Parking & Mobility — November 2023

INTERNATIONAL PARKING & MOBILITY INSTITUTE NOVEMBER 2023

Planning for

LARGE-SCALE Operations

Parking and mobility focus on educational, healthcare, business campus, airports, and other large-scale operations.

IPS Group Inc. ipsgroupinc.com 858.404.0607

INTERNATIONAL PARKING & MOBILITY INSTITUTE NOVEMBER 2023 VOL. 5 / N0. 11

FEATURES

32 36 42

Mobility Hubs

The Future of Mobility Does Not Mean the End of Parking—it Means the Evolution of Parking.

By Stephen Oliver, MA, RPP, MCIP

Revolutionizing the Parkand-Fly Experience

Case Study: Bringing 24/7 Customer Service to Regina International Airport

By Bill Smith

Easy as A,B,C

Creating and Implementing a University Mobility Master Plan

By Debbie Lollar, CAPP, M.S.

48

Take the “Deferred” Out of Maintenance

52

Understanding the Complexities of Healthcare Parking

Plan Now to Save Your Asphalt Later

By Mark Zandonella, CAPP

A Q & A with Healthcare Design Experts and More

By Gordon Knowles

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CONTENTS

FROM THE EDITOR

3 FROM THE EDITOR 4 BOARD PERSPECTIVE Planning for Campuses and LargeScale Operations

By Josh Cantor, CAPP

8 INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY The Parking Revolution

by Sonny Samra

12 DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION Fostering a Sense of Belonging Through Employee Resource Groups

By Andy Santos

14 THE GREEN IMPACT Overcoming the Electrification Challenge on Campus

By Brett Wood, CAPP, PE

16 HR PERSPECTIVE Unlocking a Seamless Acquisition

By David Schmid

18 LEADERSHIP MOMENT Three Keys to Better Communication

by Brian Wolff

20 PARKING SPOTLIGHT Springfield, OH’s Downtown Parking Garage 22 ASK THE EXPERTS What impact is technology having on large-scale parking and mobility operations?

IN HIS FEATURE ARTICLE THIS MONTH, Stephen

Oliver of Stantec tells us that the future of mobility does not signal the end of parking—it means the evolution of parking.

Let’s sit with that for a minute.

An evolution in parking.

There has been talk over time that parking is going the way of the dinosaur, and that an inability to adapt to the new environment could lead to extinction. I pose that is entirely inaccurate. Parking is not going the way of the dinosaur—it is going the way of the Italian Wall Lizard.

Italian Wall Lizards at one time had a diet of mostly insects. But climate change and environmental shifts have caused this lizard to adjust its diet to mostly plants. So, what did the lizard do? It evolved. Over time, they developed larger heads, cecal valves to improve digestion of plant material, and wider teeth for tearing and chewing. Scientists tracked this evolution over several generations. Other species have not been able to make the evolutionary shift, but the Italian Wall Lizard is thriving.

So will parking.

Parking will make an evolutionary shift. Parking will find new ways to survive. Parking will shift, pivot, and reload. Parking will take technology and apply it to make a better outcome, not die out because of it.

How do I know?

Because YOU are parking. The people of the parking, mobility, and transportation community are made of tough stuff. You are smart, you are innovative, and you are ready for change. You are ready to evolve.

In this issue, you will find excellent examples of that evolution. And this is just the beginning. What a fun time to be in our industry.

Looking forward to growing a bigger head and wider teeth with you all in the years to come.

23 SPONSORED CONTENT RevolutionizingParking Accessibility 58 PARKING & MOBILITY CONSULTANTS

Melissa Rysak, editor rysak@parking-mobility.org

60 ADVERTISERS INDEX 62 IPMI CALENDAR 63 STATE & REGIONAL CALENDAR PARKING-MOBILITY-MAGAZINE.ORG / NOVEMBER 2023 / PARKING & MOBILITY 3

BOARD PERSPECTIVE

PUBLISHER

Shawn Conrad, CAE

Planning for Campuses and Large-Scale Operations

s.conrad@parking-mobility.org

By Josh Cantor, CAPP

EDITOR

Melissa Rysak, CPSM

rysak@parking-mobility.org TECHNICAL EDITOR

Rachel Yoka, CAPP, LEED AP BD+C yoka@parking-mobility.org

ADVERTISING SALES AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

Tina Altman

taltman@parking-mobility.org PUBLICATION DESIGN

BonoTom Studio

info@bonotom.com For subscription changes, contact Tina Altman, taltman@parking-mobility.org or 888.IPMI.NOW. Parking & Mobility (ISSN 0896-2324 & USPS 001436) is published monthly by the International Parking & Mobility Institute.

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E

VEN BEFORE THE PANDEMIC, planning and operations for large-

scale entities such as universities, hospitals, airports, business parks, and retail was challenging. Yet most of us probably felt that we knew what to expect most of the time. That all changed in March 2020, and the recovery since the pandemic started has not been predictable as different markets have bounced back at varying levels, both physically and financially.

Long-term Planning Planning for a large operation can take many forms. As the operation forecasts its growth, what is the parking and transportation master plan to carry it out? A good master plan guides the future, allowing parking and transportation operations to be proactive rather than reactive. How many had working master plans that were seemingly thrown to the side, either temporarily or permanently, because of the pandemic? In some segments, workplaces continuing telework options have decreased parking volumes and revenue without offsetting rate increases.

Usage of transit and buses has dropped since 2019. However, other segments like airports have seen a return or near return to pre-pandemic levels. As parking volumes rebound in my university operation, the question I have is whether this an anomaly or a return to normal? If the latter, all those long-term plans tossed to the side the past few years need to be dug out again, such as figuring out whether we need another parking deck or new shuttle service, and of course how to pay for it with decreased revenue and rising costs.

Technology Planning While our industry has always been technologically forward, the staffing challenges worsened by the pandemic have required new and innovative solutions. The momentum to implement new projects and solutions must be balanced with the

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BOARD PERSPECTIVE

­­ re-prioritization of needs with the changes in parking demand.

For instance, it wasn’t as critical to install a real-time space counting system in lots that used to be 90% full, but now could land a 747 with more than 1,000 empty spaces every day.

The pandemic really made me, and hopefully many other operators, think about what matters most in serving our customers. Although some projects may have been pushed to the side, I found enhanced support to accelerate others that automated processes.

Focus Countless webinars, conference presentations at the IPMI Parking & Mobility Conference & Expo and at state and regional association events, and articles in Parking & Mobility magazine about these topics has emerged in the last few years as largescale operations sought to recover from the pandemic. The effects are lasting, even as some sense of normalcy returned.

With decisions seeming to be magnified, I have leaned on the expertise found throughout IPMI, including fellow board members and so many of our committees that are producing

high quality content and keeping the membership engaged.

It has helped me focus on what’s important to operations, especially knowing we’re not alone in the constantly changing world of parking and transportation. I encourage you to be active in IPMI and take advantage of the offerings and professional development opportunities to continue preparing you to take on the challenges of your operations.

As a final note, I have been listening to a lot of Jimmy Buffet in the weeks following his passing (even more than I usually did as a Parrothead) and one of my favorites is A Pirate Turns Forty.

In this song Jimmy commiserates about being a pirate 200 years too late. Well, for a short while I worried about parking going the way of being a pirate, but now I worry no more. It may be different, it may be changing, but it’s not going anywhere. You just must remember to breathe in, breathe out, and move on. ◆

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JOSH CANTOR, CAPP, is the Director of Parking & Transportation for George Mason University and a member of the IPMI Board of Directors. He can be reached at jcantor1@gmu.edu.

PayByPhone Technologies, Inc. paybyphone.com 877.610.2054

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY

The Parking Revolution A Future Where Technology Takes Charge

by Sonny Samra

I

MAGINE A WORLD where parking your vehicle is effortless, a place where you no longer worry about

finding a spot or adhering to parking regulations. This utopian vision, akin to Sir Thomas More’s dreams, is closer to reality than we might think. While complete automation might seem like a distant goal, we are making significant strides toward a future where technology shoulders the burden of parking, making it a seamless, stress-free experience for drivers. In this article, we explore the path to fully automated parking and the key factors driving this revolution.

STO

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DOB

The Quest for Convenience

Automation: The Crux of the Matter

At the heart of automated parking lies the concept of convenience. Convenience in parking translates to minimal mental strain, reduced effort, and increased accessibility.

It means eliminating the need for exhaustive searches, complex maneuvers, and the accompanying headaches. The goal is to relieve parkers of the cognitive load associated with parking, making the experience not just efficient, but genuinely enjoyable.

At its core, convenience is a holistic experience. It’s the elimination of exhaustive searches, the abandonment of complex maneuvers, and the eradication of the headaches that have long been synonymous with parking. The convenience we seek isn’t merely a matter of proximity; it’s the marriage of accessibility and effortlessness, where the perfect parking spot seamlessly aligns with your destination, erasing the need for ponderous decisions or frustrating detours. It’s the fusion of technology and human intuition, crafting a parking experience where every movement is intuitive, every decision is swift, and every parking endeavor is met with a genuine sense of satisfaction.

Automation stands at the forefront of the quest for a parking utopia, serving as the linchpin that could revolutionize our daily experiences. Through cutting-edge technology, we find ourselves on the brink of a transformative era, where the complexities of parking are unraveling before our eyes. It’s not merely about the act of parking; it signifies a paradigm shift in our approach to urban mobility. By seamlessly integrating automation into our parking infrastructure, we are not just reducing the mental strain associated with finding a parking spot but also redefining the very essence of convenience.

This technological leap is akin to a symphony of innovation, orchestrating a future where the hassles of parking become a relic of the past.

While the complete automation of parking might not yet be an immediate reality, the strides made in this direction are nothing short of awe-inspiring. The promise of automation extends beyond mere convenience. It embodies a future where technology becomes our trusted ally, ensuring that every parking experience is not just effortless but also ecofriendly and time efficient. Imagine a world where your vehicle seamlessly navigates to an available spot, all while adhering to traffic regulations with impeccable precision. This vision, though on the horizon, is steadily inching closer, propelled by the relentless pursuit of technological advancement.

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INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY

What makes this progress so promising is its potential to reshape our cities fundamentally. Automated parking isn’t merely a luxury; it’s a necessity in our ever-expanding urban landscapes. The reduction of congestion, the optimization of parking spaces, and the mitigation of environmental impact are all embedded within the core of this technological evolution. It’s not just about making our lives easier; it’s about forging a sustainable future where our cities breathe, unburdened by the weight of inefficient parking practices.

Are We There Yet? The question of how close we are to an automated parking experience yields a complex answer. For the optimistic proponents of technology, the prospect of automated parking appears tantalizingly close. Yet, despite the palpable excitement, this futuristic reality remains just beyond our immediate grasp, lingering on the edges of our collective imagination.

