The Parking Professional August 2017

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DFW’s Parking Control Center

THE INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE

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Parking and Mixed-Use

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The IPI Data Exchange Standard

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Using LPR to Solve Challenges

AUGUST 2017

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Tracking Trends The 2016 ACI-NA/IPI Parking Survey reveals eye-opening results.

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WAYFINDING AUGUST 2017 | Volume 33 | Number 8

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T r a c k i n g ›› ›› T r e n d s

Tracking Trends

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his spring, the Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA), an organization representing airport operators in the U.S. and Canada, and the International Parking Institute (IPI) published the results of the 2016 ACI-NA/IPI Parking Survey, conducted by InterVISTAS Consulting Inc. The survey results include data describing airport parking revenues and transactions, products and services, facility types, and the resources and methods used to operate parking facilities and shuttle buses.

By Gavin Duncan

ACI-NA has conducted surveys of airport parking every three to five years since 1970; the most recent previous survey was conducted in 2011. The results have been useful to airport staff, consultants, and others seeking to benchmark an airport’s parking operations. For this reason, the data were summarized by airport hub size.1 The 2016 survey reflects input from 17 U.S. large-hub, 15 U.S. medium-hub, 26 U.S. small-hub, and eight Canadian airports.

It focused on gathering the specific information needed by the airport staff responsible for parking operations on a day-to-day basis. Because the survey was conducted in 2016, survey participants provided

The 2016 ACI-NA/IPI Survey reveals eye-opening results.

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data for 2015, the most recent full calendar year.

The data provided in the survey were for a period where many airports were experiencing the introduction and/or rapid growth of transportation network companies (TNCs), such as UberX and Lyft. Therefore, the 2015 parking data likely do not reflect the full effect of these services. To identify that, the Airport Cooperative Research Program will release a synthesis report in late 2017 that will summarize the changes in parking and rental car revenues that appear to be due to the introduction of TNC services, among other topics.

››

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) defines large-, medium-, and small-hub airports according to the proportion of annual national aircraft boardings that an airport serves. There are about 30 large hubs, 30 medium hubs, and 60 small hubs in the U.S.

Mix it Up

How to make parking work in mixed-use developments.

OPINION

The 2016 ACINA/IPI Parking Survey reveals eyeopening results.

How to make parking work in mixed-use developments.

By Stan Bochniak

M

IXED-USE DEVELOPMENTS bring together residences, retail, hotels, nightlife, and office

spaces in a walkable environment. But parking is still an important part of the picture. Office workers, shoppers, hotel guests, and other visitors often arrive at the development by car, and reliable, safe parking is a critical component of the customer experience. Each different type of business attracts customers with varying demands, and their expectations for parking are diverse.

SHUTTERSTOCK / HKEITA / BONOTOM STUDIO

By implementing technology, zoned parking, and an attentive maintenance program, you can maintain a financially successful garage that provides an exceptional customer experience.

parking.org/tpp

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he primary role of Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport’s Parking customer support center is to enhance customers’ experience when they use the airport’s parking control system (PCS). This is accomplished through two key functions: control center and license plate recognition (LPR) review.

The control center engages in direct communication with customers and responds to requests for information or assistance, particularly from customers in unmanned entry and exit lanes. The PCS includes 113 entry/exit access points, each of which is equipped with an intercom that dials into the four workstations that make up the

CASE

STU

DY

control center function. Workstations contain a variety of system desktop tools that enable verification and remote application of parking fees, parking privileges, validations, etc., as well as remote operation of gate arms.

The control center also monitors system status and facilities and requests related service support when

needed. Indicators on workstations identify when a system device has malfunctioned or needs attention (such as when ticket supply is low in an entry device).

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) displays monitor activity at system access points.

Communications The center’s responsibilities go beyond direct support for the PCS. The function serves as the communication center for the guest operations section that’s responsible for managing the airport’s parking operation, which

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Taking Control

spans a five-mile radius and has 40,000 public parking spaces. This role includes answering calls to the section’s main phone lines and routing to the appropriate parties; serving as dispatch center for the airport’s courtesy patrol, a free service that assists customers with jumpstarts, tire inflation, and location of their vehicles; and responding to customers’ inquiries regarding parking rates and availability, airline locations, directions, and non-business-related questions such as how to get to the nearest Starbucks. The control center handles an average of 990 calls a day, approximately 65 percent of

DFW’s control center becomes a hub for outstanding customer service.

TAKING CONTROL

DFW’s control center becomes a hub for outstanding customer service.

By Gabriel L. Dennis, CAPP

parking.org/tpp

SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE Advancing the industry through a new data standard for parking location and more.

Developing A New Data Standard for Parking in North America We are in exciting times—new services and technologies are intersecting to create valueadded conveniences for customers and business owners while maximizing use of our available parking and transportation infrastructure. Sharing data is critical to enabling the adoption and effective execution of car sharing, ride sharing, prepaid parking, dynamic pricing, remote management of facilities, and improved reporting.

Our members often share the challenges they experience as they expend resources to integrate new programs, systems, and applications related to data "sharing." IPI and its members want to reduce the effort required to connect to each other and enable these resources to focus on innovating new services and operations. This is why IPI is embarking on this initiative to create the IPI Data Exchange Standard (IPI-DataEx).

OBJECTIVE Form a cross-functional working group from within and outside the parking industry in North America to define an open but defined structure for communicating parking related information and enabling certain actions between systems used in the North American parking ecosystem by December 2017.

The deliverable will include standardized terms and definitions unique to the industry that allow participants to communicate in the same language and share data across platforms.

IPI will host the working group and provide a forum for both discussion and decision-making. IPI will release and maintain the standard once developed.

By Rachel Yoka, CAPP, LEED AP BD+C

I

n the July issue of The Parking Professional (see p. 60 in that issue for more), IPI described in detail how the IPI Data Exchange Standard (IPI-DataEx) program was initiated and the guiding principles for the creation and maintenance of the standard. Here, we delve a bit deeper into the parking location draft standard and the review process.

IPI-DataEx Development Priorities IPI established a priority list of data elements that will begin the development of the standard. While there are many data elements that require standards, the initial effort was prioritized to develop standards for the following elements firs. These will provide a backbone and a foundation for future standards: ●● ●Parking location information. ●● ●Pricing. ●● ●Occupancy/utilization.

Parking Location IPI-DataEx defines the data structure to share relevant parking location (on-street or off-street), transactions, and other data to be shared between parties. The first phase of the data standard focuses on Parking Location records. To review the Parking Location working papers and offer your feedback, visit parking.org/ipi-dataex. parking.org/tpp

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By facilitating and spearheading this effort, IPI will define a uniform, functional data standard for North American companies and maintain it as a living standard that adapts as the marketplace evolves. This standard will become the new lexicon for the parking industry, providing a common language and data definitions to enhance the customer experience.

Our objective: Form a cross-functional working group from within and outside the parking industry in North America to define an open but defined structure for communicating parking-related information and enabling certain actions between systems used in the North American parking ecosystem, by December 2017. The IPI-DataEx will be standardized terms and definitions unique to the industry that will allow all participants to communicate in the same language and share data across platforms. IPI will host the working group and provide a forum for both discussion and decision-making. IPI will host a working group and form a governing body to provide a forum for both discussion and decision-making.

The first standard developed will focus on parking location data. This standard will facilitate the sharing of basic parking location information between organizations. This includes map services, online marketing and aggregator services, event-ticketing platforms, transit and transportation agencies, and other firms that have a need-to-know location of parking facilities and general information about their operation.

How a university embraced new technology to solve parking challenges.

nology new tech . raced llenges ty emb universi e parking cha to solv

aylor University’s Department of Parking and Transportation Services is comprised of seven staff members who serve approximately 20,000 faculty, staff, students, and visitors. Using new technology deployed

in innovative ways allowed this small group of employees to tackle some major challenges for a quickly growing and expanding university and campus community.

Growth and Challenges Baylor, a private Christian university, is centrally located in Waco, Texas, between Dallas and Austin. With an urbanized population area of just fewer than 200,000 people, Waco is a unique mix of a rural and urban community. A historic, small-town feel can be observed in the parking expectations of the community. Free parking is the norm and is easily found downtown, at hospitals, and even in the front row of the airport.

In many ways, the Baylor campus community mirrors the surrounding community in regard to parking. Baylor University provides free parking to visitors to campus.

Faculty and staff are provided free parking permits, as are their spouses. Even many of the Big 12 Conference sporting events do not charge for parking.

As the campus developed, ample and fairly inexpensive land was available to create surface parking lots.

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Tech Solutions ey t Penn

By Mat

B

2017 | parking.org

parking.org/tpp

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IPI intends to accomplish this by convening a group of technically-focused individuals from a variety of organizations engaged in sharing and processing information related to parking. This may include property owners, parking operators, municipalities, universities, access control system providers, enforcement system providers, marketing firms, transaction action processing firms, map firms, and search engines. The group will develop a data structure to facilitate the sharing of information and enabling actions between systems. The data standard is intended to define a common lexicon for the industry to use when sharing information.

Benefits of the Parking Location Standard Parking a vehicle is a geographically based activity. This means people and entities search for parking based on proximity to a destination. These searches require a person or application to know certain facts about the facility, such as where the parking location is located, if the parking facility is available to use at a certain time, how to access the facility, who to contact, and other relevant operating attributes.

INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

New-construction projects included additional parking, and the resulting landscape was made up of academic buildings with surface parking in close proximity.

In 2002, the university instituted a bold, 10-year vision that would usher in an era of unprecedented growth and development. Baylor 2012 was the first campus master plan that also included a specific parking strategy to help create a truly residential campus.

One of the 12 imperatives specifically called for was “parking facilities to be constructed at the perimeter of the campus to move vehicles more toward the edges of [campus] activity.”

During the next decade, the vision for the master plan started to take shape. Three additional, 1,000-space parking facilities were constructed along the perimeter of campus. On-street parking was removed from interior streets and pathways. Interior surface parking

lots were slowly removed; some were absorbed in the construction of new campus buildings while others were repurposed to create green space, landscaping, and intramural fields. The growth and improved aesthetics of the campus were undeniable.

Frustration The ever-changing parking landscape created its share of frustration. Each year, alterations disrupted established parking habits and moved parking pain points in unpredictable directions. Available parking in a garage on the periphery of campus did not compare well with the convenience of prime, adjacent parking many were accustomed to on campus. With each year of development, parking on campus became a little tighter and a little more complicated.

While campus parking continued to evolve, the resources for managing parking challenges had stagnated.

In 2015, Baylor Parking and Transportation Services was comprised of seven staff members and was essentially the same as when created more than a decade before.

The department was officially comprised of one director, one administrative assistant, one field supervisor, and four parking enforcement staff. According to all peer metrics, the department was understaffed.

