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AROUND THE INDUSTRY
PayByPhone Expands Contactless Parking in Denver
RESIDENTS AND VISITORS of the City of Denver, Colo. will now have an even better parking experience thanks to PayByPhone. The provider of mobile parking payment solutions is expanding to over 800 off-street parking spaces owned by the city, in addition to all the current onstreet parking spaces across the city.
“Parking operators in North America are increasingly adopting the PayByPhone app because it simplifies and creates a better parking experience for residents and visitors in the municipalities that they operate.” says Roamy Valera, PayByPhone CEO.
PayByPhone is a hassle-free solution for more than 35 million registered drivers, allowing them to pay for parking with just their smartphones. The app sends text messages automatically when a parking session expires, and gives drivers the ability to extend their parking session without needing to return to their vehicle. Drivers can also begin a session without registering for an account, making it ideal for those who are pressed for time.
Parkopedia to Provide Premium Parking and Payment Services to Toyota North America
PARKOPEDIA announced its suite of off-street parking services, including reservations and digital payments, is now available to both Toyota and Lexus drivers in North America. The Park with Parkopedia service is integrated into the Toyota and Lexus smartphone apps and vehicle infotainment systems to offer drivers the complete parking experience, allowing drivers to locate, reserve, and pay for parking.
The new service covers 60,000 off-street parking locations with more than 6,000 reservable locations across the USA, utilizing Parkopedia’s market-leading payment platform to manage transactions. The platform enables drivers to register their payment details using a single secure digital account and then effortlessly pay for their parking within activated locations. The parking reservation information and navigation can then be accessed via the vehicle head unit.
The Park with Parkopedia service also allows users to not only search and manage reservable locations, but also find the closest or lowest-cost parking in one of the 60,000 parking lots and garages across thousands of towns. Customer support is provided directly within the app by Parkopedia, should drivers need assistance with reservations, refunds or any other parking concerns.
Commenting on the announcement, Hans Puvogel, COO at Parkopedia, says. “Toyota and Lexus are the market leaders in the U.S car market with millions of drivers using both brands’ connected services every day. Drivers want an end-to-end digital solution for parking that unifies and simplifies the experience wherever possible. We are honored to be extending our parking services with Toyota and Lexus across North America and helping improve each of their drivers’ journeys with an unrivaled parking experience.”
QUERCUS TECHNOLOGIES’ comprehensive global parking solution now features a new outdoor parking guidance system, SC Outdoor, capable of detecting available spaces in outdoor and rooftop parking facilities, and designed to facilitate parking mobility. Quercus’s smart parking guidance system achieves over 99 percent accuracy in vehicle detection, as confirmed by comparison with actual images.
Outdoor smart parking facility control is key. The system markedly increases user mobility, as it directs customers to areas with available spaces via communication between SC Outdoor and information displays. SC Outdoor enables comprehensive analysis of the situation in a smart parking facility, and detection of stay times for each vehicle through a platform characterized by its easy use, access and integration. With this system, up to 100 parking spaces are analyzed by camera, with adaptation to the needs of each parking facility and type when it comes to installation and maintenance, and very low infrastructure costs.
SC Outdoor operates with the BirdWatch parking management system, Quercus Technologies’ unique, comprehensive parking system software. BirdWatch centralizes and interconnects the information gathered by all the products that make up the comprehensive parking solution. Real-time information on parking space occupancy can be shown on the LED displays that help guide drivers, with the goal of providing a higher-quality user experience.
SP Plus Corporation Adds Touchless Mobility, Parking & Commerce Services at Charles M. Schulz—Sonoma County Airport
SP PLUS Corporation (SP+) announced the addition of touchless reservation and commerce options to its services at Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport (STS) in Santa Rosa, Calif.
SP+ manages the three parking facilities located near the airport terminal and is rolling out key components to the overall improvement and modernization plan by STS to provide an enhanced, safer and touchless parking experience. Through Sphere™, SP+’s industry-leading suite of technology solutions, a new pay-by-phone option conveniently removes the need to obtain and redeem a parking ticket at long term lots A and B.