The advancement of autonomous vehicles, a realm dominated by trailblazing companies such as Waymo and Cruise, undeniably marks a pivotal leap forward in our pursuit of automated parking ecosystem. Witnessing these sophisticated autonomous vehicles navigate our streets with a level of precision once thought implausible is undeniably awe-inspiring. However, these vehicles represent only a fragment of the intricate puzzle. Creating a fully automated parking system necessitates the harmonious integration of numerous diverse elements, each requiring meticulous digitization and seamless synchronization.

One such indispensable component in this mosaic is the curb, a space once overlooked but now burgeoning with innovation. Here, at the nexus of the physical and digital realms, revolutionary solutions are rapidly emerging, obliterating the technological constraints that previously hindered progress. The curb, once a symbol of parking challenges, has become a testing ground for inventive minds.

By transforming this ordinary space into a hub of innovation, we are dismantling the barriers that once confined our automated parking dreams.

The Human Element: Willingness to Share Data In the quest for automated parking, user participation is paramount. Specifically, the willingness of users to share their data among different technologies is a crucial factor.

In this multifaceted journey towards automated parking, the willingness of users to participate by sharing their data among an array of interconnected technologies stands as a linchpin, driving the gears of progress.

Looking beyond the realm of parking, numerous sectors have seamlessly integrated automated digital experiences into their core functionalities. Banking, shopping, healthcare—these industries have all embraced the transformative power of data sharing. The common thread weaving through these diverse sectors is the effortless flow of information between intricate systems, a phenomenon that has not only streamlined operations but has also enhanced user experiences immeasurably.

In the context of parking, this seamless exchange of data between systems is not merely a luxury but a fundamental requirement, an indispensable bridge that connects the various components of automated parking into a cohesive whole. Without this fluid transfer of information, the vision of complete automation remains out of reach. The reluctance to share data, driven by concerns around privacy and security, has been a stumbling block. However, as technological safeguards evolve and users become more cognizant of the benefits, this reluctance is gradually transforming into acceptance.

Willingness to share data not only propels us closer to automated parking but also fosters a sense of community in the digital realm. It represents a collective acknowledgment that our individual contributions, in the form of shared data, pave the way for a future where the complexities of parking are simplified, making urban mobility a seamless and harmonious experience. In this participatory digital ecosystem, users are not just passive beneficiaries but active architects, shaping the contours of a future where automated parking is not just a convenience but an integral part of our everyday lives.

Conclusion While fully automated parking might not be an immediate reality, we are undeniably on the path toward this transformative future. The convergence of advanced technology, the digitization of crucial elements like curbs, and the willingness of users to embrace data sharing are driving forces behind this revolution. As these pieces fall into place, the vision of a world where technology effortlessly handles all aspects of parking is no longer a mere fantasy but a tantalizing glimpse into our future. ◆ SONNY SAMRA is Senior Director of Business Growth for PayByPhone and a member of the IPMI Technology Committee. He can be reached at ssamra@paybyphone.com.

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DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION

Fostering a Sense of Belonging Through Employee Resource Groups

By Andy Santos

A

S HUMANS, we seek connectedness and belonging in our environment, whether it’s

within the community we live in or the company we work for. Many organizations understand this need and support workplace belonging through various diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. These companies also understand that by fostering belonging at work, they are investing in the success of the company. In fact, according to a 2020 global study by Qualtrics where over 11,800 participants were surveyed, a sense of belonging emerged as the strongest driver of employee engagement—ahead of trust in leadership and career growth. they may not work with on a regular basis. ERGs may vary depending on their structure—some ERGs can have a more formal structure aligned with an organization’s DEI strategy, while others are completely managed by volunteers without an overarching strategy or framework to follow. ERGs can also vary in terms of the benefits that they offer—some ERGs may purely focus on networking and building connections at work, while others may have specific programs such as mentorship programs and volunteering opportunities.

Why are ERGs important?

With a feeling of belonging, employees are more likely to share their thoughts, innovate, take risks, and build meaningful relationships at work. Although investing in DEI programs is a great way to promote a culture where belonging is supported, there are other ways companies can further expand these efforts, such as supporting employee resource groups (ERG).

In this column, I will be going over what an ERG is, why it’s important, and how you can start an ERG at your company.

Employee resource groups help create a sense of belonging for employees, especially for companies in which hybrid or remote work is the norm. As we learned earlier, a sense of belonging in the workplace drives employee engagement. Not only that, but according to research conducted by BetterUp in 2021, belonging leads to a 56% increase in job performance, a 50% reduction in turnover risk, and a 75% decrease in employee sick days.

How do I start an employee resource group at work?

What is an ERG? An employee resource group is an employee-led group with the purpose of creating space for people with common interests or backgrounds to connect with each other. Also called an affinity group, these groups serve as a way for people with similar identities to learn from other members and network with co-workers whom

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1. Gauge interest and gather data by asking for input.

Since employee resource groups are volunteer based, it’s a good idea to start by assessing if there is interest from other employees who may have similar identities or backgrounds. Typically done through a survey, this research will enable you to gauge future participation and the needs of potential members.

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ERG Testimonials 2. Get buy-in from HR and leadership. Once you have reached the point where there is a significant amount of people interested in joining an ERG, you’ll need buy-in from HR and/or someone in senior leadership. Getting their buyin will enable you to get their support as needed.

You can also collaborate with them to align your ERG with the company’s people strategy or any organizational needs that your ERG can help with.

3. Define the purpose of your ERG. Before launching your ERG, it’s important to put together the purpose of your ERG using the information you’ve gathered so far. This purpose can be captured by writing an ERG mission statement that goes over what the ERG is for and why it’s important.

4. Recruit members! Bring awareness to your new ERG by announcing it in company meetings, via email, or in other ways that fit the communication norms within your company.

Inviting allies can be a good way to expand your ERG, but it’s good to keep in mind that not all ERG meetings have to be ally meetings and can depend on the purpose of a specific meeting.

5. Host your first meeting. Your first meeting is a great opportunity to provide an overview of your ERG’s mission statement, member and ally expectations, and other important details that you’d like to share.

6. Get feedback. As you determine future ERG meetings and events with your members, it’s important to get their feedback and recommendations. You can do this through surveys or by asking for direct feedback. With this information, you can measure the impact of your initiatives, and get an understanding of the evolving needs and interests of your members.

I hope this column has been helpful to anyone who is looking to make an impact by starting an ERG in their workplace. Good luck with your ERG and thank you for your commitment to building a sense of community and belonging at work! ◆ ANDY SANTOS is the Director of People and Culture for SpotHero and a member of IPMI’s Allyship & Equity Advisory Group. He can be reached at andy.santos@spothero.com.

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ALLYSHIP & EQUITY ADVISORY GROUP

Knowing that I wanted this column to be about ERGs, I realized that a great way to highlight an ERG’s benefits is to share testimonials from ERG members. Below are personal testimonials that I’ve gathered from ERG members at SpotHero.

Being an ERG leader has helped me build meaningful relationships with people I don’t normally interact with daily. I’ve learned so much about team building and the importance of finding a supportive community.

—Daniella Cortez, Senior Growth Manager ERG Lead of the First Generation Professionals at SpotHero

The African Americans/Canadians & Blacks ERG has been a huge benefit to my time and career here at SpotHero. The ERG fosters a healthy sense of community when discussing topics that directly affect African Americans/Canadians inside and outside our organization. The ERG also gives us the opportunity to invest our time and skills with outside organizations, such as My Block My Hood My City, which helps AfricanAmerican communities here in Chicago.

—Demonze Spruiel-Rose, Sr. Level 2 Support Engineer II ERG member, African Americans/Canadians & Blacks at SpotHero

Being an ERG leader in the Parents ERG has given me an opportunity to have cross-departmental connections and learn about my colleagues in a way that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to in my current role. My role as an ERG lead allows me to use my creativity and build my networking skills while fostering a sense of community.

I feel like I am part of the footprint in creating a more inclusive and diverse environment that exemplifies so much of what I love about working for SpotHero.

—Jen Mateja, Internal Operations Specialist ERG Lead, Parents at SpotHero

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THE GREEN IMPACT

Overcoming the Electrification Challenge on Campus

By Brett Wood, CAPP, PE

O

VER THE PAST YEAR, the IPMI EV Cohort has worked to document the current status

of our members on their journey towards implementation of electric vehicle support equipment (EVSE) and electrified fleet services. With the rapid intensification of funding, policies, and guidelines associated with electrification, now is the time to better define and adopt practices associated with efficient implementation of EVSE and electrified fleet services. However, that adoption is not without its own challenges and obstacles, especially in academic environments where both the provision of EVSE for patron use and electrification of fleets is critical to reaching sustainability goals set by both parking and mobility programs as well as campus leadership.

Based on the findings of the IPMI EV Cohort and the recommendations of the EV Readiness Plan, there are a few key considerations for campus parking and mobility managers to consider. Let’s start with the current state of the market.

The Current State of EVSE and EV Fleet Adoption on Academic Campuses The IPMI EV Cohort conducted an industry-wide survey to better understand how our members were implementing, operating, and managing EVSE and EV Fleet services.

Nearly 90 academic campuses across the U.S. responded to the survey, providing a rich set of data related to EV opportunities on academic campuses. The following key findings define how our academic members are approaching their electrification journey today. ● 54% of respondents felt that campus policies were supportive of EVSE and EV Fleet implementation and adoption today. These policies range from those internal to the parking and transportation operations to those from campus leadership. In subsequent conversations with campus respondents, it was apparent that while policies were supportive, they were more reactive than proactive and often left members responding to requests rather than setting the path forward. ● 60% of respondents currently have electrified components of their fleets, with most of those EV fleet vehicles in the light/medium duty category and a smaller portion using electric shuttles and fleets. ● 40% of respondents indicated that they intended to implement or expand EV fleet vehicles in the near term,

but most were unsure of the timeline for expansion. For those planning to expand, most expected that expansion to include light and medium duty vehicles, with smaller percentages expecting to upgrade shuttles or buses. ● The biggest barriers to implementation or expansion of EVSE and EV Fleets on campuses included: 1. The sourcing and availability of vehicles based on current market supply.

2. The cost for obtaining vehicles and infrastructure is based on inflation.

3. The opportunities to identify funding sources to support expansion or implementation.

4. The physical site constraints needed to support expansion or implementation.

5. Availability of power and utility resources to support expansion or implementation.

Overcoming the Challenges The IPMI EV Readiness Plan outlines eight steps that are critical to preparing for and successfully implementing EVSE and EV Fleets. Those steps include: 1. Establish Program Goals 2. Confirm Focus Areas 3. Assess Organizational Preparedness 4. Conduct Utility Assessment 5. Understand Market Demands 6. Identify Charging Locations and Charging Types 7. Develop Operations, Maintenance & Management Strategies 8. Define an Implementation Process

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For most of the academic vehicles that come to campus that are Porter respondents to the IPMI EV all electric.