The parking management infrastructure was extremely limited. The campus was devoid of counting parking.org/tpp

INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

equipment, gate controls, and metered parking areas. The backbone of Baylor’s parking operation was its permit and enforcement software—a solid system with which the staff was familiar and proficient. This system was used with traditional walking patrols through a parking area and visual confirmation by a staff member that the appropriate physical permit was displayed on each vehicle. Undersized and lacking parking-control technology, enforcement coverage of campus was ineffective.

By the fall of 2015, Baylor Parking Services was at a crossroads and in need of a new approach. After reviewing several options, the university started focusing on license plate recognition (LPR) technology. While numerous entities used LPR to hunt for specific scofflaw vehicles (with unpaid fines), few used the technology for permitting and citation issuance. Baylor Parking Services saw both short- and long-term potential in the technology for their campus.

LPR Implementation In August 2015, a new approach to parking was quietly rolled out to the campus community. Baylor deployed two two-camera, LPR-enabled vehicles with cellular connections to the permit database. Based on the configuration of Baylor’s campus parking lots, it had been estimated that these vehicles could appropriately patrol 88 percent of campus parking spaces. The remaining AUGUST 2017 | INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE

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Speaking the Same Language

IPI Data Exchange Standard (IPI-DataEx)

About the Parking Location Standard Draft

INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

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34 This article will share the organization and fundamental attributes of the parking location standard. For the full draft of the standard. visit parking.org/ipi-dataex.

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Advancing the industry through a new data standard for parking location and more.

Editor’s Note

DEPARTMENTS

4 Entrance 6 Five Things 8 Consultants Corner 1 0 The Green Standard 1 2 The Business of Parking 1 4 Financial Matters 1 6 Parking Spotlight 1 8 IPI Ask the Experts 4 2 IPI in Action 44 State & Regional Spotlight 4 6 Community Digest 5 6 Parking Consultants 5 8 Advertisers Index 5 8 Parking Break 5 9 Calendar of Events

FLYING STARTS IN THE PARKING GARAGE

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irport parking’s come a long way, baby. My dad always took a cab to the airport when I was a kid—he traveled three weeks out of every four—and parking on the property was such a pain and so expensive that he never did it. I, on the other hand, have never done anything but drive my own car. Our airport has plenty of parking, rates are reasonable depending on one’s garage choice and very clearly posted, and a green/red LED wayfinding system with signs on every ramp lets me find a space in no time at all. I enjoy a quiet drive in my own vehicle, easily park, and zip right to security (which is generally not nearly as fast or pleasant).

Some of my friends Uber or cab to the airport, but most drive just like I do because the experience has vastly improved in the last decade or so. And the trend is continuing with outstanding customer service that starts before the garage, efficient shuttle systems to transport travelers to their terminals, outstanding wayfinding and information messaging systems, and even airport perks that make traveling as tolerable as possible.

We take a look at some innovative airport parking in this issue, and they are stories with takeaways for professionals in every facet of parking, transportation, and mobility. The industry’s made a great commitment and huge strides in making driving and parking much more pleasant, and it shows—airports are a great showcase for that. Kick things off with the details of the 2016 Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA)/IPI parking survey on p. 20, and then go on to our spotlight and case studies.

Summer’s coming to a close—it’s bittersweet in my house. Lazy sunny days (for the kids) and vacations are winding down, but we’re all looking forward to getting back to a daily routine. I hope your summer’s been wonderful. As always, I’d love to hear from you—send your comments, questions, and ideas to me at the email below.

Until next month…

fernandez@parking.org

parking.org/tpp

AUGUST 2017 | INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE

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ENTRANCE Publisher Shawn Conrad, CAE conrad@parking.org

Contributing Editor Bill Smith, APR bsmith@smith-phillips.com Technical Editor Rachel Yoka, CAPP, LEED AP BD+C yoka@parking.org Advertising Sales Bonnie Watts, CEM watts@parking.org Subscriptions Tina Altman taltman@parking.org.

Graphic Design BonoTom Studio info@bonotom.com Proofreader Melanie Padgett Powers For advertising information, contact Bonnie Watts at watts@parking.org or 571.699.3011.

For subscription changes, contact Tina Altman, taltman@parking.org.

The Parking Professional (ISSN 0896-2324 & USPS 001436) is published monthly by the International Parking Institute.

1330 Braddock Place, Suite 350 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone: 571.699.3011 Fax: 703.566.2267 Email: ipi@parking.org Website: parking.org Postmaster note: Send address label changes promptly to: The Parking Professional 1330 Braddock Place, Suite 350 Alexandria, VA 22314 Interactive electronic version of The Parking Professional for members and subscribers only at parking.org/tpp.

Periodical postage paid at Alexandria, Va., and additional mailing offices. Copyright © International Parking Institute, 2017. Statements of fact and opinion expressed in articles contained in The Parking Professional are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent an official expression of policy or opinion on the part of officers or the members of IPI. Manuscripts, correspondence, articles, product releases, and all contributed materials are welcomed

by The Parking Professional; however, publication is subject to editing, if deemed necessary to conform to standards of publication.

The subscription rate is included in IPI annual dues.

Subscription rate for non-members of IPI is $120 per year (U.S. currency) in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

All other countries, $150. Back issues, $10.

The Parking Professional is printed on 10 percent recycled paper and on paper from trees grown specifically for that purpose.

PREPARE FOR TAKEOFF

By Dan Kupferman, CAPP

W

elcome to Parking Professional Airlines. First we’d like to invite our Extra Elite passengers to board—that’s those of you smart enough to reserve parking online prior to arriving at the airport. As you approached the Express Entrance Lane, your license plate was recognized and the gate opened. Our LPR system reads with 90 percent accuracy, so we’d like to apologize to the 10 percent of you who had to roll down your windows and scan your barcodes to pulse the gate. To make it up to you, you’ll receive an extra bag of peanuts.

Next we’d like to invite our Awesome Achiever passengers to board. You arrived at the garage entrance, perused the dynamic LED sign displaying the number of available spaces on each level, and saw that while there were five spaces available on level two, there were 150 spaces on level five. You parked on level five and got to the terminal early enough to request a seat upgrade with four extra inches of legroom. Stretch out and relax!

Continuing our boarding, we’d like to invite the five people who elected to park on level two and snagged those five remaining spaces. You knew we installed individual space monitoring and looked for the green lights indicating the five remaining spaces. Easy-peasy—1,000 extra frequent flier miles for you!

For those of you traveling with young children or infants, please stow them in the overhead compartments.

After we board our Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver, Copper, and Aluminum frequent fliers, we’d like to invite our Preferred fliers to board. Finally, the remaining three passengers can board.

Don’t forget to secure your parking ticket—have you ever lost your ticket? This offer is for you. Our flight attendants will be coming down the aisles with a special credit card offer for parking professionals! There’s no need to pull a spitter ticket and you can bypass the pay-on-foot stations. Simply insert your credit card at the entrance gate and then when you get back, insert that same card at the exit and you’ll be on your way.

By the way, for all you Uber and Lyft riders, hang in there.

We’re working on new staging areas.

Yes, this is our airport issue. Don’t worry if you didn’t recognize some of the features and functionality described above; you’re sure to read about them in the pages that follow—and then some! We’ll be taking off shortly. Please fasten your seatbelts and enjoy your read!

@IPIParking

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INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

DAN KUPFERMAN, CAPP, is director of car park management systems for Walker Parking Consultants and a member of IPI’s Board of Directors.

He can be reached at dan.kupferman@ walkerparking.com.

ISTOCK

Editor Kim Fernandez fernandez@parking.org

FIVE THINGS

FIVE AMAZING AIRPORT PERKS

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arking is the first and last experience many airport customers have, but what’s inside the terminal definitely counts, too. And some airports are wowing flyers with perks and experiences that make a long layover or flight delay almost worth it. Here are five airport features that make us want to fly a lot more.

Embrace your inner child with a trip down the slide at Singapore’s Changi Airport—it’s four stories tall, and flyers get a free-ticket ride for every $10 they spend in the terminal. Not shopping or dining? Whiz down a 1.5-storytall slide for free. When you’re finished playing, take a dip in the airport’s pool, visit its gaming stations, or enjoy music video booths in what may be the world’s most entertaining airport.

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Rolling Through Zurich Stuck waiting for a flight in Zurich? Get your wheels on—literally. Travelers can rent inline skates, bikes and helmets, or walking poles and work up a sweat in carefully maintained nature conservation areas around the airport’s perimeter.

Stress relief, sunlight, and a decent calorie burn—what’s not to like?

Furry in San Francisco

First Class in Frankfurt Flying first class on Lufthansa out of Frankfurt?

They’ll valet park your car or return your rental when you arrive and then you can claim a private workstation or massage chair, enjoy the largest selection of whiskey in Europe or a stogey, all before being whisked to your flight on the tarmac in your choice of a Mercedes or a Porsche.

5

Feeling a little stressed? Check out the Wag Brigade at San Francisco International Airport. The local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals brings therapy pets to help stressed flyers relax. The dogs and one pig (seriously—LiLou even plays on a toy piano) wear “pet me” badges to clearly identify them as four-legged therapists.

The airport will also wash your car while you’re away and offers the Airport Butler concierge services.

Parking Perks in Jacksonville We had to include a cool airport parking program! Frequent parking program members in Jacksonville, Fla.,—it’s free to join—accumulate points every time they use registered credit cards to park at the airport. Points can be redeemed for free parking, but that’s not all: Members get discounts when they shop or dine at the airport or with many businesses in north Florida, extending the reach of great parking way beyond the space.

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INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

JACKSONVILLE AVIATION AUTHORITY / ISTOCK / SHUTTERSTOCK

1 3

Singapore’s Great Slide

Strategic Planning and Management Maintenance and Restoration Design and Construction Technologies www.kimley-horn.com/parking

CONSULTANTS CORNER

THE FUTURE OF PARKING IS HAPPENING NOW

By Matt Davis

H

ow do we design parking for the future? Speculation on when driverless cars will hit the roads in numbers and how dramatically they will shift the urban landscape is evolving daily, with the only constant being that change is coming. In a future dominated by the driverless car, most see an urban landscape where public space replaces street and on-grade parking and there is a gradual decrease in the need for structured parking. These dynamics are changing the way we think about parking design.

The future of parking isn’t just something limited to our imagination. Urban areas are already confronting the question of how to create more parking with less space due to rising real estate and labor and construction costs, giving us an early look at how parking will continue to evolve whether we cling to our steering wheels or are whisked to work each day on literal autopilot.

Making Today Work for Tomorrow

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INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

footprints by eliminating human accommodations that are no longer needed when people are not part of the parking process, such as pedestrian pathways and space allowances for opening and closing car doors. When driverless cars truly become the norm, little if any modification may be needed to make these structures more efficient storage places for vehicles not actively in use.

A Changing Landscape It’s not a seamless portal into the future. Most automated parking systems are located below grade, which could provide challenges should the space later need repurposing for human use. But even that is changing; architects and enterprising entrepreneurs are already taking on the challenge of creating compelling underground spaces.