Each entry and exit lane has signage to instruct parkers on how to use the pay-by-phone option, along with a Sphere Remote Management System intercom to provide in-lane, 24/7 support from a centrally-located command center.
“It’s exciting to see the new parking commerce system and the other plans we have with SP+ to come to fruition as part of our overall commitment to safely and efficiently transport our travellers from the beginning to the end of their trip,” says Jon Stout, airport manager for STS.
The pay-by-phone option complements the airport’s new touchless reservation system, which allows customers to prebook and pay for their parking stay online, with the ability to reserve a space close to the terminal. To encourage visitors to explore everything the Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport has to offer, parking customers who pre-book a spot via the new reservation system may receive valuable discounts to onsite restaurants or other promotions.
SP+ is also helping the airport build a commerce site for purchasing popular branded merchandise, which has traditionally only been available for in-store purchases. An online commerce site is expected to launch later this year.
“SP+ is able to offer STS a full suite of technologies to help them fulfil their modernization plan and meet the new demands of today’s travellers,” says Jason Finch, senior vice president, West Airports, for SP+.
University of Arizona Speeds COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-out with Genetec AutoVu ALPR and Traffic Sense
WHEN THE UNIVERSITY of Arizona (UA) was chosen as a COVID-19 vaccine point of dispensing (POD), they wanted to get the vaccines out to as many people as possible as quickly and efficiently as possible. To do this, they turned to Genetec Inc., and Route1 Inc.
“We had already heard about how ALPR (Automatic License Plate Recognition) could be used for tolls and monitoring traffic flow, and we were eager to see if the ALPR cameras could help us automatically track vehicles entering and exiting our POD,” says Jim Sayre, Director of Operations – Parking and Transportation Services at the University of Arizona.
To build a solution that would not only offer valuable insights about their POD operations but would also be affordable and easy to set up, UA chose to implement the Genetec AutoVu™ Managed Services (AMS) solution with four ALPR cameras installed throughout the POD. This was paired up with the Genetec Traffic Sense™ Travel Times module within Security Center for added insight and functionality.
Having mounted the poles and set up the cameras beforehand, the actual setup was completed in under two hours on opening day. Because the entire Genetec solution is hosted in the cloud, the university is able to use the software for as long as the POD remains open without draining budgets.
Using AutoVu, the UA operations team can see exactly how long it’s taking vehicles to get through the POD and for people to get vaccinated, and then identify what they can do to get them through faster. All ALPR data is sent back to Security Center, where the Travel Times module automatically analyses data and delivers insights the UA team can act on. This helps them immediately identify if there are random delays or potential issues that need to be further investigated.
As a healthcare-related operation, UA made sure the Genetec solution complies with all Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements. According to Sayre, “The cameras don’t know who the driver is, or the people in the vehicle. And we’ve made it clear that we’re not running this against a motor vehicle database or anything like that, so we’re ensuring privacy.”
Thanks to the Genetec solution, the UA team discovered early on that various team leaders had different processes for appointment check-ins. When UA standardized those processes, they could consistently get vehicles through the POD faster and maximize the number of vaccinations.
The team also noticed that on certain days of the week, cars were taking longer to get through certain points in the POD. After an initial inquiry, they realized those days often had mostly new volunteers who were still learning the ropes. The UA team was then able to adapt the volunteer schedule to ensure experienced personnel were always onsite to assist newbies and keep the throughput of vehicles high.
“This AutoVu™ and Traffic Sense™ Travel Times module within Security Center built by Genetec and Route1 has helped us make the vaccination process more efficient and was so easy to deploy. We’ve been able to increase the number of vehicles through the POD in the same amount of time, and consequently, we’ve given out more vaccinations. And that’s what this is all about— helping our community get vaccinated against COVID-19,” says Sayre.
“We never cease to be impressed by our customers’ ingenuity, resilience, and resourcefulness,” says Stephan Kaiser, AutoVu™ general manager at Genetec, Inc. “The University of Arizona is another shining example of the ways in which our customers are using their security systems as strategic tools to fight against the pandemic, and go beyond traditional applications to deliver more value.”