Readiness Survey, the first few steps Gabe Mendez, University of are already being addressed on Wisconsin (UW): Currently the campuses. Whether at the parking vehicles we need are not available for program level or the campus leadership purchase through state procurement, Mendez level, goals and focus areas are being but we are looking at how to increase established to support campus sustainability goals. At availability with our state partners. the programmatic level, most academic parking and UW is currently in the midst of an EV transportation programs have assessed and established infrastructure study to identify fleet preparedness but are waiting on outside forces to coalesce and charging areas, what would be needed to provide provide guidance, including local and state utilities and the electricity to those locations, and to see if we have the federal guidance. capacity required for the additional energy draw on campus.

With those steps in motion, some of the hardest steps for After completing the study, the UW will develop an academic campuses to overcome are the specific identification electrification plan with phasing to increase our plugin EV fleet. of available resources, utility coordination, and identification of The goals and outcomes of each campus’ electrification how to allocate limited resources. The EV Cohort reached out journey are very much a moving target at this point. Most to several leaders in the academic parking and transportation campuses are reacting to goals established from leadership and spectrum to better understand specific challenges that are critical stakeholders as well as availability of local, state, and limiting the further implementation and expansion of EV federal resources. While the intended outcome is implementing resources on campuses. Their viewpoints included: the infrastructure necessary to support EV expansion on JC Porter, Arizona State University (ASU): There isn’t campus, the road to get there differs based on the resources enough electricity currently generated to meet the lofty goals available today. That’s why it’s critically important now to define we are setting both on our campus and regionally. The California your EV readiness and develop plans to help proactively move schools in the PAC-12 (rest in peace) are more concerned than along the electrification journey. For more information about most about the ability to service and charge EV fleets. Currently how to do that, IPMI’s EV Readiness Plan can provide guidance California gets first choice to buy EVs and they are having a as you define your path forward. ◆ tough time finding cars. Here in Arizona, it takes us a year to get an EV car and if we don’t buy it right away it gets sold out from BRETT WOOD, CAPP, PE, is MEMBER us. On campus, we are setting infrastructure in place without President of Wood Solutions Group EV READINESS and Co-Chair of IPMI’s EV Readiness adequate demand from users. Our current charger utilization COHORT Cohort. He can be reached at brett@ is 7.21%. There are not enough electric cars that need to be woodsolutionsgroup.com. charged during the day and ASU currently has 1% of permitted

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HR PERSPECTIVE

Unlocking a Seamless Acquisition The Power of Retaining Full Management Teams

I

By David Schmid

N THE WORLD OF PARKING COMPANY ACQUISITIONS, it’s not uncommon for

companywide changes to occur. After all, combining two companies—each with its own history, values, and legacy—is a vast undertaking. While some owners may want to retire, one way to minimize change and create a smoother transition is by working diligently to retain the acquired company’s entire management team. Here, we’ll discuss why that’s an important component of the acquisition process and how that can unlock greater success for both the acquiring and selling companies.

Building on Established Expertise and Industry Knowledge By the time two companies are finalizing an acquisition, they have determined that it will benefit their leadership teams to join forces and collaborate.

As a result, investing in the selling company’s existing management team often proves extremely valuable for the two organizations. It leverages the expertise and industry knowledge of that company’s leaders for greater external success and ensures a more seamless transition for internal teams.

Between the two companies, transparent communication is key. Essentially, this boils down to the acquiring company doing what they say they will do. Through honest words and corresponding actions, acquiring companies assure the seller’s team that the future is secure, creating a sense of ease that leads to greater collaboration. The two can achieve even more meaningful long-term success with the understanding that both companies are there to support and strengthen each other’s work.

Cultural Alignment and Continuity Cultural compatibility plays a crucial role in successfully retaining management teams. While no two companies are identical, similar missions, shared values, and complementary company cultures can establish a cohesive environment. This can create a stronger connection between both companies’ existing leaders, ultimately fostering a more unified team and successfully retaining the selling company’s leaders.

Accomplishing this can result in a smoother transition

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for team members and the overall preservation of the selling company’s unique identity.

When the acquiring company demonstrates its dedication to honoring the selling company’s legacy, it also instills confidence. This indicates to the selling company’s team members that their work is respected and their company’s mission and values will remain intact. With this understanding, they can feel a greater sense of belonging earlier in the acquisition process, leading to enhanced team member retention.

Trust and Relationships with Clients and Team Members At the end of the day, successful acquisitions rely on trust. After all, the seller trusts the acquiring company with the business they’ve dedicated their lives to.

That’s why establishing and nurturing trust is vital during an acquisition. When acquiring companies back up their promises with corresponding actions, like retaining the existing management team, they send a reassuring message to clients and corporate and field team members.

Because the current management team has existing relationships—both internal and external—and a wealth of institutional knowledge, their insight is invaluable in the continued success of both companies.

By supporting these individuals, acquiring companies can ensure the maintenance of existing clients while also leveraging both organizations’ combined networks and industry connections to facilitate significant growth.

Empowering and Motivating Team Members The decision to retain the management team can positively impact employee morale and motivation. The continuity of leadership instills a sense of stability and helps demonstrate an ongoing commitment to building a unified company culture. As the two organizations collaborate and establish a new rhythm, fostering the budding connection between team members also creates an enjoyable work environment that inspires people to participate. From citywide scavenger hunts and holiday parties to quarterly lunches and volleyball games in the park, team-building events bring people together outside their daily routines and give them space to form strong bonds beyond the office’s walls.

Additionally, investing in team members’ career development is integral to team motivation and retention. When acquiring companies offer opportunities to transfer to other cities or establish clear career tracks for upward mobility, the seller’s team can capitalize on the business expansion and utilize the newfound paths for personal and professional development. With increased opportunities, the work environment offers these team members additional inspiration for pursuing a career within the companies, which benefits the organizations collectively.

Commitment to Successful Integration Retaining the management team requires a wellthought-out integration plan. Because teams entering new dynamics can feel apprehensive or concerned, it’s important to simplify the process as much as

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possible. From establishing transparent communication and distinguishing clear roles and responsibilities to addressing potential overlaps and aligning goals and objectives, numerous key strategies can ease the transition.

Integration also requires companywide commitment.

This includes the acquiring company showing complete support across departments and divisions. Bringing everyone, from C-suite executives to HR team members, on-site to conduct the onboarding process in person— as opposed to video calls which, while efficient, lack opportunities to build camaraderie—demonstrates the entire organization’s dedication to welcoming the new team and building a lasting partnership. It leads the way for active collaboration between the acquiring and selling teams, driving synergy, and promoting a unified vision.

Retaining the selling company’s entire management team during an acquisition can be a transformative decision with numerous benefits. By tapping into established expertise, maintaining cultural continuity, nurturing trust, and empowering employees, the acquiring company sets the stage for long-term success. The transition can be seamless by following effective integration strategies, resulting in a united and thriving organization poised for growth in this dynamic industry. ◆ DAVID SCHMID is the CEO of Propark Mobility. He can be reached at david.schmid@ propark.com.

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LEADERSHIP MOMENT

Three Keys to Better Communication

by Brian Wolff

A

S A LEADER, your job is to be continuously seeking the truth and finding

creative and efficient ways to deal with that reality. Many times, the truth is buried deep within your organization and the challenge is to create an environment where downline leaders and front-line people share news with one another, both the good, and most importantly, the bad.

Our organization has worked very hard to create the right conditions for information to flow up and down the line, regardless of the content, with three techniques: 1. We remind ourselves to assume noble intent with any piece of information being delivered.

2. We strive to be curious for one more minute.

3. We find ways to be present.

The combination of these three techniques sets the conditions for the right information to reach the right person so that effective decisions can be made in a timely manner. Let’s examine each of these in a bit more depth.

Many times, when we communicate, the receiver is focused more on listening to respond, or for intent, instead of listening for content. Assuming noble intent gives one a license to listen first for what the person is saying. Of course, “how” one says it is, many times, is more important than the “what,” and paying attention to body language and emotion are critical components to understanding the context. Ascribing noble intent makes it easier to keep politics out of the conversation. However, this does not happen without effort.

Leaders must declare and then execute their own communications with noble intent and expect the same from their people. Our organization felt it was so crucial that we made it one of our core values. By raising it to this level, it becomes a guiding principle and an expectation that all employees operate in this manner. Assuming noble intent is remarkably hard to do, which is exactly why it must be elevated to an expectation across the organization.

With noble intent established, leaders need to keep in mind that the true meaning of the communication they are receiving is probably not revealed in the opening volley but is instead buried more deeply. This is the time to deploy the concept of being curious a minute longer. The benefits are twofold. By being curious, one assumes a posture of trying to understand the full picture rather than interrogate. The second and more

important aspect of developing a healthy curiosity is to prevent one from jumping to conclusions and shutting down the flow of information.

The final piece is the power of being present. Presence takes several forms. It’s well established that open communication takes place better between individuals who know each other.

Leaders should endeavor to spend time around their teams to build stronger relationships when critical conversations are not necessarily happening. That requires that leaders intentionally have a presence in all the various working environments where their people perform their jobs. Get out from behind that desk and make your presence known on a regular basis. That presence fosters familiarity and bonds that can be relied upon when critical communication must be delivered.

The final component of being present is to listen to the individual without distraction and focus on their words and their posture. Being present in that way conveys respect and importance, which, in turn, clears the way for the truth to be conveyed and heard.

In summary, crucial conversations empower leaders to learn the truth and act on the best available information. Uncovering the best information requires a leader to create an environment of openness and exchange. That is best achieved when noble intent is assumed, by being curious another minute (rather than jumping to conclusions) and by being present with one’s team.

Sometimes the truth is difficult to deliver and hard to receive.

However, as information flows more freely, better decisions are made, and organizations more easily decide and execute for success. ◆

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BRIAN WOLFF is President & CEO of Parker Technology and a member of the IPMI Technology Committee. He can be reached at brian.wolff@helpmeparker.com.

MEMBER

TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

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The Leading Credential in Parking & Mobility

Reach out to the network of professionals within IPMI, ask for a mentor, and or join a study group.

You do not have to walk this path alone.

Cynthia Lang, CAPP, MPA

Portfolio Manager, National Capital Region, JASINT Consulting and Technologies, LLC Click here to find out why Cynthia earned her CAPP and how it impacted her career.

PARKING SPOTLIGHT DESMAN

Springfield, OH’s Downtown Parking Garage Catalyst For Revitalization and Sustainability

I

N RECENT YEARS, Springfield, Ohio, has emerged as a prime

choice for young professionals seeking a place to live, work, and raise families. The Downtown Parking Garage stands as a symbol of this transformation, playing a pivotal role in the city’s revival.

Under the banner of “Forward Together,” Springfield has seen a surge in population, bringing fresh energy to its downtown area and igniting demand for innovative sustainable urban planning solutions and mobility alternatives.

The Downtown Parking Garage is not just your ordinary parking structure—it’s a 305-spot “Automated Parking Facility” that embraces simplicity and intuitive wayfinding to guide both pedestrians and vehicles seamlessly to their destinations.