Trinity Properties in San Francisco, Calif., has plans to open a subterranean grocery store. New York City is currently home to Lowline, the world’s first underground park. A former missile silo in Stockholm, Sweden, now houses a data center, complete with waterfalls.

The advent of driverless cars won’t eliminate the need for parking, but it is changing the way we think about it. By continuing to find innovative, out of the box solutions to today’s parking challenges, we are paving the way for tomorrow. So the next time you park, take a look around. You might be parking in the future.

MEINZAHN / ISTOCK

MATT DAVIS is is an associate principal at Watry Design and a member of IPI’s Consultants Committee.

He can be reached at mdavis@watrydesign.com.

Have you parked in a big city lately? The odds are increasing that your parking space will be accessed by mechanical lift, car shuttle, or car elevator. That’s because dozens of new projects are exploring alternatives to traditional parking, such as mechanical and automated parking systems. As density continues to increase and construction costs go up, developers, downtowns, and even college campuses are exploring their options for using volume instead of levels to create sufficient parking.

This is an important mindset when we consider how driverless cars will affect parking design. If we imagine a world where autonomous cars have removed people from the parking equation, parking structures of the future won’t have to accommodate infrastructure designed for humans, resulting in a smaller overall footprint for the same number of parking stalls. Therefore, retrofitting today’s parking structure to house driverless cars will result in unused space. Finding ways to repurpose the extra space is one of the challenges we’re going to face, and parking innovations of today can help us get there.

Car elevators, for example, can eliminate the need for ramped floors that interfere with converting a parking structure to an occupied space. Mechanical lifts require higher floor-to-floor heights that are more compatible with human use than those of a typical parking structure, creating more possibilities for converting parking to occupied space. Automated systems can be assembled, modified, disassembled, and removed as needed. Stateof-the-art robotic and fully automated parking structures on the market have already streamlined their parking

Back in the 1990s, management at Houston was inundated with

Airport

complaints about the

time it took for passengers get their luggage from baggage claim. The airport amount of

executives tried increased automation and

staff, but to no avail. Finally, the management team came up with a simple solution: they relocated the arrival gates to allow an extra seven minutes for the bags even hired extra

to reach the conveyor belt. More distance, less waiting:

no more complaints.

At ParkingSoft we believe the simplest solutions are often the best. We provide simple and cost-effective technology solutions for your parking operation and we back it up with 24/7 customer service. Our low maintenance hardware and innovative software will get your business flying. Call us today to learn more – (877) 884-7275.

www.parkingsoft.com

THE GREEN STANDARD

GREEN MARKS THE SPOT

By Jeff Pinyot

T

X

he first parking guidance system I saw in a large garage was at a casino near Chicago. With a myriad of green and red lights, I first thought it was a holiday decoration or designed to enhance the look of the property. No, it was a major investment in customer service, and it certainly caught my attention.

Early guidance systems simply marked a spot with green for an available parking space or red for occupied.

The theory is that when looking down a row and all you see are red lights, you shouldn’t waste your time.

Go to the next row, look for a green light, and head that way.

It’s that simple.

The purpose of the system and its intrinsic value was purely speeding up the time to get parked and reduce the frustration of trolling for a spot. This resulted in an enhanced parking experience. The system didn’t share any information or sort through data. Sure, there are other subjective benefits—for those who calorie-count carbon emissions, the early and current parking guidance systems definitely can be part of a low-“carb” diet.

The Value for Owners

JEFF PINYOT is president of ECO Lighting Solutions and ECO Falcon Vision Concierge Lighting™ and a member of IPI’s Sustainability Committee. He can be reached at jspinyot@ ecoparkinglights.com.

10

Given a choice between two garages across the street, both the same price but one with a parking guidance system, I’d choose the one that has a parking guidance system.

Will people actually pay more to park in a garage outfitted with such a system? The answer is a definitive yes!

I get confused when my kids order from Wendy’s. If I upsize a no. 2 to a medium, I can switch out a soda for a Frosty and get medium fries to boot (my kids dip their fries in the Frosty). The same is true of parking guidance: The options are becoming never-ending. You can order up a simple mute system that doesn’t talk all the way up to the smartest, wireless, mesh-connected network that can talk to its neighbors and share valuable information

INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

to the internet of things, where you can data-mine to your heart’s content. Multiple players use cameras and vision-based learning to guide parkers to their parking spaces. Some connect via Bluetooth from the space to the indicator. You can argue the merits of each and you won’t be wrong.

Bottom line: Is the cost justified?

The price range is wide: $200 to $500 per space installed, and it’s all about finding the system that offers the most useful features for your unique garage at the right price. A system that populates a sign at the entry, helps with reserved parking by color, or helps drivers find their cars can be justified because it drives in more traffic (pun intended) and parking loyalty.

And they vary—some offer what I call proximity parking indication: Instead of one LED indicator per space, an indicator reports on several spaces in the proximity of the indicator. That equals cost savings.

Today, you can even find a parking guidance system integrated into an LED parking light fixture or light tube incorporating both lighting and parking guidance in an effort to reduce the cost of a parking guidance system and reduce the physical impact on the space.

The takeaway: Don’t assume that you can’t afford a parking guidance system. If a guidance system brings in 10 percent more parkers, helps you to sell all of your spots, or allows you to institute a dynamic pricing scheme to raise prices as the property fills up, maybe you can’t afford not to install one.

Parking guidance isn’t just parking guidance anymore; it’s a way of life.

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THE BUSINESS OF PARKING HUMAN RESOURCES LEGAL

DEVELOPING A RESILIENT MINDSET

By Julius E. Rhodes, SPHR

O

There are two main domains in which we operate: needs based on personality and spirituality. When you think of spirituality, think of a belief system. Nothing great can be accomplished without belief. From a personality standpoint, we all need certainty and significance.

We need the ground underneath our feet and a feeling that we matter.

From a spiritual needs standpoint we must have growth and contribution. We can’t physically survive from infancy if we don’t grow. In adulthood, growth is synonymous with change. But if we grow only in a way that’s beneficial to ourselves, it’s self-serving. Our lives should and must be measured by what we achieve in contributing to the well-being of those around us. Giving starts the receiving process.

Developing Resiliency

JULIUS E. RHODES, SPHR, is founder and principal of the mpr group and author of BRAND: YOU Personal Branding for Success in Life and Business.

He can be reached at jrhodes@mprgroup. info or 773.548.8037.

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What are the traits of a person with a resilient mindset? It begins with what you allow yourself to accept and what you teach others, which is why I am a big fan of positive self-talk as a way to start your day.

You need to understand that conflict and setbacks are a part of life and progress isn’t linear. The reason a lot of people fail at dieting is because they expect results to be predictable and linear, but that’s not the way it works. You have to be willing to work through the good and bad times so you develop an appreciation for each. Every day won’t be a good day, but there’s good in every day.

Survival is essential, but beyond survival, what do you need to thrive and what resources are available to you? Ask yourself if you could do whatever you wanted,

INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

what would you do? The more telling question is what’s stopping you? It’s often not others but ourselves.

Your thoughts lead to your words, your words lead to your actions, and actions lead to outcomes. You need an overriding belief that you can achieve and then you need to take every opportunity to keep that top of mind.

Let not your mouth utter a word that your heart doesn’t believe because if it does, people will find out and label you a hypocrite. Once you’ve received a negative label—deserved or otherwise—the battle to reverse it is a tough one.

Failure isn’t failure but another way of identifying your ultimate success. When I worked for GE, there was a story that went like this: Whenever a new engineer came into the operation, their first assignment was to create a light bulb that was coated on the inside so it wouldn’t give off a glare. Many undertook this task, but no one succeeded. It became a running joke that the task couldn’t be done until—guess what—it was done. The lesson: Don’t allow someone to tell you what you can and can’t do or what your role is or should be. That’s all for you to define.

We are creatures of habits, and we owe it to ourselves to move away from unproductive ones. In school if I got a grade of 90 percent (which was rare), that was a good thing. In life, if we encounter 10 people and nine of them do exactly what they should to make things go well, that’s a great thing. But many of us focus on the one person who is difficult or the 10 percent of situations that don’t go as planned.

People with a resilient mindset have learned to let go of unproductive habits, which is a choice we can all make.

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lympic track and field champion Bob Richards once said, “It may sound strange, but many champions are made champions by setbacks.” He’s right—it does sound strange.

Many of us think champions are born and not made, but nothing could be further from the truth. We already have everything we need to be successful. The key is to understand where those things reside and how and when to focus on them.

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FINANCIAL MATTERS

WHY RISING INTEREST RATES MATTER

By Mark A. Vergenes

C

able TV financial channels and business news podcasts have been filled with talk of the Federal Reserve Board (the Fed) and the potential for more interest rate hikes. Even traditionally reserved Fed Chair Janet Yellen has made reference to an improving economic outlook and the prospect of interest rate increases.

Things to Know

MARK A. VERGENES is president of MIRUS Financial Partners and chair of the Lancaster (Pa.) Parking Authority.

He can be reached at mark@mirusfinancial partners.com.

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Transamerica Senior Investment Analyst Kane Cotton, CFA, reviewed this year’s prospects with an eye toward investment classes that may benefit from or protect against rising interest rates. He came up with a few things to keep in mind in a rising rate environment. ●● Riding the tide. Short-duration bonds (basically short-term loans you may make to a government or a company) can deliver returns that are less sensitive to changes in interest rates than longer dated bonds.

You can even float up or down with interest rates with something called a floating rate fund. These funds are made up of bonds with coupon payments that rise and fall with market interest rates, such as the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). While they do carry credit risk, this floating rate feature typically means less sensitivity to changes in market interest rates. ●● Getting real. Seeking a real or inflation-adjusted return can lower correlation to the market. U.S. Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) periodically adjust their principal for inflation with the intention of allowing an investor’s returns to outpace inflation over time.

INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

Being active. Actively managed, multi-sector funds with flexible mandates may be able to shift allocations to sectors that, unlike U.S. Treasuries, are less correlated to interest rates. They can also pursue opportunities to earn higher yields. ●● Getting credit. Consider taking on some credit risk in place of interest rate risk by looking at investments with a yield that’s better than the U.S. Treasury’s.

Consider credit such as investment grade or high-yield corporate bonds. ●● Going global. When U.S. rates rise, foreign markets may offer attractive opportunities, relatively speaking.

Interest rate cycles can differ by country and region.

Look at corporate and government debt opportunities in overseas markets to seek returns and diversify risk in rising rate environments.

No one can predict the future—most investors should check with financial professionals. ●●

MIRUS Financial Partners, nor Cetera Advisor Networks LLC, give tax or legal advice. Opinions expressed are not intended as investment advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of determining your social security benefits, eligibility, or avoiding any federal tax penalties. All information is believed to be from reliable sources; however, we make no representations as to its completeness or accuracy. All economic and performance information is historical and indicative of future results.

