Keeping Parking Facilities Safe During a Pandemic. Published June 2020

Keeping Parking Facilities

Keeping Parking Facilities Safe O UR WORLD HAS BEEN TURNED UPSIDE-DOWN during the past weeks. As of this writing, more than 3 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 (the illness caused by the Coronavirus) and more than 350,000 have died. In the U.S., more than 1 million Americans have contracted Covid-19, over 107,000 have died, and the majority of Americans are under stay-at-home orders.

During A Pandemic

Nothing is 100 percent, but some steps can help keep patrons and staff safer while the Coronavirus is in play.

By Bill Smith

This pandemic has focused many industries, including parking, on public health and how we can make public facilities safer. The Coronavirus is extraordinarily contagious—experts estimate that it’s three times more contagious than the flu—and public places pose particular risks. In fact, anyplace where multiple people congregate, particularly places with shared surfaces that can become contaminated, poses potential health dangers. According to the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), the Coronavirus can remain active on plastic and steel surfaces for as many as two to three days.

Parking facilities fall into this category. It’s imperative parking owners and organizations with parking assets to take the necessary steps to make parking areas safer and protect parking employees and visitors.

SHUTTERSTOCK / JAMESBIN / DMITRY KOVALCHUK / PETR BORN

Sanitation

Protecting the health of staff and other parkers begins with cleaning. Sanitation is essential, particularly in common areas. There are many shared touchpoints that require frequent, aggressive cleaning. Also, if you can obtain extra sanitizing wipes, it makes sense to leave them in common areas so employees and other parkers can wipe down any surfaces they touch. Not only does this protect them, but it protects others who will be touching those surfaces after them.

“During this crisis, adhere to the guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC),” says Nicole Chinea, CAPP, senior project manager in WGI’s Parking Solutions Division. “The CDC recommends cleaning hard, non-porous surfaces with a detergent or soap before disinfecting them. And until this crisis passes, it’s advisable to use hospital-grade cleaning supplies.”

Chinea recognizes that switching to heavier duty cleaning supplies may pose a quandary for many parking owners for whom sustainability is an important operational focus. But she points out that the switch will only be temporary, and for the time being, public health might have to outweigh being green.

“There are a number of common touchpoints that require particularly aggressive cleaning,” says Chinea. “The most obvious are doors and door handles, stairway handles, and elevators and elevator lobbies. In elevators and elevator lobbies, it’s particularly important to pay close attention to call buttons.”

Technology

Payment technology, in particular, presents common touchpoints that are used by many parkers throughout the day.

“Until the Coronavirus hit, we didn’t give a second thought to pressing the buttons on parking payment equipment, find-my-car kiosks, or smart meters,” says Chris McKenty, vice president of SKIDATA. “But someone using that equipment isn’t the only person pushing those buttons. Chances are, many people have already used that equipment, and there’s no way to know whether it has been contaminated.”

Parking technology can play an important role in minimizing common touchpoints through which the Coronavirus and other viruses can spread. Frictionless parking, for instance, can promote public health by allowing people to enter and exit garages and parking lots without stopping to take a ticket or pay at exits. Frictionless parking suites, which typically include PARCS, LPR, RFID readers, and parking guidance technologies, recognize the car when it enters the facility and associates the parking transaction with a previously registered credit card or permit.

“There’s really no reason for people to have to touch anything when they enter or exit a parking garage,” says Gorm Tuxen, president of IPsens. “Long-range RFID and LPR technologies have become so advanced that cars can enter and exit with barely a tap of the brakes.”

Pre-booking is another common element of frictionless parking that can provide public health benefits. When parkers reserve a space, they also either pay in advance or tie their transaction to an existing account, which is automatically charged either up entry or exit.

“Pre-booking is essentially a customer service amenity, but in times like these it can help promote public health,” says Theresa Hughes, chief executive

Frictionless parking can promote public health by allowing people to enter and exit garages and parking lots without stopping to take a ticket or pay at exits.

officer of Chauntry. “As part of a frictionless parking suite, or as a standalone service, pre-booking can eliminate the need to touch payment equipment where viruses can spread.”