This 100,000 SF, three-level multi-purpose facility serves as a cornerstone for parking not only for automobiles but also for bicycles and scooters, addressing the diverse mobility needs of the community. Beyond its parking functions, it offers 3,000 square feet of valuable retail and restaurant space, along with two unisex public washrooms, enhancing the overall experience for visitors and event-goers.

What truly sets this garage apart is its commitment to community engagement and art. Springfield commissioned a local art group to adorn the entire west side

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FIRM: DESMAN PROJECT LOCATION: Springfield,

OH PROJECT OWNER: Springfield, OH KEY STAFF:

Steve Rebora, Principal-InCharge/Parking Design Specialist ● Bob Lutz, Project Manager ●

PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS: Dugan

& Meyers, General Contractor

Rebora

Lutz

WORTHINGTON IMAGES 2023

“First, It’s gorgeous; what an addition to the looks of downtown. Second, it’s about keeping jobs in downtown Springfield and adding more jobs. In order for that to happen, we needed more parking space. Third, this is a sign, a symbol of the optimism of the people of Springfield and Clark County about how we will rise and how we will make a better tomorrow. And this is part of that effort. And last but not least, this is a symbol of what we can accomplish when we work together.”

— David Estrop City Commissioner

of the building, turning it into a canvas for community artwork. Along the southern face of the structure, trellises have been installed, creating a space for community planning—a nod to Springfield’s nickname, the “City of Roses,” once known for producing more roses than any other city worldwide.

The design of the retail and garage spaces includes outdoor seating nooks and gathering areas, intended to activate the site. These spaces come alive during art fairs, music events, and with various vendors on evenings and weekends, infusing the area with energy and culture.

Recognizing the importance of sustainable transportation, the facility accommodates indoor bicycle parking and supports micro-mobility through staging for the City’s Bird scooter program. Springfield City Area Transit (SCAT) also has a stop at this location, ensuring safe and convenient transportation to and from this popular destination. Accessibility is a priority, with carefully designed pedestrian circulation paths and ADA compliance.

Sustainability is at the heart of this project. The garage utilizes natural light, supplemented by dimmable LED lighting, and incorporates recycled and locally sourced materials. Future plans include photovoltaic roof

panels and charging stations for electric vehicles and alternativefueled vehicles.

Perhaps one of the most impressive achievements of this project was the ability to bring a comprehensive program to fruition despite a significant budget reduction of nearly $3 million just before the project commenced. The design team and builder exhibited were dedicated to creativity, efficiency, and innovation through value engineering efforts.

Utilizing the sloping site effectively offset the need for ramps and minimized excavation costs. The third level of the garage doubles as the roof of the retail space, eliminating the necessity for a traditional built-up roof as originally envisioned.

The Downtown Parking Garage has not only met but exceeded the goals set by the community. It stands as a symbol of Springfield’s revitalization, sustainability, and commitment to the future—a testament to what can be achieved when a city unites “Forward Together.” Praised by the press and local residents alike, this facility is a model for how innovation and community spirit can transform urban spaces. ◆

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What impact is technology having on What impact is technology parking and mobility having on large-scale parking for universities, and mobility operations? healthcare centers, airports, business campuses, and other large-scale parking operations?

ASK THE EXPERTS

ASK THE EXPERTS Debbie Lollar, CAPP, M.S. Executive Director, Transportation Services Texas A&M University Technology is making us cleaner, greener, and faster. Our industry is advancing at a pace never seen before.

Although this may all sound positive, implementing and managing the new technologies stretches our resources, staff, and minds. This can add stress but let’s all savor the excitement for the progress.

Brian D. Shaw, CAPP Executive Director, Stanford Transportation Stanford University Technology is allowing campuses to move away from physical credentials, parking hardware (meters, pay stations, ticket spitters, etc.) and move to mobilebased payment and license-plate based permits. We’re seeing permit management systems be able to be a one-stop SaaS that does residential, and commuter permits while also facilitating hourly, mobile payments. Cameras have also vastly improved and the ability to collect real-time occupancy data with LPR cameras is gaining ground. The demand for daily commuter parking permits has also grown as hybrid work settles in.

Daniel DeMott, PMP, CSM Chief Technology Officer Elite Parking Services of America The implementation of technology enabled mobility—parking promises to bring transformative benefits to parking operations, both immediately and in the future. I envision technology as a key driver of efficiency and accessibility that will result in economic growth.

Matthew Inman General Manager MasParc and Mobility LLC Today’s technologies are improving efficiencies for both customers and organizations. Customers now have much more information about available services, as well as more control over how they use and pay for the services they select. At the same time, organizations can gather more data on how their services are used and can more effectively direct their planning and operational efforts.

Lynn Wiggs, CAPP Associate Director, Transportation Services Texas A&M University Technology continues to enhance parking options, particularly with payments. Being able to speed up exit times from facilities is key for traffic management. Mobility options are ever changing with new technology giving more individual flexibility but creating parking challenges.

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Erik Nelson, PCIP Director Walker Consultants The biggest impact of technology for large parking owners is connecting people to parking and mobility services. Mobile apps enable instant interaction with all facets of these functions. Digital systems enable efficient location of and access to parking. It’s only getting easier over time.

Ravali Kosaraju, PE, PTOE Director, Mobility WGI Technological advances are assisting Cities in managing congestion along key corridors.

The same can be leveraged to support large campuses. Real-time adaptive traffic management, digital wayfinding, V2I communication for parking guidance minimize campus user and visitor dilemmas and circling for a parking space. Interactive mapping, and smart mobility apps, along with micro-mobility options can optimize large campus mobility while promoting sustainability.

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AND THE CITY OF TAMPA

REVOLUTIONIZING Parking Accessibility

F

LOWBIRD GROUP, a global leader in curbside management and urban

mobility solutions, proudly announces its partnership with the City of Tampa for their latest accessibility initiative. As of July 1st, 2023, The Flowbird app has been integrated as one of the four major mobile parking payment applications in the City of Tampa that support four hours of free parking for disabled permit holders. The parking upgrade enables residents and visitors to enjoy an equally effortless parking experience throughout the city.

Tampa’s latest parking program ensures improved accessibility to the more than 16,000 parking spaces available across the City. The Flowbird App’s integration into this initiative aims to enhance the parking experience for residents and visitors while fostering inclusivity and equal opportunities for all.

The Flowbird Mobile Parking App, which is used across 4,700 cities across the world, allows users to pay for parking from their mobile devices, receive text notifications when time is about to expire, and extend their time without having to visit a pay station. Designed as a true mobility app, the Flowbird app features a map-based user interface, integrated with Waze and other navigation systems to guide users to their preferred parking location.

“The City wanted to ensure that our residents and visitors are equipped with the most convenient and innovative methods to make parking payment transactions effortless,” said Fed Revolte, Parking Division Manager for the City of Tampa.

“We are proud to support the City of Tampa in their commitment to ADA accessibility and inclusivity,” said Benoit Reliquet, President of Flowbird America, “By integrating the Flowbird app into the city’s parking system, we are simplifying the process for disabled individuals and empowering them to navigate the city with convenience and peace of mind.”

Tampa’s latest parking initiative is live as of July 1st, 2023.

To learn more about the Flowbird App, email us: us-info@ flowbird.group or visit Flowbird.group/SmartCity/US

Mobility Hubs Mobility Hubs

The Future of Mobility Does Not Mean the End of Parking—it Means the Evolution of Parking.

By Stephen Oliver, MA, RPP, MCIP

The Future of Mobility Does Not Mean the End of Parking— it Means the Evolution of Parking.

By Stephen Oliver, MA, RPP, MCIP

T

HOSE WORKING IN the

practices of city building, operating, or maintaining are familiar with the critics of parking. For instance, parking woes may include increased walking distances, circuitous transit, and lowefficiency movement for shared mobility. The impacts of parking extend beyond travel and into the environment as we see evidence of heat sinks and impermeable surfaces affecting runoff and stormwater that create financial liabilities for the operator. As the cost of driving personal cars continues to rise, the cost of maintaining that infrastructure also rises.

The importance of parking cannot be lost in the discussion. A parking lot provides a market-driven asset to facilitate independent movement by personal vehicle, while general other functions, such as goods delivery, tend to be secondary. Parking is there because it accommodates movement. The parking lot has become a revenue source which in some cases is paying for the operations of their facility. When looking towards the future of parking, we are asking a question about the future of mobility.

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MOBILITY HUBS

Smart Route

As communities and their needs evolve, we must evolve with them. We must incorporate smarter solutions that solve challenges—including parking lots—and make mobility more sustainable, equitable, and accessible.

The core challenge we’re working with our clients to resolve is a “chicken or the egg” type of problem. Do we change the built form away from parking lots or do we change the modes of travel before the development, thus reducing demand? In the long run, parking is an antiquated solution to single-mode mobility, but we cannot move away from it overnight, and the same solution will not suit every community. The future of mobility lies in a multimodal, accessible, streamlined approach we call “mobility hubs.”

Mobility Hubs are the Solution A mobility hub is a natural evolution of the transportation system, and parking provides a key opportunity for that. Right now, we are working with our clients to incorporate them into communities and campuses in downtowns, rail stations, and parking lots.

At their core, they bring flexible transportation choices together in a key location to enable a range of options.

Mobility hubs also provide an opportunity to evolve the response to the market, providing several transportation solutions each with their own business model and revenue stream. The mobility hub is an evolution of parking, not a revolution.

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Mobility hubs are generally delivered with primary, secondary, and neighborhood scalability. We use three design “levers” to define and design the mobility hub and achieve ambitious mobility goals: ● Optionality: Mobility hubs offer multiple transportation options appropriate to user demographics and market demand. Options might include public transit, cycling, and car share, for example. ● Ease: An effective mobility hub makes travel more convenient. It also enables more users to move seamlessly through it with minimal friction. ● Scale: The size of the mobility hub needs to suit the market demand, the options it makes available, and its location (from sidewalk to purpose-built structure to transit stations).

By understanding the travel behaviors in an area and the services that people are moving to, we can work with clients to evolve the transportation system.

Through these interventions, we create more expansive trips, serve more people, and build resilience into the mobility market.

In most cases, buildings are oriented toward existing parking. By repurposing some or all of this space, we can provide transportation choices to the people accessing the building as we design the mobility hub. For example, when the correct type of bike parking is placed in the right location, all nearby buildings invite cycling without each one needing to create their own unique solution.

In the world of e-bikes and e-scooters, parking provides charging and both user and advertising revenue. This example changes the relationship between the people accessing each building and increases the function of the parking lot. Additionally, secure parking location provides a reliable end-of-trip facility, which opens new transportation choices and brings in new users.

Similarly, this approach extends to curbside management, deliveries, transit interchanges, electric vehicle charging, and even walking facilities. The mobility hub, properly placed and designed for the users interacting with it, creates a library of transportation solutions with high quality access to many destinations.