ISTOCK

While few are predicting a return to the early 1980s when a lowly, no-risk, six-month certificate of deposit (CD) was paying back almost 18 percent, interest rates have started to get off the floor. You (investors) may be wondering what this could mean.

Income investors, those who want their investments to return real money that they can spend now rather than seeking pure growth, may be looking at their next steps.

The Fed has twice raised interest rates since the November election. And some online banks are offering more than 1 percent interest on savings. Yield on 10-year Treasury bonds (money that is lent to the government in exchange for interest payments) crept up from a record low of 1.375 percent in July 2016 to something closer to 2.6 percent in March 2017.

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PARKING SPOTLIGHT OPERATION

A NEW LOOK AND MINDSET FOR AIRPORT CUSTOMER SERVICE

By Jim R. Bass

T

he spirit of service is alive and growing at the Clinton National Airport (CNA) in Little Rock, Ark. Our guest services team is on fire with the desire to enhance our guests’ experience at every touchpoint.

You’ve seen it and probably experienced it many times: You’re busy working at your desk when a customer approaches. And you feel dread because you’re about to be interrupted. It’s a conditioning that creeps into your service mentality and slowly erodes away at your ability or motivation to serve. Call it apathy, fatigue, indifference, becoming jaded, or being tired of the same old, same old.

I know that’s stinking thinking, but it happens, and we have to acknowledge that disconnected feeling and adopt a paradigm shift in our way of thinking.

The New Mentality Our philosophy is about enhancing the guest experience—creating a hospitality mentality. We’re motivated to enhance every aspect of the guest experience.

A good example would be that you’ve invited me to your house; I’m not showing up uninvited. You’re going to roll out the red carpet, clean everything from top to bottom, and you’ll make everything just right—for me!

Your feng shui is fully engaged. You want me there, and you’ll make sure I’m happy, comfortable, and most importantly, at home.

For a guest, that’s a mighty warm and welcoming feeling. And that’s the sermon we’re preaching and philosophy we’re perpetuating at CNA. Our guest services personnel (that’s what I call them) aren’t chained down to a kiosk that used to be where customers came to ask questions or to complain. We still deal with those issues from time to time, but because of our paradigm shift we deal with them less often.

When flights come in, guests crowd around the carousels waiting for their luggage. Our mission is to be where the guests are and offer any assistance we can.

So we established a volunteer group called angels who pass out mints to our departing and arriving guests; they have warm cookies and coffee on special days. Something that simple has a big effect—our guests frequently say they’ve never experienced it anywhere else.

Our goal is always to make guests feel important, invited, and welcome. Our angels carry laptops as they roam through the terminal so they can answer questions.

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INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

We welcome our guests to our home every hour over the PA system. There are always guests in the airport who may not be catching a flight or waiting on someone—they may have other business. If they’re in our house, we welcome them to enjoy our amenities.

Hospitality The key is to touch every guest through our hospitality; did you know CNA has the fastest Wi-Fi of any airport? We are constantly improving our technology, our concessions, our wait times, and most importantly, our philosophy of enhancing the guest experience through engagement.

Our airport is about more than just aviation. It’s geared toward making guests feel at home and creating a positive memory of their experience here, regardless of why they’re visiting.

Guest Services Supervisor Reagan Brooks says it best when she describes our philosophy. She says this is our house and it’s important that we make all our guests feel invited and welcome and that they feel that this is their home away from home.

The important takeaway here is to understand the power of engagement: taking that spirit of service to the guests, anticipating their needs, and being proactive at every touchpoint.

Appreciation We recently celebrated National Customer Appreciation Week. We took it a step further and really cheered our staff as well. It’s important that staff feel appreciated and involved so that they can carry that spirit to our guests.

One of my favorite mottos is “the quality of guest services will never exceed the quality of the people who provide it.”

Each day of the week had a different theme. Monday we supported our favorite sports team, Tuesday was ’70s day, Wednesday ’80s day, Thursday was wacky accessories day, and Friday everyone dressed as their favorite superheroes.

Our guests loved it and participated by having their pictures taken with various airport personnel and enjoying fresh cookies and coffee, but most importantly, by being appreciated and engaged.

You don’t have to dress up in costumes, use props, and promote themes to appreciate your guests. But it’s a great way to jump-start staff and get them motivated. It allows them to stretch and push beyond their comfort zone and allows them to develop their guest-enhancing style.

Each of our guest service representatives is developing their own brand, establishing their own mark. It’s a paradigm shift. The comments we receive show beyond a shadow of a doubt that our guests enjoy the activities and this engagement greatly exceeds their expectations.

It starts at the team level. When we’re in the hiring process, we’re looking for that special mentality that exudes the spirit of service—it’s a hospitality mentality that’s excited about enhancing the guest experience and willing to take risks and push the limits in a positive, uplifting way.

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What’s Next There are many ways you can enhance the guest experience, including involving the senses through audio, parking.org/tpp

visuals, and scent. Luxury hotels have embraced this for years—many have signature scents. The halls are perfumed with pleasant aromas designed to put you in a positive mood and influence your behavior.

Did you know that when a scent is present in a store or gift shop a guest is 84 percent more likely to purchase?

Research shows that 74 percent of our behavioral states are determined by smell. Various smells can be used to evoke memories and they have a tremendous influence on a person’s behavior.

When you combine certain types of music designed to relax and ease anxiety with certain scents you create a positive environment that induces positive behaviors and creates positive memories and experiences.

In the future, airports will begin to focus more on such things. They encourage a more relaxed, less stressed guest and ensures their overall experience with the airport is pleasant and memorable.

We want to lead this “enhancing the guest experience” initiative.

JIM R. BASS is landside operations manager at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, Little Rock, Ark. He can be reached at jbass@ fly-lit.com.

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IPI’S ASK THE EXPERTS

Rebecca White, CAPP Director

University of Virginia Department of Parking & Transportation Within the giant long-term parking lot, electronic or physical guidance to the bay of parking that has availability. Long-term parking transit bus arrival predictions both in the parking lot and at the terminal bus stops. Alert buttons to alert the operator that someone is present at a specific stop.

David Hill, CAPP President and CEO

Clayton-Hill Associates A mobile phone app to check on the car while I’m traveling and make sure it is still in the same spot.

Vanessa Cummings, CAPP Supervisor, Parking Operations

Columbus State Community College Valet service for long-term parking.

Joseph Sciulli, CAPP Vice President and Senior Operations Consultant CHANCE Management Advisors, Inc. To receive a text with the garage and level where there will be parking available that is equally convenient (or equally inconvenient) to my departure and/or arrival terminal(s)—at my choice as these are often at opposite ends of the Philly airport.

Rick Decker, CAPP

Manager, Parking Operations Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport I would want to be quickly directed to a covered space wide enough to get my carryon out of the car door and from which I could clearly see a terminal entrance. I could then smoothly roll my luggage across a clean, well-lit surface to a memorable elevator lobby with routing to a restroom and the ticketing counter.

Have a question for IPI’s experts? Send it to editor@parking.org and watch this space for answers.

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INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

The opinions, beliefs, and thoughts expressed by the contributors do not necessarily reflect the opinions and viewpoints of the International Parking Institute or official policies of IPI.

What would be on your personal parking wish list the next time you park at an airport?

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› Tracking T r e n d s ››

By Gavin Duncan

The 2016 ACI-NA/IPI Parking Survey reveals eyeopening results.

›› T

his spring, the Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA), an organization representing airport operators in the U.S. and Canada, and the International Parking Institute (IPI) published the results of the 2016 ACI-NA/IPI Parking Survey, conducted by InterVISTAS Consulting Inc. The survey results include data describing airport parking revenues and transactions, products and services, facility types, and the resources and methods used to operate parking facilities and shuttle buses.

ACI-NA has conducted surveys of airport parking every three to five years since 1970; the most recent previous survey was conducted in 2011. The results have been useful to airport staff, consultants, and others seeking to benchmark an airport’s parking operations. For this reason, the data were summarized by airport hub size.1 The 2016 survey reflects input from 17 U.S. large-hub, 15 U.S. medium-hub, 26 U.S. small-hub, and eight Canadian airports.

It focused on gathering the specific information needed by the airport staff responsible for parking operations on a day-to-day basis. Because the survey was conducted in 2016, survey participants provided

data for 2015, the most recent full calendar year.

The data provided in the survey were for a period where many airports were experiencing the introduction and/or rapid growth of transportation network companies (TNCs), such as UberX and Lyft. Therefore, the 2015 parking data likely do not reflect the full effect of these services. To identify that, the Airport Cooperative Research Program will release a synthesis report in late 2017 that will summarize the changes in parking and rental car revenues that appear to be due to the introduction of TNC services, among other topics.

››

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) defines large-, medium-, and small-hub airports according to the proportion of annual national aircraft boardings that an airport serves. There are about 30 large hubs, 30 medium hubs, and 60 small hubs in the U.S.

1

parking.org/tpp

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››

Revenues A significant portion of the survey was devoted to public parking revenues. This is not surprising given that parking revenues are particularly important to airport management because the FAA requires them to be financially self-supporting (i.e., they do not receive support from local taxpayers). Airline fees and charges are the largest source of airport revenues, but when establishing these charges, airports consider their goal of attracting additional air service and maintain existing service (to benefit the local community). Thus, enhancing non-airline revenue is particularly important to an airport.

Further, depending on their airline agreement, management may have greater flexibility in the use of

parking revenues than revenues from other sources. As shown below, parking revenues are the largest source of non-airline revenues, representing more than 40 percent of all non-aeronautical revenues. Public parking is also one of the few areas influencing the customer’s experience that airport management control directly, unlike the airline ticket counters, baggage check-in and claim, security screening, or food, beverage, and retail shops.

Survey results for annual gross parking revenues are shown in Figure 2. As shown, while the median reported revenues for large hubs were approximately $63.4 million, 25 percent of responding large hubs reported more than $90 million in revenues, including one reporting $170 million.

Total 2015 Operating Revenues for All U.S. Airports (in millions)

Source: FAA, AAS-400, CATS Report 127

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* Includes revenues for services such as telecommunications, internet access, advertising, barbershops, shoeshine stands, spas, and revenues from other non-aeronautical terminal uses not otherwise listed.

FIGURE 2  Annual

Gross Parking Revenues

Median-hub airports not only reported lower revenues (as expected) than large hubs but also demonstrated much less variation. This is due primarily to many large hubs (such as Charlotte Douglas International Airport) serving a high share of connecting passengers (who do not use the airport’s parking facilities, unlike originating/terminating airline passengers) and others (such as Orlando and Las Vegas-McCarran international airports) serving a high share of visitors (who do not park at this destination airport, unlike local residents), while most medium and small hubs serve very little connecting traffic and are less likely to be dominated by visiting passengers. Large hubs are also located near major urban centers where parking prices (especially in the downtown core) are likely more expensive than in smaller cities. Thus, airline passengers parking at large hubs are likely already used to paying higher parking rates.