“Thousands of parking facilities have moved to frictionless parking over the past five years,” says McKenty. “It wasn’t meant as a public health benefit, but it has become an important tool for protecting parkers and parking employees, and it will become all the more important as life returns to normal and parking facilities begin to fill up again.”

Just as frictionless parking can promote public health by eliminating touchpoints in garages, contactless parking can also protect parkers. Whereas frictionless parking eliminates the “friction” drivers experience at parking gates, contactless parking allows parkers to completely bypass parking equipment, using their smart phones or other personal devices to pay. Some mobile payment apps even work with Siri and Alexa.

“Our lives are full of activities that could potentially expose us to contaminated surfaces, and we need to be extra vigilant these days,” says Roamy Valera, CAPP, CEO North America for PayByPhone. “The parking payment process is one area of our lives that presents unseen hazards that we’ve never had to worry about in the past. Contactless parking eliminates these risks by permitting parkers to pay with their personal devices rather than being exposed to equipment that has been touched by others. ”

According to Valera, mobile payment platforms can potentially serve another vital purpose: communication. Mobile payment app users who have their notifications turned on can be sent Coronavirus updates from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other public health agencies so they can stay informed of the latest information and public health recommendations.

Staffing

Staffing is a final consideration owners and operators during this pandemic. It’s just as important to protect staff as patrons. Many garages and lots still have staffed booths to collect cash from parkers and assist them when technical issues arise. During this public health crisis, owners and operators should limit the number of staff working in booths. When staff are required, they should wear masks and gloves to protect themselves and parking patrons. If possible, it also makes sense to install temporary barriers comprised of clear plastic to provide a protective barrier between staff and parkers.

This is another area where technology can help. Customer service platforms connecting drivers to online customer service representatives via two-way video allow owners and operators to have a customer service presence without having to staff garage exits. The platform is electronically connected to the PARCS equipment via the cloud, and provides a live audio connection to a trained customer service professional who can solve any problems parkers may have with parking equipment or transactions.

“As helpful as touchless parking technology has become, things still sometimes go wrong,” says Brian Wolff, president & CEO of Parker Technology. “At a time like this, when it’s important to minimize the exposure of staff and parking customers, leveraging technology by having a virtual ambassador may be the most empathetic and effective way to protect your staff and parking guests.”

Moving Forward

The parking industry has been particularly hard hit by the Coronavirus crisis, with some cities reporting that parking demand has dropped by as much as 90 percent. At the same time, it also presents an unexpected opportunity. Typically, when parking owners and municipalities upgrade their facilities, they are forced to close lanes and disrupt service. For parking owners and operators with the means, the current environment offers the opportunity to invest in parking technology without impacting customer service.

“The smart city revolution is well underway, and cities are beginning to mandate that owners install parking guidance, PARCS, and other systems that connect to city parking grids,” says Chris Scheppmann, managing member of EnSight Technologies. “It’s not a question of if parking owners and owners of complexes with parking assets will have to invest in smart technology suites; it’s a matter of when. By doing it now, owners can put themselves in a great position when this crisis ends in the coming weeks.”

Disease prevention and public health will continue to be an issue for the parking industry, even after the Coronavirus crisis ends. As we take our initial steps toward reopening our communities and returning to our normal lives, it will be vital to continue to pay close attention to these public health issues to avoid flare-ups of new Covid-19 cases. And many public health experts expect that even after the immediate dangers have passed, the Coronavirus will reappear next year with the flu and other seasonal viruses.

“The parking industry was already moving toward a primarily automated future,” says Kevin Uhlenhaker, managing director of SLS Insights. “When we emerge from this crisis, I think we’ll find that it has sped up that transition because many of the technologies that parking owners and operators already value for their operational and customer service benefits can also help promote public health and provide a healthier environment for parkers and parking staff. Going forward, this is going to continue to be an important issue for our industry.” ◆

BILL SMITH is president of Smith Phillips Strategic Communications and contributing editor of Parking & Mobility. He can be reached at bsmith@smith-phillips.com.