When considering the operation or feasibility of the mobility hub, the role of surface parking will continue to serve and respond to market demands. This creates a financially feasible solution that provides the opportunity to generate revenue from the parking spaces, even while the need for parking diminishes. In most communities’ private operators are established providing micromobility (e.g., bike share), electric vehicle charging, e-bike charging, wayfinding and advertising, private shuttles, and package delivery services. All of these are best positioned near businesses and in response to market demands, ensuring you can create a demand service for both the adjacent buildings and the transportation network.

We have developed mobility hubs in a way that balances a range of capital and operational changes. Exploring mobility hubs as a new solution? By testing out the solution as part of a temporary or pilot program, even mobility hubs with a small footprint can expand for events and seasonality – and ultimately influence and even change behavior over time to create communities that are more accessible and open to different modes of mobility.

For landowners—building owners/operators, developers, or parking authorities—mobility hubs create a potential to expand users. They basically rejuvenate how people access the site, while directly trading inefficient transportation solutions for more beneficial options. Due to the space required, cost of construction, and the environmental impacts (e.g., heat sink, stormwater runoff ), surface parking is wildly inefficient.

When mobility hubs function at their peak, they can serve the same person on several trips and purposes. Now the owner of the same parking spaces has effectively created a range of market offerings in the same space. The owner also benefits from multiple integrated transportation options which serve customers, business operators and good delivery. This is uniquely possible here because parking has already been built—at the intersection of transportation and destination.

Be Proactive About Parking Potential Parking lot owners that aren’t changing their plans towards a mobility future are at risk of losing their relevance. Today’s

economic trends are putting pressure on the car as the singlemobility solution. A mobility hub serves more customer types, uses land more efficiently, and ties the transportation land use to the needs of the future. This serves the parking function and opens the adjacent land uses to a range of new visitors and customers. To move away from the car you also need to move away from parking, this is an evolution, not a revolution. We work with clients to identify what transportation options are meaningful and viable.

And we create a design that facilitates movement for everyone at the appropriate scale.

Curious about the potential that your parking has? Start by looking at areas for potential opportunities.

1. Assess your assets. Explore the infrastructure on the ground for key transportation interchanges. Where are people going that is single-use transportation space, and where do different transportation networks meet?

2. Assess your users. Look at the demographics, market demand, and population projections. Determine the modes of transportation needed to support a range of users.

3. Assess service providers. Open yourself to private operators, what disruption is in your community and how can the parking resources be set up to serve your users?

4. Act on your opportunity. Find the quick wins that can be rolled out rapidly in locations where people are interchanging already and use this to support the network. Start by providing the opportunity to change behavior and don’t forget, big moves support big change. ◆ STEPHEN OLIVER, MA, RPP, MCIP, is a Senior Planner—Transportation, Smart(ER) Mobility Practice Lead (Canada) for Stantec Consulting Ltd. He can be reached at stephen.oliver@stantec.com.

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Revolutionizing the Park-and-Fly Experience Case Study: Bringing 24/7 Customer Service to Regina International Airport

By Bill Smith

REVOLUTIONIZING the Park-and-Fly EXPERIENCE

Case Study: Bringing 24/7 Customer Service to Regina International Airport

By Bill Smith

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P

ARKING IS AN EXTRAORDINARILY IMPORTANT ASSET for airports. From a customer service

perspective, parking is a vital service for travelers, who are often in a rush to park and get into the terminal to catch a plane. At the end of the trip, these same travelers are often tired and anxious to get home. When it comes to parking, the most important thing airport parking managers can do is get travelers in and out of garages and lots as quickly as possible, without hassle.

As important as parking is to travelers, it’s just as important to the airports at which they are located. For many airports, parking is the second most important source of revenue, after gate fees. On average, car parking and ground transportation revenue provides 19 percent of all airport revenue, or about $3.49 billion annually in the U.S. alone.

Of course, we live in the age of automated parking. Automation was intended to make parking more customer friendly, not to mention more manageable. For the most part, it has—and does. But there will always be occasions when things don’t go as planned, or

when technology doesn’t work as it should. Many parking owners have found that that’s when a human touch is needed.

Regina International Airport Parking Upgrades Regina International Airport, which expects to serve about one million passengers this year, experienced issues in the past with drivers encountering delays entering and exiting at gates. The airport didn’t have 24/7 customer service and, as one airport official explained, “At times, parkers would be stuck in the lot anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes, waiting for a parking

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REVOLUTIONIZING THE PARK-AND-FLY EXPERIENCE

Regina International Airport, which expects to serve about one million passengers this year, experienced issues in the past with drivers encountering delays entering and exiting at gates. representative to let them out. This would result in some customers ramming the gates, lifting them themselves, and causing damage to the parking equipment.”

Obviously, this situation was a problem from a customer service point of view. When airports don’t have a good parking experience, they are much more likely to turn to satellite lots the next time they travel. Plus, when customers are damaging equipment out of frustration, repair and replacement costs can mount.

The solution for Regina International Airport was to partner with Parker Technology to implement a 24/7 customer service solution. Working closely with the airport’s parking operator, Parker implemented an API integration with the airport’s existing TIBA PARCS equipment, which provides Parker’s software platform access to information from TIBA’s platform.

“Because the new platform integrated seamlessly with the existing equipment, the cost of the upgrade was negligible,” said James Virgie, Regional Manager of Platinum Parking Canada, the airport’s parking operator.

“We didn’t have to buy new equipment and the entire

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integration only took a couple of weeks.”

The integration improves efficiencies for the handling of calls from the airport’s seven entry lanes and eight exit lanes in its short-term, long-term, overflow, and employee parking garages and lots. Additionally, the system allows customers to pay for parking at terminals inside the parking garage, before getting into their vehicles.

With the integration, drivers who experience difficulties entering or exiting parking facilities can push a button and speak directly with customer service staff who can troubleshoot misread tickets, help drivers navigate the payment process if they are having trouble, calculate fees, and send customers electronic receipts.

Most customer problems are easily resolved.

Customers usually just need someone to walk them through the process when they lose a ticket, don’t know where to put the ticket, or can’t get the systems to read their credit card. About 3% of parking customers experience a problem that they need help with, and 85% of the time, people press the help button because they are confused.

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REVOLUTIONIZING THE PARK-AND-FLY EXPERIENCE

Customer service platforms make representatives available to help ease their confusion and walk them through the process. Most issues can be resolved in just 30 seconds.

Platform + Process In preparation for the Regina International Airport launch, an implementation team worked to develop responses to common issues that are likely to arise. All this data was entered into the new software platform, which acts as a workflow management system, so that customer service representatives have guidance on how to help customers insert their tickets properly, what to do if the equipment malfunctions, what the airport’s policy is on towing vehicles, and when it’s ok to just open the gate.

When a new issue arises, representatives figure out how to best handle the situation, then create a rule or concept that gets implemented into the system.

When that situation arises again, the customer service representative can see the new rule and answer that customer within a few seconds.

Because the new platform contains information for all 870+ facilities, from across its customer base, all in one place, in a standardized way, no additional training was needed with the onboarding of the airport. The business rules guide customer service representatives on how to handle any situation. These issues and resolutions are tracked in real-time, and rules and responses can be adjusted quickly if necessary.

Data Driven Data is an essential element of any parking facility’s operation. Typically, parking managers only have access to utilization data outlining how many people park in a certain garage and which times or days are busiest. This is certainly important information, but it doesn’t tell managers anything about their customers’ experiences. Customer service platforms are set up to fill that gap.

The cloud-based platform tracks all calls in a dashboard, allowing airport officials and operators to review call recordings; track how many calls came in, when, and from which equipment; and hear customer service representatives resolve situations. This allows airport executives and the operator to understand how frequently there are problems and what’s causing those problems.

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The data that’s produced helps identify trends, such as when people forget their parking passes, whether customers tend to have similar frequent issues with the equipment, or whether there’s equipment that isn’t functioning properly. This information can then be used to determine whether action should be taken, such as repairing or replacing equipment or revising communications with customers about how to use the equipment. This feedback can be used to monitor the performance of customer service representatives.

Bottom Line From a purely customer service perspective, the addition of customer service technology has been a success. And it has also helped the airport’s bottom line. When problems at gates are resolved successfully, operators don’t need to lift gates just to get queues moving again. Each time a gate-lift occurs, the airport is losing fees from that parking stay. If it happens dozens— or even hundreds—of times a day, those losses add up over time. The customer service technology eliminates these unnecessary losses. In fact, since introducing the technology, parking revenues have risen each month.

“The technology is allowing the airport to capture revenue that had been lost in the past,” said Virgie.

“It’s not unusual for travelers to misplace their tickets during their travels, but now when this happens, the technology can scan the driver’s license plates to retrieve the information about their parking stay, determine when the customer entered, and collect the appropriate fee.”

And according to airport executives, the addition of the technology is having a more traditional financial impact. Because parkers are happier with their parking experiences, the airport is seeing more repeat customers in airport parking facilities.

“Dissatisfied customers no longer come to the Airport Authority with complaints, which is a very good litmus test for how parking is performing,” said Justin Reves, Manager of Customer Experience and Marketing for the Regina Airport Authority. “We’ve seen a marked increase in the number of people choosing to park in our long-term parking.” ◆ BILL SMITH is a publicist and business writer specializing in the parking industry. He can be reached at bsmith@smith-phillips.com.

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Y S A A S E Easy as A,B,C Creating and Implementing a University Mobility Master Plan

By Debbie Lollar, CAPP, M.S.

Creating and Implementing a University Mobility Master Plan

By Debbie Lollar, CAPP, M.S.

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I

N 2019, TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY WAS EXPERIENCING YEAR AFTER YEAR OF UNPRECEDENTED GROWTH in population and in the construction of new facilities, often

built on existing parking lots. The University’s 2017 Campus Master Plan (CMP) recommended eliminating most small, interior parking lots to reduce traffic and associated modal conflicts in favor of last-mile infrastructure, pedestrian plazas, and green space. Transportation Services initiated the pursuit of the creation of a Mobility Master Plan (MMP) to align the campus and its services with the rapidly evolving mobility needs at Texas A&M University’s College Station, Texas campus.

The point at which the MMP was initiated, Texas A&M University’s student enrollment was more than 68,000. The campus was the fifth largest among U.S. universities with an operating budget over $1,000,000,000. College Station, due to its population size, does not qualify for federal transit resources available to densely populated, metropolitan areas. Campus transit service is funded by student fees and the parking services operation is an auxiliary funded through visitor parking and permit income. The campus spans 5,000 acres with primarily flat terrain that includes a state roadway and railroad tracks that divide the campus comprised of more than 36,000 parking spaces.