Because public parking revenues are closely tied to resident originating/terminating passengers, the revenue per originating enplanement is considered a more useful benchmarking metric. The following chart summarizes this metric for the airports responding to the survey. As shown, the median revenue per originating passenger is almost identical across hub sizes, though large-hub airports continue to have more variation than other hub sizes.

This table summarizes this metric from the 2001, 2012, and 2016 ACI-NA parking surveys: 2001 Survey

2012 Survey

2016 Survey

Large Hubs

$1.70

$5.88

$7.47

Medium Hubs

$2.24

$6.55

$7.65

Small Hubs

$2.22

$8.47

$7.60

parking.org/tpp

FIGURE 3 

Parking Revenue per Originating Enplanement

As shown, 2001 to 2012 showed significant growth in revenue per originating passenger across all hub sizes, with large hubs increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.9 percent (9.3 percent, adjusted for inflation) and medium hubs increasing at CAGR of 10.2 percent (7.6 percent, adjusted for inflation). This rapid increase reflects the concerted effort many airports placed on increasing parking revenues as they strove to increase revenues from a revenue source they could directly influence and increase market share (vs. privately operated, off-airport businesses).

From 2012 to 2016, the growth rate slowed, but largehub revenues per originating passenger still increased at a CAGR of 6.2 percent (4.8 percent adjusted for inflation), and medium hub revenues per originating passenger increased at a CAGR of 4 percent (2.6 percent adjusted for inflation). By 2016, median revenue per passenger was similar across large, medium, and small hubs, likely due to the increased awareness across the industry of parking strategies (such as products, services, and amenities) that would contribute toward increased revenues.

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›

Many airports now offer valet parking, car washing/servicing, electric vehicle charging stations, frequent shuttle services that pick up and drop off customers at their cars, and wayfinding systems that indicate the number of available spaces by facility, garage level, and parking aisle and direct customers to specific empty spaces.

Transactions

Operating Costs

Parking transactions have experienced the opposite trend.

In 2012, large, medium, and small hubs experienced 290, 325, and 547 parking transactions per originating passenger, respectively. By 2016, this ratio had dropped to 232, 247, and 466, respectively. This is likely due to the continued erosion of the willingness of meeter-greeters and well-wishers to park while picking up and dropping off passengers. A similar decline in transactions started in 2001 due to the post-9/11 prohibition of well-wishers and meeter-greeters accompanying passengers to and from the gate, along with increased enforcement of curbside policies limiting vehicle dwell times. By 2012, however,

Another key factor in an airport’s ability to maximize non-aeronautical revenue is the cost of maintaining and operating parking facilities. Of the airports responding to the 2016 survey, large-hub airport parking operating costs represented approximately 18 percent of gross revenues.

For medium- and small-hub airports, the operating cost share of gross revenues was approximately 22 percent and 30 percent, respectively. As with the survey results for revenues, operating cost results reflected specific characteristics of each airport, such as location (i.e., need for snow and ice removal), the age and condition of parking facilities, costs of labor, and the proportion of spaces provided in structures versus surface lots (especially those served by shuttle buses).

Products, Services, and Amenities

Airport electric vehicle charging station.

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these effects had substantially been incorporated into driver behavior, meaning that other factors drove the 2012–2016 continued decline.

While the specific factors contributing to the decline in short-duration transactions certainly vary from airport to airport, one frequent contributing factor is the perceived lack of convenient short-term parking. Even if an airport’s close-in parking facility has ample capacity, meeters/greeters and well-wishers may be reluctant to use it if they learn (or believe) that available spaces are usually inconveniently located in the rear of the facility or on high or uncovered garage floors. Typically, over time, the most-convenient spaces at airports tend to be occupied by customers parking for multiple days (infrequent turnover), displacing short-duration customers.

INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

The 2016 survey also revealed an increasing willingness by airports to implement more creative parking products and services as they attempt to enhance the customer experience and increase net revenues. Many airports now offer valet parking, car washing/servicing, electric vehicle charging stations, frequent shuttle services that pick up and drop off customers at their cars, and wayfinding systems that indicate the number of available spaces by facility, garage level, and parking aisle and direct customers to specific empty spaces. Customers can access this information via the web, their phones, or changeable message signs as they approach the terminal area. Some airports allow customers to check their bags remotely rather than having to lug them from a remote lot to the terminal.

To attract frequent parkers traveling on business— who are often willing to pay higher fees for added convenience and comfort—airports frequently offer higher-priced products. About 17 percent of responding airports indicated they offered one or more “premium” products. Such products allow customers and businesses to use the web to reserve or guarantee a space (within a facility or zone or even a specific space), participate in a loyalty (i.e., frequent-parker) program, and/or receive free parking or discounts on stores and restaurants in the terminal.

In addition to providing benefits to customers, these products and services provide valuable management tools to the airport. An airport that allows customers to make advance reservations for parking can also allow (or require) them to pre-pay for parking, which, in turn, provides an opportunity to adjust the price offered individual customers without changing prices for all

Parking availability indicators.

Parking loyalty program members, many of whom may fly from the airport several times during a year, also provide airports with a source for research (such as surveys and focus groups) as airports seek to test and evaluate new products and services, which may or may not be related to parking.

customers. Thus, prices can be constantly manipulated to reflect: ●● An individual parker’s travel itinerary. Not only can prices vary based on a customer’s departure day and expected parking duration, but some airports offer discounts for parkers traveling to specific airline destinations. ●● Historical data regarding daily, weekly, and seasonal demand for certain products. ●● A customer’s willingness to pay certain prices if they participate in a parking loyalty program. This may reflect the availability and cost of other access options as well as the employer’s willingness to reimburse for certain airport parking products.

Airports with such tools can use them to “yield manage” their parking facilities to maximize revenue as well as balance demand among available facilities to ensure that customers are not turned away.

Furthermore, airports offering a parking loyalty program use it to drive business to other areas of the airport, such as in-terminal concessions, by offering coupons and rewards linked to parking activity. Parking loyalty program members, many of whom may fly from the airport several times during a year, also provide airports with a source for research (such as surveys and focus groups) as airports seek to test and evaluate parking.org/tpp

››

new products and services, which may or may not be related to parking.

The 2016 survey confirmed that U.S. and Canadian airports continue to improve their ability to generate non-aeronautical revenues from public parking but that the rate of increase has slowed in recent years as airports have increasingly already implemented the strategies generating the largest uplifts in parking revenues. The survey also showed that this revenue increase occurred despite the continued shrinking share of drivers choosing to park as they drop off and/or pick up airline passengers.

Lastly, as airports continue to pursue higher revenues from sources that they not only can directly influence, but have few restrictions of use of those revenues, they are increasingly implementing products and services that enhance the customer’s overall airport experience and their willingness to pay for parking.

Download the whole report at parking.org/ resource-center.

Author’s Note. Thanks to the airport staff who participated in the survey, members of the technical advisory committee, and InterVISTAS’s Peter Mandle and Stephanie Box, who were instrumental in the development and conduct of the survey and preparation of this article.

GAVIN DUNCAN is senior vice president of InterVISTAS Consulting.

He can be reached at gavin.duncan@ InterVISTAS.com.

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T

he primary role of Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport’s Parking customer support center is to enhance customers’ experience when they use the airport’s parking control system (PCS). This is accomplished through two key functions: control center and license plate recognition (LPR) review.

The control center engages in direct communication with customers and responds to requests for information or assistance, particularly from customers in unmanned entry and exit lanes. The PCS includes 113 entry/exit access points, each of which is equipped with an intercom that dials into the four workstations that make up the

CASE

STU

DY

control center function. Workstations contain a variety of system desktop tools that enable verification and remote application of parking fees, parking privileges, validations, etc., as well as remote operation of gate arms.

The control center also monitors system status and facilities and requests related service support when

TAKING

DFW’s control center becomes a hub for outstanding customer service.

By Gabriel L. Dennis, CAPP

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INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

needed. Indicators on workstations identify when a system device has malfunctioned or needs attention (such as when ticket supply is low in an entry device).

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) displays monitor activity at system access points.

Communications The center’s responsibilities go beyond direct support for the PCS. The function serves as the communication center for the guest operations section that’s responsible for managing the airport’s parking operation, which

spans a five-mile radius and has 40,000 public parking spaces. This role includes answering calls to the section’s main phone lines and routing to the appropriate parties; serving as dispatch center for the airport’s courtesy patrol, a free service that assists customers with jumpstarts, tire inflation, and location of their vehicles; and responding to customers’ inquiries regarding parking rates and availability, airline locations, directions, and non-business-related questions such as how to get to the nearest Starbucks. The control center handles an average of 990 calls a day, approximately 65 percent of

CONTROL

parking.org/tpp

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which involve customer assistance in unmanned PCS lanes.

The LPR review function consists of six workstations in the customer support center and falls into two categories: ●● Correction review supports the accuracy of license plate information recorded by the LPR system at entry and exit access points—about 110,649 uses a day. When capture falls below the programmed degree of confidence (set at 85 percent), a notification is generated and sent to the assigned workstation for review and correction as applicable. Generally, four to five LPR review workstations in the customer support center are assigned to correction review, with each station holding responsibility for a designated set of lanes. ●● Rejection review is a revenue control feature of the system that’s designed to prevent fraud, primarily ticket swapping. The LPR system associates each vehicle with the article (credit card, ticket, or automatic vehicle identification [AVI] tag) used to access the system. When a vehicle attempting to use an article to exit is determined to be different from the vehicle that entered with the article, a rejection notification that contains images of the entry and exit vehicle for the article is generated and sent to the assigned workstation. The reviewer compares images of the vehicles and, if different, issues a deny-exit command in the system. The fee is then computed based on entry record of the exiting vehicle. One LPR review workstation is dedicated to performing rejection reviews, with a second workstation designated during peak periods.

Beginnings The parking operations customer support center was launched during implementation of the PCS in September 2013. The system marked DFW’s move in a direction that is becoming prevalent in the service industry: automated and self-service. Prior to PCS, the airport’s main public access points—the north and south control plazas—were part of a face-to-face operation. A total of 25 entry and 37 exit points were all manned lanes that were staffed based on activity levels. With PCS, all entry lanes (expanded to a total of 28) and 24 of the 37 exit lanes were converted to unmanned lanes, offering customers the option of AVI, credit card, or ticket entry and exit.

The elimination of attendants in most lanes made it necessary to provide other means of assisting customers. The solution was the creation of a communication center prepared to respond promptly to calls for assistance from intercoms installed at all access points.

Originally, that response team and the LPR review team were planned as two separate groups. Later in the planning process, the roles were combined into two assignments of the same position to provide flexibility in staffing and variation in team members’ duties and work pace.

