Parking & Mobility, December 2021

Page 43

IN

short

Highlights from the IPMI Blog

Return to Work–Maybe? By Brett Wood, CAPP, PE

Ready for more? Read IPMI’s blog every business day in your daily Forum digest email or at parking-mobility.org/ blog. Have something to say? Send post submissions to editor Kim Fernandez at fernandez@parkingmobility.org.

We’ve been waiting forever. The return to the office. Some already clamoring to get back to full-time life. Some deciding that stayat-home was forever. Some that just want a little bit of both. Based on projections in early summer 2021, we were all circling Labor Day as that date that we figured out the working world and went into some hybrid pattern and we’d know how everything would shake out. Then that thing we won’t talk about reared its ugly head and sent that target further into the future. Now, here we are moving deeper into the fall and things are starting to clear up. Large office and commercial tenants are refocusing that target and looking to get things moving in some fashion. So, what are we as parking professionals supposed to do? Why, get out there and innovate. It’s what we do! Now is the time to start thinking about how you want to position yourself for that return to work and how you want

to begin to create a new parking world. In Sacramento, Calif., they are using prepaid parking reservation technology and reduced daily rates to begin to provide flexible options for returning commuters. Rather than pay for an entire monthly permit, you pay for what you need. In Birmingham, Ala., they are working hand-inhand with companies to evaluate data and craft a program that works with everyone, identifying trends and adapting space to serve ever changing needs. On numerous university campuses throughout the country, they are focusing on daily parking models to account for folks who just don’t come to campus every day. The IPMI Research & Innovation Task Force is currently working to document how our industry is responding and innovating. If you or your program is trying new approaches, we want to hear about it. Email us and let us know how you’re handling that return to work.

BRETT WOOD, CAPP, PE, is president of Wood Solutions Group and co-chair of IPMI’s

Research & Innovation Task Force.

PARKING-MOBILITY.ORG / DECEMBER 2021 / PARKING & MOBILITY 41


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.