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IN SHORT
IN
short Highlights from the IPMI Blog
By Lesli Stone, CAPP
Frontline parking and transportation professionals are in a unique position to be the eyes and ears of the communities they serve. Each can observe a large number of engaged people in innocuous activities, day in and day out. These countless observations provide the experience and context to determine when things don’t seem quite right.
Providing comprehensive training and empowering our customer service representatives is an important step to providing safe and secure communities. Most of us are familiar with the Department of Homeland Security’s “See Something, Say Something” materials and devote a portion of our training budgets each year to educating our teams on identifying and appropriately reporting suspicious packages and activities. However, we are positioned to see so much more.
Recently at the Coble Transportation Center, customer service representative Erma S. observed a gentleman acting strangely. She made the decision to investigate further. She initiated a conversation with the man and determined that he was confused about his surroundings and situation.
Erma was able to gain the customer’s trust and he handed his phone over for assistance. She was able to identify an emergency contact and made a call to quickly and calmly explain the situation. As it turns out, the gentleman in question suffers from dementia and had been missing for hours. A safe pickup was coordinated and Erma stayed with the man until his concerned family members arrived. She said, “I just handled it as if it was my grandpa.”
While it is impossible to anticipate every situation, we train our drivers and staff to recognize human trafficking, dementia, and cognitive dysfunction, medical emergencies, and a host of other situations they could encounter. When we know better, we can do better. Awareness and training matter.
LESLI STONE, CAPP, is general manager at National Express Transit Corporation.
Ready for more? Read IPMI’s blog every business day in your daily Forum digest email (10 a.m. Eastern) or at parking-mobility.org/blog. Have something to say? Send post submissions to editor Kim Fernandez at fernandez@parking-mobility.org.
Prepare. Plan. Commute. Debrief.
By Kelly Koster
Uncertainty has been the recurring theme of 2020, and I doubt very much will be certain again in 2021. How do you adapt your parking and mobility program for uncertain times? Through skiing of course. Let me explain.
In an effort to social distance my ski habit this winter, I’m moving to the backcountry and taking an avalanche 101 course to prepare. And I’ve found the parallels to mobility planning are uncanny.
Avalanche training is all about minimizing risk and removing as much uncertainty as possible from your ride. The planning isn’t sexy (leave that to the fresh powder tracks), but it’s very necessary. In the backcountry, we use a framework to manage risk and uncertainty with diligent preparation, planning, technology, education, and teamwork. Do the best you can with the information you have available. Continually learn while riding; debrief and improve in realtime. Prepare. Plan. Ride. Debrief.
Now, re-read that paragraph and replace Ride with Commute.
Currently, the world of parking and commuting is full of uncertainty, and the avalanche training framework can help us prepare for an avalanche of another kind–overwhelming congestion and parking demand.
As the COVID-19 vaccine is distributed to frontline workers, the return-to-office timeline has seen more certainty building around it. Major companies across the U.S. are announcing plans for hybrid workplaces once the pandemic subsides. This means more choice for employees–more flexibility to work from home OR the office. And when making the daily decision to commute, they can get there by foot, bus, bike, car, or
scooter.
The key to unlocking this new world of work for your employees? Adaptable parking technology with the power to accommodate flexible schedules and modes of transportation. Now is the time for industry professionals to share, learn, and adopt best practices as we begin planning our return to the workplace in 2021.
Just like in the backcountry, we’re in this together. We depend on each other. And we need to work together to solve the challenges that lie ahead by giving our businesses, commuters and cities that much more certainty when it comes to transportation, parking, and mobility.
KELLY KOSTER is the director of marketing and corporate affairs at Luum. Together with parking and mobility leaders from Arrive, Bedrock Detroit, and Expedia Group, she will moderate a panel on “The Hybrid Workplace: What it means for parking technology, commute flexibility, and mode shift” at IPMI’s Mobility & Innovation Summit Feb. 24-25, online. Click here for details and to register.
The Value of Curb Space
By Chrissy Mancini Nichols
A century ago, in establishing the first parking regulations, planners recognized the value of curb space. In The Storage of Dead Vehicles on Roadways, William Phelps Eno discussed how parallel parking at the curb caused, “considerable waste[d] space” and that on roads dedicated to commercial purposes, “the importance of getting to the curb is paramount.” There was even a discussion on prioritization of curb use. Eno wrote, “Surely conveyances such as streetcars, buses, and taxicabs, which are available to the general public, should have precedence, if necessary, over those for private vehicle use.”
Our predecessors understood that the curb was a tool to promote local business activity, grant people more access, and keep traffic flowing—the curb was there to serve people. But historically the curb has mostly served as a place for private vehicle storage.
The curb isn’t a parking lot. It is a vital community space and one of the most extensive and valuable pieces of real estate in a city—and it is a finite commodity. Current trends that have only escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic have shown the importance of curbs in helping many industries succeed. Ride apps need pick-up and drop-off spaces, commercial and on-demand delivery companies compete for loading zones, dockless scooters and bike-share operators need parking spots, and restaurants want parklets for outdoor dining. Given these trends, cities can use the policy tools at their disposal–zoning, regulations, financing mechanisms–to align private-sector goals with public-sector priorities for curb use. With active and intentional curb management, communities can offer more equitable access among different users, improve the level of service for everyone, collect data on transportation behaviors, and eventually create a sustainable revenue source.
CHRISSY MANCINI NICHOLS is the national curb management lead for Walker Consultants. She will present on this topic during IPMI’s 2021 Mobility & Innovation Summit online, February 24-25. For details and to register, click here.