A separate chain of command up to the assistant manager level was created to manage the center, including a team leader and shift supervisor stationed in the center. The physical space of the customer support center resulted from combining three offices and a significant section of a lobby at the operation’s North Control Plaza, as part of renovations undertaken at both control plazas to ensure the availability of facilities necessary to support the new parking system.

The change also required reallocation of positions. The significant reduction in manned lanes meant a much smaller workforce was required in this area, while the new function created new positions.

A total of 38 positions were created to staff the customer support

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center: 29 communications specialists, four team leaders, four shift supervisors, and an assistant manager. A fifth team leader position was later added to ensure 24/7 coverage in the position.

During the early planning stages for the new system, management committed to doing everything possible to ensure no regular full-time employee would lose their job, although the change would reduce the number of positions required to operate the lanes from 144 to 52. That priority became a commitment announced to employees during later stages of the planning process.

One method implemented early on to help achieve this objective was natural attrition. Parking services agent (cashier/attendant) positions that became vacant were not filled. Instead, temporary employees were brought in to perform those duties. The other key to meeting this obligation was in the selection process for filling customer support center vacancies. The vacancies were opened exclusively to section employees first, and a significant number of communication specialist positions were filled by employees who worked as attendants in the lanes.

The process also created an opportunity for advancement to leadership positions for several employees. All customer support center team leader positions and two of the four shift supervisor positions were filled with employees who previously held nonsupervisory level positions. Overall, implementing the customer support center (along with other staffing changes spurred by the new system) created more career opportunities than most employees had experienced in their entire employment with the organization.

Post Implementation After launch of the customer support center, evaluation of customer assistance requirements resulted in implementation of a strategy to provide flexibility in allocating resources based on demand. Control center functionality was added to two of the six LPR review workstations, and the stations were diverted to this service during peak call periods.

While these arrangements increased responsiveness during high call volume periods, the fact that peak activity levels for the two functions tended to coincide meant reallocating the workstations to control center use affected the ability to respond promptly to LPR notifications. This realization created focus on developing a short-term solution without the adverse impact. That solution was the conversion of a three-cubicle office adjacent to the customer support center into an annex of the function. To make the office available for this purpose, the courtesy patrol team was relocated to the operation’s South Control Plaza and the workstations were configured to handle both customer support center assignments.

Although the arrangement was not ideal, staffing the annex during peak activity periods significantly improved the ability to expedite customer assistance.

To provide additional staffing resources in the near term, frontline team members in other functions were trained in the LPR review assignment and a combination of overtime and working employees out of classification was used to achieve staffing objectives. A subsequent solution was the use of contract staffing to supplement regular full-time communication specialist positions; 16 contract positions were authorized. The positions were recently converted to regular full time to ensure more stability in the workforce and are in the process of being filled.

The role of the customer support center is to intervene when things do not go as intended.

In today’s customer service world where convenience is king, patience runs short.

Looking Ahead The capacity and staffing solutions implemented have improved the customer support center’s responsiveness in meeting the needs of its customers. As DFW Airport continues to position itself to attract new airlines and the airport’s parking business unit continues to demonstrate creativity in adding to its already varied offering of parking products and promotions, the following enhancements will be critical in ensuring the center’s effectiveness in supporting the airport’s customer service mission: ●● A facility with a layout more suitable for multiple concurrent communications and the capacity to meet current and future peak demands. ●● Leveraging of developments in LPR technology to reduce the level of intervention required to ensure the accuracy of license plate information in the system. ●● Integration of communication systems into a single medium at control center workstations. ●● Enhancements that reduce the effects of interference from such factors as wind, running car engines, airplanes, etc. and improve the clarity of communication with customers in the lanes. ●● A smaller-scale facility that provides redundancy and minimizes disruption to service in the event the primary customer support center become inoperable.

As critical as these enhancements are to the success of the customer support center, the function’s greatest asset parking.org/tpp

will continue to be the team. The engagement of team members is amazing, especially considering the demands inherent in their roles. The role of the customer support center is to intervene when things do not go as intended.

In today’s customer service world where convenience is king, patience runs short. An AVI customer expects the gate arm to go up on approach; a customer using a self-service device expects the process to be smooth and quick. On occasions when these expectations are not met, frustration sets in quickly and is often taken out on the one intervening to resolve the issue, even when an issue turns out to be the result of customer behavior. Team members demonstrate understanding of the customer’s perspective and focus on expediting resolution in a friendly, professional manner.

Customer support center team members exhibit a level of teamwork that is evident even at the most stressful of times, which is critical in getting through those times. That engagement is also evident in their involvement in employee and community outreach activities. A recent school supply drive to assist needy children in the community resulted in collection of more than 900 items by the section, thanks in large part to the ownership demonstrated by team members through their participation.

This illustrates why the engagement of the team will be the key to the success of the parking customer support center well into the future.

GABRIEL L. DENNIS, CAPP, is assistant guest operations manager with Dallas Fort Worth International Airport He can be reached at gdennis@dfwairport.com.

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OPINION

How to make parking work in mixed-use developments.

By Stan Bochniak

M

IXED-USE DEVELOPMENTS bring together residences, retail, hotels, nightlife, and office

spaces in a walkable environment. But parking is still an important part of the picture. Office workers, shoppers, hotel guests, and other visitors often arrive at the development by car, and reliable, safe parking is a critical component of the customer experience. Each different type of business attracts customers with varying demands, and their exBy implementing technology, zoned parking, and an attentive maintenance program, you can maintain a financially successful garage that provides an exceptional customer experience.

SHUTTERSTOCK / HKEITA / BONOTOM STUDIO

pectations for parking are diverse.

understands the needs of each customer type and are With a diverse cross-section of customers, there is a prepared for their questions and concerns. wide range of expectations to manage. Office workers and hotel guests may expect to pay for parking while License Plate Recognition shoppers and restaurant guests will expect to have their Depending on agreements with the tenants of the mixedparking validated or receive discounts on standard rates. use development, pricing structures for shoppers, office Shoppers in particular aren’t used to paid parking garages workers, and hotel guests can vary. That can complicate because traditional shopping malls typically offer free revenue collection and create confusion for customparking. Many stores validate or discount parking, and ers. You need to ensure that you’re collecting the right that needs to be communicated to shoppers through amount from each customer, but you also don’t want signage and instructions on gate and ticket kiosks. their experience to be frustrating.

Hotel guests and office visitors also need education, One way to address this challenge is license plate as they’re unlikely to be familiar with the rules of the recognition (LPR) technology. As each customer comes garage. Signage is one way to address that challenge, but in, their ticket is paired with the vehicle’s license plate. parking attendants and remote command centers are also Parking is separated into zones, and LPR technology key to making sure drivers understand the policies and associates the customer with the zone they use. That navigation of the garage. Command data are sent to the revenue control centers can often take on the role Signage is one way to system, and when the customer leaves, of parking attendants by answering they are charged according to the rate customer questions and monitor- address that challenge, structure for that zone. ing for abuse. Regardless of which but parking attendants and LPR technology can also be used approach you take in your garage, remote command centers to identify customers who don’t need it’s important that the parking staff to pay. For example, some mixed-use are also key to making developments allow for free parking sure drivers understand the for customers who park for less than an hour. LPR technology can identify policies and navigation of drivers who haven’t exceeded that the garage. timeframe before they even have a chance to enter a ticket at the gate kiosk. This allows drivers to exit more quickly and cuts down on potential traffic jams at the garage exit.

LPR technology also helps monitor for abusers. It’s growing more sophisticated by aggregating data and learning about driver behaviors.

This allows garage managers to be more proactive about identifying issues and addressing them more efficiently. For example, you can program your LPR technology to recognize which zone a particular car typically parks in and notice when something is inconsistent. If someone is parking in the wrong zone—say, an office worker taking a spot designated for retail—that vehicle can be flagged for parking in the wrong area and the discrepancy can be addressed accordingly.

Effective Communication

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Zoned Parking Segregating parking into zones doesn’t just help identify each driver’s destination. It also makes it easy to ensure

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ISTOCK / GRIMGRAM

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that each customer has access to the best spaces at the right time of the day and week. For example, during the work week, office workers may take up the best spaces before stores open. Because they’re more likely to stay parked for several hours, those spaces end up being taken for a good portion of the day. As a result, shoppers end up with fewer convenient parking spots.

One way to address this is closing lower levels in the early parts of the morning on weekdays. And because shoppers stay for shorter time periods than hotel or office guests, this ensures that those quality spaces are regularly made available to incoming customers throughout the day.

The key to making zoned parking work is signage, particularly for transient customers such as hotel guests and shoppers. Signs don’t just direct drivers to the right sections—they also help guide them to the exits and stairwells closest to the businesses they plan to Because mixed-use visit. While it seems simple, a lack of wayfinding is an inconvenience garages are used that could drive customers, espe- more than traditional cially shoppers, away. At traditional garages, their shopping malls, they typically have the luxury of seeing which stores maintenance demands a bit more challenging. Often, it’s better they’re parking closest to. But it’s may be higher. Spaces to schedule this maintenance in the late easy to end up accidentally parking turn over more quickly, evening and early morning. To get work next to a locked office entrance or a done before customers start to arrive, hotel lobby and far from the shops and everything from be prepared to increase staffing to get and restaurants in a mixed-use de- elevators to trash it done more quickly. velopment parking garage.

Different customer types will create cans are used more To prevent frustration, signage must different maintenance needs. Office be kept clean and unobscured at all frequently. workers and residents tend to be more times. It should also be consistent. For conscientious about litter and overall instance, reserved spaces may be denoted with signs on cleanliness, while transient customers can sometimes the wall or railing at the driver’s eye level, or they can create more litter. If a mixed-use development has be painted on each space. Some garage operators make restaurants and nightlife, be prepared to deal with the mistake of using both methods in different zones of inebriated customers, who are messier. one garage. Others will use both methods with varying Mixed-use developments are increasingly popular; degrees of consistency. This creates confusion for new businesses see them as a way to attract customers who visitors as well as customers with reserved spots. An want walkable environments, and customers enjoy the established policy makes it easy for parking staff to live/work/play balance they offer. To keep tenants and maintain consistency. customers satisfied, you need to be able to anticipate their questions and concerns. Having an established Maintenance operational plan, with clear protocols for everything Because mixed-use garages are used more than tra- from cleaning to dealing with abusers, will ensure that ditional garages, their maintenance demands may be you’re able to respond to their diverse needs. When higher. Spaces turn over more quickly, and everything you mix in technology and low-tech tactics like signage from elevators to trash cans are used more frequently. and zoning, you can create a financially viable garage Regular maintenance tasks such as sweeping and steam that makes parking at your mixed-use development cleaning have to be done more often, and scheduling is hassle-free. parking.org/tpp

STAN BOCHNIAK is regional marketing director with ABM Industries. He can be reached at stan. bochniak@abm.com.

AUGUST 2017 | INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE

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SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE Advancing the industry through a new data standard for parking location and more.