The MMP would focus on efforts over the next 10 years, with

an abridged view 20 years into the future to prepare for significant developments or implementations requiring prerequisite steps during the first 10 years. Autonomous vehicles and mobility options not considered viable for this community within the prescribed timeline were excluded from the analysis. The improvements of the MMP target transportation safety, minimization of congestion, preservation of local character, outline goals and policies for the transportation system, analyze existing and collect new data, accommodate growth, and protect environmental, historic, and natural resources. The plan would guide the process to garner campus-wide commitment to travel to, from, and around campus by a means other than driving single occupancy vehicles.

College Station, Texas

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EASY AS ABC

A

Precisely Written RFP

For the first time in the history of the university, strategic efforts began to formalize a mobility master plan.

The request for proposals (RFP) was detailed, considered campus interests and initiatives, included measurable goals, defined the scope of the plan, ensured integration with existing systems, and required budget and timeline estimates.

Transportation Services led the effort that resulted in an actionable plan completed last year and is already getting results.

The RFP for the project required alignment with the goals of the university’s 2015 Bicycle District Strategic Plan, 2017 Campus Master Plan (CMP), 2018 Sustainability Master Plan, and 2018 Residence Life Sustainability Plan, as well as community input.

Elements of importance from these plans included a Transportation Mode Hierarchy, rating the priority and environmental impact of people traveling by foot, bike, bus, service vehicle, rideshare, carpool, and single occupancy vehicle; reducing vehicle miles traveled by campus users; increasing capacity of the on-campus transit system; increasing the number of students, faculty, and staff who commute to campus using

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something other than a single occupancy vehicle; operating a campus fleet that minimizes demand for fossil fuels; and increasing use of alternatively fueled vehicles.

The resulting MMP would outline policies that frame the future transportation network in an environmentally sensitive manner and embrace the concept of “Complete Streets”—the approach to planning streets that are designed, operated, and maintained to enable safe, convenient, and comfortable travel and access for users of all ages and abilities.

The primary goals of the RFP included: ● A well-connected, coordinated network of efficient, safe, and convenient multimodal transportation options implemented in an environmentally sensitive manner to improve accessibility and mobility, and minimize congestion. ● Diminishing greenhouse gases released from university-related commuter transportation by reducing single occupancy vehicle trips to, from, and around campus by shifting travel behavior to sustainable modes of transportation. ● Improvements to sidewalk and path accessibility, safety, and continuity of campus travel in aesthetically pleasing ways. ● A transit operation that builds upon its success providing student service and strives to support future needs of faculty and staff and in support of the CMP, which identifies a need for faculty and staff to have travel alternatives from perimeter parking to their offices and around the campus during the day to attend meetings and manage business. The plan should explore and outline various approaches to transit vehicles and routing. The result should be an on-campus service so dependable that a broad range of faculty and staff would consider it a viable daily alternative. The solutions could include, but were not limited to, fixed routes, on-demand service, park and ride, and micro transit. ● An improved system that enhances student and employee health and job satisfaction. ● A plan which minimizes capital, operational, and maintenance costs. ● A plan that integrates the various modes of transportation recommending requisite infrastructure, roadway connectivity, technology, and facilities to

The resulting MMP would outline policies that frame the future transportation network in an environmentally sensitive manner and embrace the concept of “Complete Streets”—the approach to planning streets that are designed, operated, and maintained to enable safe, convenient, and comfortable travel and access for users of all ages and abilities.

facilitate a smooth travel experience.

Parking policies and related privileges that minimize traffic, provide adequate access, and maximize interconnectivity with other modes of travel. ● Provide an implementation plan focusing on prioritization, methodology for measuring success, and projected costs.

The plan should be used to seek cooperation between administrators, faculty, staff, students, sports fans, the wider campus community, and local cities to explore and modernize transportation systems to meet future mobility needs. The RFP included the requirement for a robust stakeholder engagement process conducted by the consultant with close input from Transportation Services staff and focused heavily on last-mile solutions with an emphasis on “Park Once” concepts and reinforcing the essential need of faculty and staff to consider walking, biking, busing, and other sustainable mobility options. Engagements should use metrics such as walking distances, mobility options, and distances from bus stops or other points of interest to gauge viability with our constituents. The RFP included 30 additional transportation-specific considerations that would be used to evaluate and select the winning proposal. ●

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The RFP was written to help select a partner who could help us achieve the outcomes we desired for our campus. The plan had to be specific to our campus, evoke culture change, incorporate multiple mobility options and not a one-size-fits-all approach, prioritize the list of recommendations, estimate costs, and provide tangible, usable solutions. It should evaluate and incorporate existing services and not focus on ideas too futuristic to realistically be implemented in the specified timeframe.

The winning proposal would result in a planning tool that would not sit on the shelf and gather dust, but rather guide the continuous mobility-improvement process for the next 10 years.

B

ig Effort on Data Collection

Once a consultant has been selected and hired to produce a Mobility Plan, the real work begins ensuring the appropriate input and data are considered. Although the plan aims to guide the future, studying the past and understanding the present is imperative to determine what is possible.

Data comes in many forms; much is collected by the consultants, and even more is provided by our teams from interviews and historical data records.

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Include a robust data collection process to include ample historical and presentday data to show trends and existing services provided by your organization as well as partners whose services integrate with yours.

Do not fear overwhelming the consultant team with too much data. Talk with them about all the sources and formats for data you can provide for their review.

When working on a mobility plan, consider all types of relevant operational data collected or accessible by your department, such as: transit boarding and alighting; transit route maps; anonymized constituent home addresses for constructing service area heat maps; parking data to include permit sales, citation data, waiting lists, and space counts; bicycle rack location and routes and occupancy counts; GIS maps; and partner data, such as from the city, transit agency, Metropolitan Planning Organization, Department of Transportation, and other relevant partners.

Constituent groups should be identified, and members invited to participate in engagement opportunities structured by the consultant team to collect both general and specific feedback. Engagements can be used for constituents to identify best and worst mobility experiences, gauge willingness to use various modes, collect feedback, explore current culture, and lay groundwork to begin to shift expectations. Although in-person engagement has significant benefits, consider supplementing with virtual engagement by way of an interactive website, online meetings and forums, and surveys so feedback can be collected from all interested people when it is convenient for them.

The consultant team should spend time at your location to get a clear understanding of existing conditions and to explore what could be possible. An effective plan must include more than generalizations about mobility philosophies or improvements; it must contain detailed information about many specific improvements recommended for exact locations in the zone studied. Defined improvements provide a basis

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for engaging constituents to obtain feedback about and buy-in for the plan. A component of the fieldwork should include observations across the entire region included in the study, testing early theories, and collecting counts by mode to quantify the scope of the work. Be certain to include opportunities for the subject matter experts within your own organization to share their concerns, ideas, and hopes about what may be included in the plan.

The consultant team should be well-versed in industry best practices, benchmarking against other organizations with similar issues, populations, or other related baselines as this provides contextual insight for the basis of their recommendations. These points of reference also help show examples of suggested treatments and how completed solutions can work to improve movement or safety.

One additional factor important to successful data collection is the full engagement and support of the process by administrators within the organization who selected the consulting team. Make personal invitations to and participate in engagement activities. Leadership involvement heightens awareness and emphasizes the importance of the entire mobility plan effort. Be involved in identifying and ensuring data is provided on a timely basis. And even more importantly, talk about the effort undertaken while it is in progress—to employees within the organization who will be implementing the plan, to constituents who will see changes because of the plan, and to administrators so they are aware of the opportunity to engage and are informed of proposed changes and implementations.

The consultants will incorporate all the material into a draft plan. It is important to participate in reviewing it, providing feedback, and requesting others from your team and key constituent areas to do the same. We committed

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to retaining all ideas submitted in the draft, even if we may not have initially liked them, thought they could be possible, or could be adopted in our campus culture.

Already, this has proven to be a successful strategy as one of the concepts we felt most unlikely is already in design.

C

ommitment to Implementation

Once the plan is produced, it is easy to pause to take a deep breath after completing all the hard work to bring it to fruition. Strike while the iron is hot! Use the energy from the work your own team members contributed and the recent engagement sessions with constituents to move forward on implementation.

There are three factors that can begin immediately to keep the momentum going.

First, develop a roadshow, such as a presentation, to tell the story of the mobility plan development and next steps. This will confirm to people who participated in engagements or otherwise contributed to the plan that it has been completed and what you are doing with it now. Remember few people are as informed about the MMP as the group who worked closely with the consultant team. Invite your own leadership team, employees throughout your organization, your boss, your advisory committee, constituent groups who participated in engagement sessions representing city employees, students, faculty, and staff groups. Hosting a roadshow will help build on the familiarity of the topic for those who heard about it or were involved, it will plant the seeds for culture change, and it will hold you accountable to use the plan to make meaningful improvements.

Second, identify an implementation team and meet with them regularly to review the recommendations from the plan to prioritize their implementation.

This is the fun part! It allows the team to go beyond dreaming about what it is possible to being a part of bringing solutions to reality. One approach is to look for some easy wins that can be accomplished on a smaller budget and shorter timeframe. Projects like these show progress to the campus or community and they motivate your team to keep going. Another approach is to consider unrelated projects starting soon to see if there are recommendations from the plan that could be considered at the same time by either incorporating

them into the work plan or completing them simultaneously to dovetail into the already planned closures or infrastructure work.

Third, consider which big-impact projects you will work on first and use these regular meetings to make progress on planning the tasks required to fulfill the requirements to implement them over a longer timeline.

Remember to include appropriate constituent groups in discussions for the upcoming projects to get their input and to continue showing progress. Update the road show along the way to include before, after, and in-progress pictures, to describe upcoming projects, and to continue chipping away at culture change.

Now you know your A, B, C’s!

Getting and implementing a university Mobility Master Plan can seem like moving mountains. Try approaching it like the adage, eating an elephant—one bite at a time. Start with a precisely written RFP to clearly define what you want from the plan so you can see in the proposals which company most closely meets your goals. Then, use the RFP to ensure the chosen company fulfills your requirements.

Next, include a robust data collection process to include ample historical and present-day data to show trends and existing services provided by your organization as well as partners whose services integrate with yours. Include field data obtained by the consultant during site visits and constituent and partner data collected during engagements. This information illustrates services well-adopted, others that are growing or shrinking, and those desired for the future. The consultant compiles the data to identify the best path forward for your region.

Lastly, use your budget, earned revenues, grants, and shared-cost models to begin implementation right away.

Even small projects show momentum and progress. Be sure to keep telling your story about the plan, completed endeavors, and what is coming next. Engagement with constituents is key to communicating project progress, to promoting the usage of new infrastructure or services, and to chip away at culture change. Now you know your A, B, C’s! ◆ DEBBIE LOLLAR, M.S., CAPP, is the Executive Director for Transportation Services at Texas A & M University, and member of IPMI’s Accredited Parking Organization (APO) Board of Directors. She can be reached at dlollar@tamu.edu.

