation with intercoms and CCTV cameras that let specially trained staff see and speak to your customers to assist them in using your equipment, adding a more personal touch than general usage instructions posted somewhere near the equipment.
Staff can either be located in a central parking office that oversees your entire complex or at your supplier’s headquarters, where they follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) specific to your site. In either case, remote customer service gives you the flexibility to staff more efficiently without sacrificing the quality of service, whether you want to cover breaks, offer off-peak support, or replace on-site staff altogether.
For drivers who are accustomed to seeing parking attendants, this service can seem a bit too remote, which is why most hospitals continue to staff their parking operations at a minimal level to assist elderly patients and visitors. But with the reliability of modern parking equipment, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to staff attendants, even to perform “Level 1” service and maintenance. Particularly as touchless technologies grow in popularity among consumers, even ticket replenishment and clearing jams are a thing of the past in many deployments.
And as it becomes less financially viable to retain staff in parking facilities, each remaining attendant is responsible for a larger area within a facility, making them more difficult to track down if there’s an issue. By contrast, remote customer service gets drivers in touch with support more quickly, which results in higher satisfaction ratings among facility users.
Where service calls are still necessary, the same agents that respond to customer queries via the intercom can remotely monitor system alarms and dispatch technicians to address issues that can’t be cleared remotely.
AI-Driven Solutions
Self-serve kiosks powered by artificial intelligence have found increased use in hospitals over the last few years.
Hospitals and their associated parking operations are often large and complex affairs, and kiosks with preloaded maps are a useful tool to direct patients and visitors to their destination; the wages saved by not staffing dedicated positions to provide this level of assistance easily offset the one-time investment in the technology platform, and perhaps more importantly still, reducing in-person interactions in hospital settings has benefits for the health and wellbeing of staff and patients alike.
Beyond simply displaying maps, these kiosks can be leveraged to provide turn-by-turn directions through the facility to guide patients to their appointment somewhere within the complex; in applications that are integrated with license plate recognition software, these automated stations can direct you back to the exact location where you’ve parked. By reducing the possibility of confusion among patients and visitors not familiar with the layout of the facility, these kiosks help them spend less time in the hospital and to take more direct routes through it, minimizing further still the risks associated with being in a healthcare facility.
Last-Mile Services
So-called “last-mile services” are integrating parking technology into your customers’ experience before they even arrive at your facility.
Where facilities’ terminals and pay stations are equipped with barcode scanners, operators have the option to create QR codes that discount their guests’ parking, whether it’s included with a hotel room, as part of their admission to an event, or any number of other scenarios. Sophisticated integrations with the equipment backend mean that operators can use these QR codes to distribute reservations and validations with specific date
With a greater-than-ever demand for touchless access solutions, parking operators are developing new systems that let users interact with the equipment without ever coming into contact with it; some suppliers have even found ways of integrating gestures to activate ticket dispensing and are leveraging Bluetooth Low Energy technology for permitted access.
and time ranges, in/out privileges, and other parameters that grant the bearer access to your facility based on those parameters.
A recent development during the COVID-19 global pandemic has been the application of this technology to access more than just parking facilities. In the case of hospitals, for example, this technology can be used to screen patients, staff, and visitors alike as they arrive for their appointments, shifts, or visiting hours.
In this application, the system prompts visitors to complete a symptom self-assessment in advance of their scheduled arrival at the hospital to receive a QR code, which they use as their access credential; they identify themselves upon arrival using facial recognition technology that can determine whether they’re wearing a mask, and scan their arm to take a temperature reading. Based on these inputs, the system can grant the visitor or employee access or redirect them to a triage location for further assessment.
Systems like these can be augmented further with a remote customer service functionality to address any issues that may arise. With two-way voice and video communication available, patients and visitors can contact a nurse or screening agent to perform triage and assess the situation while maintaining a safe physical distance between hospital staff and anyone entering the facility.
Applying technology in this way not only gives individuals a safer touchless experience as they arrive at the hospital, but it lets the hospital’s operations team enforce the facility’s parameters, collect data and analytics for reporting purposes, secures access controls, and reduces physical contact between staff and visitors.
On-Site Automation
Touchless access solutions remain an integral part of on-site automation, and with greater awareness of the health implications of facilities’ common touchpoints and trepidation regarding in-person interactions, interest in these technologies continues to grow.
Leveraging banking platforms’ EMV-certified tap-and-go payment technology, drivers are able to use their RFID-enabled credit and debit cards or mobile wallets on their smartphones as a credential to enter gated parking facilities and start their parking session; the systems are then configured so that, at the end of their stay, drivers need only tap the same payment method again either at a pay station or at the exit to end their session, calculate the amount due, and make their payment.
In parking operations where tickets are still desirable, they can be dispensed automatically when a vehicle is detected approaching the entry terminal, eliminating the need to push a button. Where this may be impractical, existing parking terminals can be upgraded with an illuminated infrared button activated by a wave to dispense a ticket. In both cases, the ticket can be used to pay for the parking session at a pay station or an exit terminal like normal, and if used in conjunction with a form of contactless payment, the driver will have moved through the entire parking experience without once having to touch a piece of equipment.
Drivers’ smartphones can also be used to display QR codes for parking reservations or validations, whether directly in an app or attached to an email message, such as a hotel’s reservation or clinic appointment confirmation email. Or for a totally frictionless driver experience for permitted parkers or reserved parking sessions, automatic license plate recognition technology can be deployed in gated systems to raise gates when a registered plate number is detected.
Contactless payment is also becoming increasingly popular in non-gated lots, not only at parking meters equipped with EMVcertified payment solutions but with the use of mobile payment apps. These apps offer a number of convenient features that parking meters simply can’t, including turn-by-turn directions to an available space, stored payment options associated with business and personal accounts, and real-time notifications of expiring sessions with the option to extend a session without having to return to a meter.
These touchless technologies are easily applied to access and revenue control environments where sanitation is a primary concern. By leveraging NFC technology built into smartphones and payment cards, drivers are able to start, end, and pay for parking sessions using items already in their possession—without the need to physically touch any of the equipment.
These technologies, especially in combination with remote customer service, also further reduce the need for on-site attendants to accept payments or validate tickets. Where those services may still be required to upgrade tickets into passes or to provide a level of customer service a premium facility feels is still warranted, service can be provided through two-way voice and video connections so that transactions can still be completed as safely as possible. ◆
ADAMO DONATUCCI is business development and strategy officer with Precise ParkLink. He can be reached at adonatucci@precisebi.com.