OBJECTIVE

By Mike Drow, CAPP; and Rachel Yoka, CAPP, LEED AP BD+C

IPI will form a cross-functional working group from within and outside the parking industry in North America to define an open but defined structure for communicating parking related information and enabling certain actions between systems used in the North American parking ecosystem by December 2017.

The deliverable will include standardized terms and definitions unique to the industry that allow participants to communicate in the same language and share data across platforms.

IPI will host the working group and provide a forum for both discussion and decision-making. IPI will release and maintain the standard once developed.

I

n the July issue of The Parking Professional (see p. 60 in that issue for more), IPI described in detail how the IPI Data Exchange Standard (IPI-DataEx) program was initiated and the guiding principles for the creation and maintenance of the standard. Here, we delve a bit deeper into the parking location draft standard and the review process.

This article will share the organization and fundamental attributes of the parking location standard. For the full draft of the standard. visit parking.org/ipi-dataex.

About the Parking Location Standard Draft IPI-DataEx Development Priorities IPI established a priority list of data elements that will begin the development of the standard. While there are many data elements that require standards, the initial effort was prioritized to develop standards for the following elements firs. These will provide a backbone and a foundation for future standards: ●● Parking location information. ●● Pricing. ●● Occupancy/utilization.

Parking Location IPI-DataEx defines the data structure to share relevant parking location (on-street or off-street), transactions, and other data to be shared between parties. The first phase of the data standard focuses on Parking Location records. To review the Parking Location working papers and offer your feedback, visit parking.org/ipi-dataex.

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The first standard developed will focus on parking location data. This standard will facilitate the sharing of basic parking location information between organizations such as map services, online marketing and aggregator services, event-ticketing platforms, transit and transportation agencies, and other firms that have a need-to-know location of parking facilities and general information about their operation.

Benefits of the Parking Location Standard Parking a vehicle is a geographically based activity. This means people and entities search for parking based on proximity to a destination. These searches require a person or application to know certain facts about the facility, such as where the parking location is located, if the parking facility is available to use at a certain time, how to access the facility, who to contact, and other relevant operating attributes.

INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

IPI Data Exchange Standard (IPI-DataEx) Developing A New Data Standard for Parking in North America We are in exciting times—new services and technologies are intersecting to create valueadded conveniences for customers and business owners while maximizing use of our available parking and transportation infrastructure. Sharing data is critical to enabling the adoption and effective execution of car sharing, ride sharing, prepaid parking, dynamic pricing, remote management of facilities, and improved reporting.

Our members often share the challenges they experience as they expend resources to integrate new programs, systems, and applications related to data "sharing." IPI and its members want to reduce the effort required to connect to each other and enable these resources to focus on innovating new services and operations. This is why IPI is embarking on this initiative to create the IPI Data Exchange Standard (IPI-DataEx).

By facilitating and spearheading this effort, IPI will define a uniform, functional data standard for North American companies and maintain it as a living standard that adapts as the marketplace evolves. This standard will become the new lexicon for the parking industry, providing a common language and data definitions to enhance the customer experience.

Our objective: Form a cross-functional working group from within and outside the parking industry in North America to define an open but defined structure for communicating parking-related information and enabling certain actions between systems used in the North American parking ecosystem, by December 2017. The IPI-DataEx will be standardized terms and definitions unique to the industry that will allow all participants to communicate in the same language and share data across platforms. IPI will host the working group and provide a forum for both discussion and decision-making. IPI will host a working group and form a governing body to provide a forum for both discussion and decision-making.

IPI intends to accomplish this by convening a group of technically-focused individuals from a variety of organizations engaged in sharing and processing information related to parking. This may include property owners, parking operators, municipalities, universities, access control system providers, enforcement system providers, marketing firms, transaction action processing firms, map firms, and search engines. The group will develop a data structure to facilitate the sharing of information and enabling actions between systems. The data standard is intended to define a common lexicon for the industry to use when sharing information.

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IPI does not intend to become a clearinghouse of data, rather the data standard should enable companies to collaborate more quickly and accurately share data. In addition, IPI expects that third parties that have been trying to understand the parking industry will leverage the data standard to learn how to collaborate with parking professionals, opening up new opportunities for IPI members.

Timeline n Milestone 1: Facility Location Data Standard. Comment period closed summer 2017; to be released December 2017. n Milestone 2: Rates and Occupancy Data Standard. Draft for comment available fall 2017. n Milestone 3: Additional deliverables will be based on priorities set by the DataEx governance group, estimated spring 2018.

IPI is launching this critical initiative that will transform parking, mobility, and transportation. To get involved, contact Rachel Yoka at yoka@parking.org.

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Currently, there is not a common method to share location information. How should the name of the parking location be identified? Who are the contacts for the location? How and where are the entrances and exits located? When is the parking facility open for operation?

Is it available for use by the public?

By providing a standard for sharing this information, firms will be more quickly and accurately able to share and find location data to support value-added services that can be offered to businesses and consumers.

In addition, higher level of data sharing such as pricing, occupancy, and online transactions all have an association to the parking location. It is very difficult to share higher level of data if the location data are not accurate.

Defining a standard for sharing location data will allow the industry and consumers of parking data to more effectively incorporate the data into their services.

Use Cases Supported by the Standard The working group developed a series of use cases to explore to ensure the parking location standard would facilitate meaningful interaction under multiple scenarios. These scenarios were developed to test the waters and ensure the standard was useful and effective under differing situations.

The standard will support: ●● Sharing parking location information with a map provider to present parking locations on a map. ●● Sharing parking location information with an aggregator. ●● Sharing updates of parking location information with a map provider or aggregator. ●● Presenting parking location on a self-managed or third-party hosted website or mobile application. ●● Configuring parking location in PARCs, meters, and other revenue and access control systems.

Elements of the Standard The scope of the parking location standard includes, but is not limited to: ●● Location name. ●● Address. ●● Presentation on map services. ●● Operating hours. ●● Payment methods. ●● Contact information. ●● Parking space counts. ●● Relation to other parking locations (campus and multi-structure parking). ●● Operating attributes (paid vs. free, surface vs. garage vs. on-street). ●● Photos and logos. ●● Identification of entrances, exits, drop-off areas, etc.

Additional data elements such as location amenities, pricing and rates, transactions, real-time occupancy, and other necessary data elements will be developed as parking.org/tpp

new standards in the coming months. This initial effort is not considered the complete standard—additional data elements that provide richer and more real-time information will be added into the evolving standard.

Data Elements The data set is segmented into eight domains. Each domain is a grouping of similar data elements: ●● Location. Name, ID numbers, address, reference to other parking locations, time zone. ●● Layout. Data elements relevant to search and filtering.

On- or off-street, paid or free, facility photo, operating attributes. ●● Payment. Methods of payment accepted at parking location. ●● Operating Hours. Hours of operation and special hours of operation. ●● Record. Details on record creation and updates provided by the source of the data. ●● Space. Details on macro-level space counts. Note: detailed space information will be developed with the occupancy data standard, which is being launched in June 2017. ●● Contact. Website URL; social media accounts; and owner, operator, and customer service contact information. ●● Area. The ability to segment a parking facility and identify operational characteristics for each area.

This includes defining the specific location of entry and exit lanes, identifying ride-share, taxi, delivery, or car-share drop-off areas in an on-street or off-street environment. Ability to define operating restrictions such as no-parking zones, snow parking restrictions, event parking restrictions, etc.

The document provides initial definitions for each data element, the suggested format to transfer data, and, where appropriate, defined lists to ensure consistency on specific data elements.

Next Steps

MIKE DROW, CAPP, is a consultant and is spearheading the IPI-DataEx effort with staff and industry participants. He can be reached at mjdrow@gmail.com.

IPI has just kicked off this initiative, providing a first draft and a sneak peek to attendees at the 2017 IPI Conference & Expo in New Orleans, La., in May. IPI will release a draft of the standard by early 2018, but we want your feedback and engagement during this process. There are a number of ways to get involved: ●● Review the parking location standard at parking.org/ ipi-dataex. The first comment period will officially close this summer, but we will continue to take comments on all aspects of the standard. Let us know what you think. ●● Stay in touch with us. Visit parking.org/ipi-dataex and fill out the form to receive regular updates on the progress of the standard. ●● Join a working group. IPI is currently diving into parking rates and parking occupancy. Contact me at yoka@parking.org to find out more.

RACHEL YOKA, CAPP, LEED AP BD+C, is IPI’s vice president of program development. She can be reached at yoka@ parking.org.

AUGUST 2017 | INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE

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nney att Pe M y B

y nolog h c e t w ced ne ges. a r b m llen ye iversit parking cha n u a ve How to sol

B

aylor University’s Department of Parking and Transportation Services is comprised of seven staff members who serve approximately 20,000 faculty, staff, students, and visitors. Using new technology deployed

in innovative ways allowed this small group of employees to tackle some major challenges for a quickly growing and expanding university and campus community.

Growth and Challenges Baylor, a private Christian university, is centrally located in Waco, Texas, between Dallas and Austin. With an urbanized population area of just fewer than 200,000 people, Waco is a unique mix of a rural and urban community. A historic, small-town feel can be observed in the parking expectations of the community. Free parking is the norm and is easily found downtown, at hospitals, and even in the front row of the airport.

In many ways, the Baylor campus community mirrors the surrounding community in regard to parking. Baylor University provides free parking to visitors to campus.

Faculty and staff are provided free parking permits, as are their spouses. Even many of the Big 12 Conference sporting events do not charge for parking.

As the campus developed, ample and fairly inexpensive land was available to create surface parking lots.

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New-construction projects included additional parking, and the resulting landscape was made up of academic buildings with surface parking in close proximity.

In 2002, the university instituted a bold, 10-year vision that would usher in an era of unprecedented growth and development. Baylor 2012 was the first campus master plan that also included a specific parking strategy to help create a truly residential campus.

One of the 12 imperatives specifically called for was “parking facilities to be constructed at the perimeter of the campus to move vehicles more toward the edges of [campus] activity.�

During the next decade, the vision for the master plan started to take shape. Three additional, 1,000-space parking facilities were constructed along the perimeter of campus. On-street parking was removed from interior streets and pathways. Interior surface parking

lots were slowly removed; some were absorbed in the construction of new campus buildings while others were repurposed to create green space, landscaping, and intramural fields. The growth and improved aesthetics of the campus were undeniable.

Frustration The ever-changing parking landscape created its share of frustration. Each year, alterations disrupted established parking habits and moved parking pain points in unpredictable directions. Available parking in a garage on the periphery of campus did not compare well with the convenience of prime, adjacent parking many were accustomed to on campus. With each year of development, parking on campus became a little tighter and a little more complicated.

While campus parking continued to evolve, the resources for managing parking challenges had stagnated.

In 2015, Baylor Parking and Transportation Services was comprised of seven staff members and was essentially the same as when created more than a decade before.

The department was officially comprised of one director, one administrative assistant, one field supervisor, and four parking enforcement staff. According to all peer metrics, the department was understaffed.