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Take the “Deferred” Out of Maintenance

Take the “Deferred” Out of Plan Now to Save Your Asphalt Later

Maintenance

By Mark Zandonella, CAPP

Plan Now to Save Your Asphalt Later

By Mark Zandonella, CAPP

T

HE OLD SAYING ATTRIBUTED TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,

“An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure,” should be a rule to live by for those of us who manage physical transportation assets, especially paved parking lots. In my 15 years of experience managing parking, I have worked at two college campuses that did not have a plan to manage their asphalt when I arrived. The plan was to respond to major issues when they happened or wait for buildings to be placed on top of the lots. Speaking with many colleagues over the years, neglect seems to be the norm to maintain parking lots, either due to insufficient funding to employ regular maintenance, or because of other university priorities.

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Sometimes parking lots reach full deterioration and are completely rebuilt rather than maintained, costing not only more in construction dollars versus maintenance dollars, but also costing more money due to inflation that has crept up over the years (or soared as in recent years). My first campus was a community college in California, and the parking lot maintenance was centrally funded by the college district. I’m currently at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, and this article will focus on what we have endeavored to accomplish.

The Oregon State University Corvallis Campus is about 570 acres in size, and Transportation Services manages just more than 60 asphalt parking lots and roughly 60 acres of asphalt. Transportation Services is a self-funded auxiliary of the university.

Deferred Maintenance I often joke with colleagues that the term “deferred maintenance” usually describes a university’s regular maintenance plan.

Resources, especially capital and labor, are often lacking. My university was no exception when I arrived in late spring 2015. We were just nearing the completion of our first year operating a zonal parking system, and parking on campus became livable again. The hunting license permits, and staff/student designated lots, were gone and people could usually find a parking space near their destination or choose a space further away for less money and walk, ride a bike, or take our Beaver Bus to their destination. However, we soon realized that another challenge was rearing its head. Some of our parking lots were failing, and we knew other lots could be soon if deferred maintenance did not become regularly scheduled maintenance.

We needed to act.

First Things First—Set a Goal Prior to 2015, quite some time had passed since our department established a baseline for planning the major maintenance or rehabilitation costs needed to bring our lots up to a good condition.

Sackett Hall Lot after Slurry Seal, Oregon State University

But before spending any money or selecting which lots needed to be repaired, we needed a goal. We decided our goal would be to bring all our asphalt lots to a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) rating of “fair” or better. For those of you unfamiliar with PCI (not to be confused with the Payment Card Industry, or Precast/ Prestressed Concrete Institute), it is a common measure used by civil engineers to rate the health of pavement on roads and in parking lots. Without getting into a lot of detail on PCI ratings, we simplified our rating scale to 1 to 8, with 6 being our “fair” number and 8 being “good.”

Make a Plan Now that we had our goal, we needed to create a road map to reach it. In 2016 we decided to start with repairs on the parking lots that we knew were in the worst shape, which was about ten lots. You know the parking lots I’m talking about—they are more gravel than asphalt. However, with just over 60 parking lots, we did not quite know how to prioritize the rest. We needed an expert, but the resources within our organization were not available at the time to perform the detailed assessment and forecast that we needed. We decided to hire a local civil engineer, and in addition to their evaluation services, we asked that they create a plan with the lots and repairs prioritized to reach our goal. We also asked that they include a preventative maintenance plan with projected costs for

immediate repairs and maintenance into the future. What we got was a detailed set of spreadsheets and PDFs that outlined exactly what we needed to do and when, and how much it could cost. Our plan covered 25 years of near-term repairs and ongoing maintenance, with major capital repairs/improvements occurring in the first eight years. The plan placed us on an easy-to-follow schedule to keep our lots in a fair or better condition. It was a relief to have the guesswork removed, and we could move forward on reaching our goal.

Show Me the Money It was one thing to have a plan in hand, and another to fund it. Fortunately, as a selffunded unit, destiny was in our hands. The costs for the first 10 years implementing the plan were projected to be just over $5 million, including our major rehabilitations and ongoing maintenance. We set to work on updating our 10-year capital plan to include these costs. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to secure funding to maintain these facilities. Land is always at a premium, especially on university campuses.

Many of us are working towards reducing our drive alone rates. Many of us also know that in the higher education setting, parking lots are building seeds, especially for those angel donor dollars. If an agency is not able to adjust their rates to maintain parking lots, it should be stressed to the budget authorities that if the availability of parking is reduced, the lots that remain need to be in

TAKE THE “DEFERRED” OUT OF MAINTENANCE

Reser Stadium Lot after Slurry Seal.

good condition and have amenities to meet the expectations of commuters. They may be paying a higher price for a commodity that is reduced in supply (parking spaces for single occupancy vehicles), and commuters may also have been pushed out to campus perimeters as central campus lots are transformed for land uses more in line with a campus master plan. If the agency can adjust their own rates, do the math! Get the 10-year forecast out and update those pro formas.

Keep Moving Forward Even with a plan in place and funding secured, it is so important to continue the momentum. Competing priorities, especially those operational issues that pop up and demand immediate attention, can derail even the best laid plans. We sought help internally from our university’s capital planning and construction unit to help manage our larger repair projects, specifically those that broke ground. It is amazing what is found underground at a 150-year-old university—old foundations, utilities to nowhere, and even mammoth bones! Additionally, with our soft soil in the Willamette Valley, sometimes you dig and must continue digging to get to a place that will support base rock for your asphalt. It was important to have someone dedicated to the major projects in the first five to 10 years while someone within our department was

charged with keeping up the maintenance plan. Fortunately, having someone dedicated to the asphalt repairs paid off as we kicked off our major repairs in 2017.

Their focus, coupled with pre-pandemic pricing, allowed us to jump ahead on our repair projects to get more out of our dollars.

also had new information regarding our sustainability goals and campus planning.

It was time to re-evaluate, a gut-check if you will, our asphalt management plan.

We realized that the remaining repair projects would only take another two years to complete, so we simplified our plan from over 60 spreadsheets (one for each lot and some summary sheets) with very detailed information and costs, to one spreadsheet with all of our lots on a combination of two rotating schedules—a three-year crack fill and striping schedule and a six-year slurry seal schedule (that also included crack fill and striping). We also simplified our financial planning for contracted maintenance by asking for pricing based on the square footage of our parking lots.

Six Years Later

Re-evaluate

As we wrapped up summer 2023, we completed work in the last lots that needed major asphalt repair, and we will be entering our third year using our new rotating maintenance schedule. We hired a contractor who specializes in slurry sealing parking lots for an annual contract, with renewals up to six years (a full slurry cycle). Essentially every year we slurry seal, crack fill, and stripe about a sixth of our total number of parking lots, and we crack fill and stripe a third of our lots, with some overlap of work being done between the lots. We rest well at night knowing that our parking lots are being maintained like a well-oiled machine and will be in good repair and inviting to our community for years to come. Like all accomplishments, following the steps of setting a goal, making a plan, securing funding (sometimes the hardest part!), sticking to the plan, adapting when necessary and evaluating progress, and ensuring execution will set you up for success, and save your asphalt! ◆

As we emerged from the pandemic closures and began in-person instruction in fall 2021, we took stock of how far we had moved along with our asphalt plan. We had made great progress on our lot repairs and began our maintenance cycles. We

MARK ZANDONELLA, CAPP, is the Interim Director of Oregon State University Transportation Services. He can be reached at mark.zandonella@ oregonstate.edu.

Be Nimble It is important to adapt and overcome when obstacles arise, and pivot when new avenues to success reveal themselves. The pandemic wreaked havoc on our budget, similarly to other transportation and parking agencies. But our operating budget and reserve fund stayed in the black. We directed efforts to maintenance, ensuring even the smallest details like moss on curbs in the deepest corners of our lots were addressed. At the same time, we completed a Sustainable Transportation Strategy, and our university completed a campus vision. These planning documents helped us further refine our asphalt management plan and adapt to changing priorities.

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UNDERSTANDING THE

COMPLEXITIES OF

Healthcare Parking

Understanding the Complexities of Healthcare Parking A Q & A with Healthcare Design Experts and More

By Gordon Knowles

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A Q & A with Healthcare Design Experts and More

By Gordon Knowles

H

EALTHCARE FACILITIES are

facing more challenges than ever before, from aging facilities to staff shortages to COVID-19. To better understand how parking can be a part of the solution rather than the problem, I wanted to take a fresh look not only at the patient experience, but also those of the care providers and other visitors to healthcare facilities.

To begin that process, I sat down with two healthcare design experts from NBBJ to talk about the biggest challenges hospitals face when it comes to parking. Teri Oelrich, BSN, MBA, NIHD Fellow, has three decades of experience in the healthcare industry, including full-time nursing, healthcare planning and healthcare consulting. Kim Selby, AICP, CUD, is a planner and urban designer specializing in site analysis, planning and design for healthcare campuses and a variety of other clients and land uses.

The three of us talked about a variety of parking challenges, from patient experience to integrating parking on complicated campuses to evolving needs.

After we spoke, I drew from my over 20 years of experience in healthcare—most recently focusing on parking—to think about solutions for these complex issues.

Examining the Challenges

Knowles

Gordon Knowles (GK): Many patients have mobility issues or are with someone who is, which places extra emphasis on parking as a customer service challenge. What do you see with your clients when it comes to creating a patient-friendly parking experience?

Teri Olerich (TO): You are not happy and chipper when you come to a hospital. Parking needs to be easy to find, easy to navigate, and close to the facility they’re going to. Some parking structures feature

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COMPLEXITIES OF HEALTHCARE PARKING

Olerich

sloped floors, which can create customer service problems when patients have to manage wheel chairs or are unsteady on their feet.

Kim Selby (KS): There’s a lot of stress involved when it comes to hospital parking, so we strive for parking that manages that stress level. For instance, patients are often dropped off and valet parking is not always a comfortable option. Therefore, the location of parking and the driver’s ability to maintain a visual connection to their friend or loved one is a critical piece of the customer service Selby challenge. Can the patient be secure, safe and comfortable while the person helping them parks the car? Not being able to see where you are parking when you drop off your patient creates discomfort.

How parking is distributed is also part of the challenge. Most hospital campuses have outpatient, inpatient and ambulatory services, and parking that serves staff, visitors and patients is needed in multiple places.

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GK: Staff and patient parking is a difficult balance to strike. We design facilities that often serve both, which means designing for both patient ease of access and the high throughput that comes with shift changes, not to mention separating staff and patient parking. But we also see campuses that keep the two users separate, which poses additional challenges. On-grade parking lots often get slated for development, which pushes staff parking to the periphery of a health campus, because it’s easier to put staff farther away than patients.

However, on the flipside, if you make parking too inconvenient, you invite enforcement challenges.

TO: It can also create security challenges.

Hospital operations are 24/7, so safety of where you put parking is extremely important for both visitors and staff, as many people are looking for their cars in the dark. When I worked in downtown Seattle, security would walk us to our cars at night.

That’s a cost no one wants to incur.

KS: Since the onset of COVID-19, healthcare professionals mask throughout their workday, so generally if they have the chance to be alone in their car with their mask off as opposed to continuing to wear one on public transit, they’re going to do it. Providing convenient staff parking becomes a recruiting and retention tool.

Implementing Best Practices

GK: We’ve talked about the complex challenges associated with healthcare; let’s start weaving in some of the solutions. I believe we are on the same page that many people think the patient journey doesn’t start at the front desk—it starts with parking. How are your hospital clients helping patients navigate parking, especially in regards to wayfinding and pick-up and drop-off ?

TO: This is actually really important, as patients who cannot get to the hospital or find parking impact not only physician schedules, but every other specialty involved in their care. Lab work, x-rays, nursing staff, etc. are all affected when someone is late or misses an appointment. Our clients do a number of things to help mitigate this. A health campus in Salt Lake City gives patients a voucher with instructions and a map when they book an appointment. Some hospitals opt for providing Uber vouchers, use a private company to help patients, or give out gas vouchers. But these methods often require someone to be internet savvy, and not everyone is.

KS: A well thought-out operational plan enhanced by wayfinding can make all the difference. The wayfinding challenges are just as big of a struggle with ride share apps as they are with those who drive and park. A hospital may have one address and 18 doors, so It becomes a person-finding nightmare, not just a wayfinding nightmare. Having multiple clear zones is so important.

What’s Preventing Change

GK: We’ve identified a number of parking challenges that healthcare campuses face. What prevents your hospital clients from providing better parking experiences?

TO: Cost is the biggest struggle. Either zoning is so restrictive that we that can’t provide enough parking, or it hasn’t been updated in so long you are working with old models that require more parking than we need. The cost to change that is prohibitive. Money spent on parking is money that isn’t spent on equipment and beds, so it’s taking away from the healthcare services they need to provide.

KS: One of the true challenges for our clients is long term planning: thinking in terms of square footage, service codes and land use. Cities often require the same number of parking stalls for a hospital as they do for an office park or a shopping center, even though their needs are different. It’s very complicated.

GK: Parking is a vital component of master planning for any project type, but even more so for healthcare. What are some of the challenges medical centers experience when incorporating parking into master planning and redevelopment?

KS: Not only do you need to sort out what areas need to be devoted to parking, but you also have to factor in circulation. We work with campuses where patients, deliveries, transit, staff, emergency department, etc. are all entering and exiting at the same point. This means that staff trying to get to work can be stuck behind an ambulance or an elderly patient trying to figure out where they’re going, which creates a choke point that needs to be addressed in master planning.

TO: When locating parking on a healthcare campus, you have to make the right move the first time. Otherwise, you have to spend time and money you don’t want to spend to relocate it, and you’re left with a donut hole in the middle of the campus because the hospital was built around the parking garage. Now you’ve not only impacted parking and operations, but also circulation.

Patients who cannot find parking impact not only physician schedules, but every other specialty involved in their care.

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COMPLEXITIES OF HEALTHCARE PARKING

One thing that we are doing a lot more of now is designing for resiliency and alternative uses, so that parking structures can be re-purposed for overflow emergency services in the event of natural disasters.

KS: We often have to look beyond the client’s horizon.

Our task is to plan the next 10-20 years for a medical campus, but really we’re looking out 30 years, because whoever comes after us will need to replace the oldest part of the campus. You can’t just tear down building A in order to make way for building H; you have to rebuild Building A somewhere else first. We want to make sure we aren’t creating a problem for 30 years down the road that will leave them without choices and options.

GK: How has the healthcare campus approach to parking evolved over the years, and where do you see it heading in the future?

TO: One thing that we are doing a lot more of now is designing for resiliency and alternative uses, so that parking structures can be repurposed for overflow emergency services in the event of natural disasters or pandemics like COVID-19. However, this adds extra

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cost to the initial design. The other problem is that in a situation like a hurricane, the staff isn’t going home. So if you want to convert the parking garage, you still need a place for the cars to go.

KS: COVID-19 taught us ways we can temporarily adapt facilities differently. Parking facilities were a natural fit for vehicular COVID testing, because they were already designed for cars and managing throughput efficiently.

The Path to Better Parking

GK: Parting thoughts?

KS: Whether or not it is reality, I have yet to walk onto a healthcare campus where there is not a perceived parking problem, and talk about taking away parking for an expansion. Unfortunately, even when you set out to solve that problem, shut downs, laydown spaces and

The constant struggle hospitals face when it comes to justifying spending money on parking verses medical facilities and equipment emphasizes the need to make the design and construction of parking structures as cost-effective as possible. circulation changes inevitably make it worse before you can make it better. That’s why it’s so important to think several steps of sequencing ahead so your parking is in the right spot the first time.

TO: This also means knowing your client. People in Montana drive different vehicles than they do in San Francisco. In some areas, people have the perception that parking structures are unsafe and don’t want to park in them. Understanding what your client needs will help you do parking in the right place and the right amount the first time.

With this comprehensive look from our combined perspectives at the challenges for creating better parking experiences at our healthcare facilities, I did some reflecting on what parking best practices can offer.

Comprehensive shared parking studies can determine how much parking is needed on a hospital campus. We can analyze the unique mix of patient services, staffing ratios and inpatient/outpatient help determine what a specific location needs to support its services, and where it is needed. These studies can also aid in projecting demand for new campuses as well as the impact of new or redeveloped facilities on an existing campus.

Parking guidance systems can enhance the patient experience before they leave home. In the same way that airports are choosing parking guidance systems that allow travelers to book parking before they leave home, medical centers can integrate technology that allow travelers to reserve a space when they schedule their appointment.

Patients who arrive on campus with directions to their parking destination and have clear wayfinding signage that quickly and painlessly points them to an open space are more likely to arrive on time without added stress.

Automated parking can provide higher levels of customer service while minimizing parking’s footprint. Fully automated parking systems feature

transfer cabins where users drop their car off to be parked automatically, which allows patients to go straight to their destination without navigating a confusing structure.

Because automated systems can eliminate much of the space needed to accommodate humans, parking also takes up less space. They do, however, require additional costs for maintenance and operations, meaning they must be carefully considered against the hospitals’ needs and budget priorities.

Consider your delivery method to get the most value out of a new parking facility. We touched on the constant struggle hospitals face when it comes to justifying spending money on parking verses medical facilities and equipment, which emphasizes the need to make the design and construction of parking structures as cost-effective as possible. We are seeing growing numbers of hospitals opting for alternative delivery methods such as designbuild. The opportunity for greater collaboration between owners, designers and contractors these methods offer over traditional design-bid-build makes it possible to get more accurate cost data earlier in the process as well as identify and mitigate potential problems before they interfere with project budgets.

Explore strategies that will shorten construction time. We also talked about sequencing and how building new parking also makes things worse before it makes it better. Therefore, being able to minimize disruption and bring parking online as quickly as possible is critical. Once again, alternative delivery methods can help mitigating these issues by significantly shortening the delivery window, as can methods such as pre-cast concrete construction.

I extend my deepest thanks to Teri and Kim for sitting down to chat with me about the complex parking challenges facing today’s medical campuses. While these issues continue to evolve and change along with new trends in patient care, we have more tools than ever at our disposal to make parking part of the solution rather than the problem. ◆ GORDON KNOWLES is an Associate Principal at Watry Design, Inc. He can be reached at gknowles@watrydesign.com.

PARKING-MOBILITY-MAGAZINE.ORG / NOVEMBER 2023 / PARKING & MOBILITY 57

PARKING & MOBILITY CONSULTANTS

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PARKING-MOBILITY-MAGAZINE.ORG / NOVEMBER 2023 / PARKING & MOBILITY 59

ADVERTISERS INDEX

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Walker Consultants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

hormann.us 800.365.3667

paybyphone.com 877.610.2054

walkerconsultants.com 800.860.1579

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Walter P Moore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

honkmobile.com 616.928.0829

t2systems.com 800.434.1502

walterpmoore.com 800.364.7300

IPS Group Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2

THA Consulting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

WGI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

ipsgroupinc.com 858.404.0607

tha-consulting.com 484.342.0200

WGInc.com 866.909.2220

Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 58

Toledo Ticket/Oobeo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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Eastern. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud or any other major podcast provider. parkingcast.com

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60 PARKING & MOBILITY / NOVEMBER 2023 / PARKING-MOBILITY-MAGAZINE.ORG

Paid Versus Free Parking

Parking Compliance

Level: Foundational Created by IPMI’s Education Development Committee, this on-demand webinar style course explores the benefits and potential issues paid parking and free parking each can have for your organizations, stakeholders, and community neighborhoods

Level: Foundational/Basic Course This eLearning is for new parking and mobility professionals across the industry, and examines the qualities of an effective compliance officer, also known as an enforcement officer. This course explores the types of enforcement conducted, the rationale behind parking compliance, the role of technology, adjudication, and how to effectively handle or disengage from conflict.

IPMI CALENDAR

IPMI Events Calendar 2023 NOVEMBER 8 IPMI Webinar

How Parking fits with Transportation: Path to Greater Mobility in Nashville

NOVEMBER 14 Free Virtual Frontline Training Brand Yo’Self

DECEMBER 12 Free Virtual Frontline Training

Procurement—Best Practices & Lessons Learned

2024 FEBRUARY 28—MARCH 1 2024 Leadership Summit Atlantic Beach, FL

JUNE 9-11 2024 IPMI Parking & Mobility Conference & Expo Columbus, OH

Stay up to date on industry events and activities!

Visit parking-mobility.org/calendar for the latest updates and additions.

62 PARKING & MOBILITY / NOVEMBER 2023 / PARKING-MOBILITY-MAGAZINE.ORG

STATE & REGIONAL CALENDAR

State and Regional Events Calendar 2023 NOVEMBER 7–9 California Mobility and Parking Association (CMPA) Annual Conference & Tradeshow

NOVEMBER 7-9 Middle Atlantic Parking Association (MAPA)

DECEMBER 5-8 Florida Parking & Transportation Association (FPTA)

MAY 6-9 Mid–South Transportation and Parking Association (MSTPA) Annual Conference & Tradeshow

OCTOBER 28-30 Southwest Parking & Transportation Association (SWPTA) Annual Conference

OCTOBER 23–25 Pacific Intermountain Parking & Transportation Association (PIPTA) Annual Conference & Expo

NOVEMBER 5-7 California Mobility and Parking Association (CMPA) Annual Conference & Tradeshow

Baltimore, MD

Fort Myers, FL

San Jose, CA

2024 MARCH 7 New England Parking Council (NEPC) Educational Forum Somerville, MA

APRIL 8-11 Texas Parking & Transportation Association (TPTA) Conference & Tradeshow Thackerville, OK

APRIL 16-18 Pennsylvania Parking Association Conference

Chatanooga, TN

Denver, CO

Las Vegas, NV

San Jose, CA

Hershey, PA

PARKING-MOBILITY-MAGAZINE.ORG / NOVEMBER 2023 / PARKING & MOBILITY 63