The parking management infrastructure was extremely limited. The campus was devoid of counting parking.org/tpp

equipment, gate controls, and metered parking areas. The backbone of Baylor’s parking operation was its permit and enforcement software—a solid system with which the staff was familiar and proficient. This system was used with traditional walking patrols through a parking area and visual confirmation by a staff member that the appropriate physical permit was displayed on each vehicle. Undersized and lacking parking-control technology, enforcement coverage of campus was ineffective.

By the fall of 2015, Baylor Parking Services was at a crossroads and in need of a new approach. After reviewing several options, the university started focusing on license plate recognition (LPR) technology. While numerous entities used LPR to hunt for specific scofflaw vehicles (with unpaid fines), few used the technology for permitting and citation issuance. Baylor Parking Services saw both short- and long-term potential in the technology for their campus.

LPR Implementation In August 2015, a new approach to parking was quietly rolled out to the campus community. Baylor deployed two two-camera, LPR-enabled vehicles with cellular connections to the permit database. Based on the configuration of Baylor’s campus parking lots, it had been estimated that these vehicles could appropriately patrol 88 percent of campus parking spaces. The remaining AUGUST 2017 | INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE

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Baylor University’s LPR system solved multiple parking challenges on the campus. areas would be covered by two staff members in a more traditional walking patrol.

The increased efficiency was immediately evident.

The LPR vehicles were able to cover large areas in a fraction of the time required by a walking patrol. This was specifically evident in the five parking structures across campus that make up about 40 percent of the university’s on-campus parking. Each structure contained approximately 1,000 spaces, and the concentration of the parking areas showcased the strength of a mobile LPR patrol.

The patrol efficiency was further aided by the choice to use emailed citation notices. Traditional citations would have required the patrol vehicle to stop while a citation was printed. Then the staff member would have had to exit the vehicle to place the citation. Stopping presented safety concerns and drained the efficiency of the LPR platform. With e-citations, the LPR vehicle was now free to drive through large areas without stopping.

The staff member could then pull to a safer, low-traffic area to review any potential violations the system had noted while driving. With a couple of verifications, the staff member could issue a citation by sliding a finger across the touch screen.

The emailed notifications were a perfect fit for Baylor’s tech-savvy culture. The information provided was impressively more substantial than what was previously provided on a field-printed citation. The e-citation allowed for more content in an easier-to-read format, and notices now contained pictures, a GPS location, and web links to the appeal process and regulations. A little more than an hour after a citation was issued, a notice was sent to the individual’s inbox.

The LPR system was reading at a 93 percent accuracy rate. Only seven plates out of 100 were misread by the automated software and needed correction by field staff.

Some issues were related to the continuity between the license plates of different states. Occasionally, staff would not appropriately update a plate misread by the software.

Most frequently, this occurred with a state mismatch:

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The plate had been read correctly by the software and the default state—Texas—had not been updated by staff to the correct state. Additional common misreads might be a 2 for a Z or an M for an X. These types of errors were reviewed by office staff on a frequent basis through a report process built to identify these potential errors.

A more significant issue than the read accuracy was incorrect license plate information that had been entered or transferred into the new system. The university decided it would continue to distribute physical parking permits even with the use of LPR. This decision turned out to be an incredible positive windfall. The physical parking permit provided a secondary identifier that was necessary when the license plate information was not correct.

It would take parking and transportation services’ small staff the entire month of September to resolve the majority of issues caused by the bad license plate data.

Had the physical parking permit not been available, the problem could have persisted much longer. Currently in the spring semester of the second year of LPR, the physical permit is becoming problematic. The campus culture has adjusted to the importance of correct license plate information, and the duality is creating a limited amount of confusion. In year three of LPR, Baylor will not use physical parking permits.

Creating Residential Parking Zones Baylor used the transition to LPR to create a residential parking zone and continues to use what some refer to as a hunting permit. The concept is simple: If someone has a student parking permit, they may park in any student parking area. The challenge with this type of parking management is that it does not provide a division between high- and low-demand areas. At Baylor, this resulted in overcrowding in the high-demand areas and underutilization in the low-demand areas.

In the center of campus was a parking structure surrounded by several residence halls. Other reasonable parking options for these student residents was very lim-

ited. Parking services, with the LPR technology, created the first zoned parking area on the Baylor campus. The action addressed a current campus need and provided a model for future development.

While not a revolutionary parking concept, some on campus said it could not work without the implementation of gate controls. The residential zone worked flawlessly. The large parking zone and the design of the LPR software were a perfect fit. The area was sold as a premium parking area, and student permit holders submitted far fewer complaints than their hunting counterparts.

A New Approach to Visitor Parking In a more innovative approach, Baylor Parking and Transportation Services attempted to maximize the availability of virtual permits by revamping the visitor parking program. The Baylor campus hosts thousands of visitors each year. Located along the I-35 corridor, the campus is easy to access and is the largest local employer; it takes an active role in hosting community events, programs, and services.

Baylor offers free visitor parking. In the past, visitors were required to obtain physical parking permits. The parking offices were located off campus, so a special trip was required just to pick up the free permit, which was inconvenient for everyone: visitors, hosting departments, and parking services. It was a time-intensive process, unrelated to any revenue, that the small staff had been trying to simplify and automate for some time.

With the implementation of LPR, an inventive approach was developed. Baylor created an infrequent visitor process that was effortless. Visitors who planned to park on campus only one time in a 30-day period did not have to take any special action. The individual could simply drive to campus, park, and have no fear of a citation.

The secret to the process is in the background operation. The unregistered vehicle parked on campus will actually be issued a parking citation. Because the software does not have an email address for an owner of the vehicle, the e-citation is held in a suspended state and if the vehicle is not seen again in a 30-day period, the software automatically voids the citation.

The program has greatly simplified the process and has been a huge success.

Citation Volume LPR enforcement had some less-positive reviews by some in the campus community. Some students were unprepared for the new mobility of enforcement staff.

Previous enforcement practices had set the expectation that parking without the appropriate permit may not be noticed. parking.org/tpp

Parking services maintained patrols on class days between 7:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., which allowed LPR vehicles to read about 90,000 vehicle plates and identify about 17,000 unique vehicles per month. This means that a single vehicle was being read on multiple occasions. Baylor has no historical comparative numbers on vehicles reviewed by a walking patrol as there was no way for the old methodology to provide them.

Parking citation counts almost doubled compared to previous academic years. Citation issuance jumped from a previous three-year average of 25,140 citations to 47,443 citations. In a peer comparison completed by SP+ and Kimley-Horn during a similar timeframe, seven peer universities averaged 23,781 citations issued. All seven of the peer schools were larger than Baylor in student population (21,503 peer average to 16,797 at Baylor).

Every citation came with some degree of customer interaction—a call, email, review, or correction. The number of official citation appeals alone increased by almost 40 percent over the previous year.

In all, an incredible 43 percent of Baylor’s citations were voided. The design of the visitor parking program and the automatic void of unidentified one time violators is part of this percentage. Bad license plate data certainly contributed to both the citation count and the void rate. An incorrect license plate would typically be written a minimum of three citations before additional actions were taken to identify what was usually a properly permitted vehicle. There were also user mistakes related to operating the new system, which resulted in voided citations.

Baylor Parking and Transportation Services now has a second year of LPR use under its belt. Processes for managing campus parking continue to be tweaked and customized. The hope was to enhance the group’s current abilities and provide a platform for future growth.

For Baylor, LPR technology accomplished both and was the right fit for the campus parking operation.

MATT PENNEY is director of parking and transportation services at Baylor University. He can be reached at matt_ penney@baylor.edu.

AUGUST 2017 | INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE

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IPI IN ACTION EVENT

LEADERSHIP SUMMIT

By Stephanie Santoro

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PI’s inaugural Leadership Summit, a one-of-a-kind professional development event Oct. 23 and 24, 2017, Atlantic Beach, Fla., is designed for the brightest stars in the parking and mobility profession, and we are prepared to deliver the freshest content from powerful presenters in a dynamic, forward-thinking setting. Common areas and break times will be filled with fun and captivating experiences as well as opportunities to take in even more knowledge. Be prepared to make lasting connections with influencers and peers alike.

When asked about the one characteristic every leader should possess, keynote speaker Traci Duez from Break Free Consulting answers, “I believe the most important leadership characteristic is wholeheartedness. It encompasses not only what a leader wants to do and accomplish but also who they are and who they want to become. When a leader aligns their ‘doing’ with their ‘being,’ confidence and boldness naturally flow from them and into the group. Difficult challenges become opportunities and reasons to work together against a common enemy and to grow throughout the journey.

Wholeheartedness allows the leader to be real, genuine and authentic, bringing enthusiasm, integrity, and energy to their teams and their work.”

Traci will kick off the event with a custom keynote presentation for the parking, transportation, and mobil-

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INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

ity industry, “Leading the Way—Head First and Heart First.” Her session later in the day—“Develop Your Courage”—teaches: ●● Why courage and confidence sometimes flee from us. ●● How to use the scientific principles of neuro-axiology to make better choices. ●● To identify your thinking and valuing habits that sabotage your courage. ●● That taking back your power starts with your thinking. ●● What steps to take to immediately grow your confidence and courage.

Leadership-focused sessions in a variety of areas will be presented by top-rated instructors, including Lisa DiTullio and Thomas Luke Jarocki. Expert industry practitioners Colleen Niese, SPHR; Cindy Campbell; and Vanessa Solesbee, CAPP, will impart parking-specific

takes on skillsets and principles required for emerging leaders. Recognized parking industry pros Diego Torres-Palma, MBA; Alejandra (Alex) Argudin, CAPP; Roamy Valera, CAPP; and Bridgette Brady, CAPP, will deliver compelling arguments and discussions at panel sessions: Brutal Honesty: Advice to Navigate Your Parking Career, and Technology is Disrupting Everything – Adapting, Surviving, & Thriving.

Some of the exciting sessions on tap for the event’s 100 attendees are: ●● Thought Leadership: Think Beyond Business as Usual. ●● Who Are These Old People? Adapting to Generation Types in the Workplace. ●● Successfully Managing the Evolution of the Parking Experience. ●● Leaning in Without Falling on Your Face. ●● Recognizing and Adapting Our Leadership Communication Style. ●● Attracting and Retaining Rockstar Employees. ●● Successfully Managing the Evolution of the Parking Experience.

Networking and Fun The International Parking Institute is proud to be joined

by T2 Systems, the premier Leadership Summit sponsor, to offer a new professional development forum for emerging leaders in an industry that sometimes flies under the radar of major university curriculum offerings. Attendees stand to gain newfound determination and connections in open format spaces such as the engaging Welcoming Reception & Game Night Mixer, sponsored by DESMAN. In addition to the specialized hubs in the Knowledge & Networking Pavilion (T2 Systems, Parkmobile, and Smarking are just a few who’ve jumped on board to offer expertise and industry connectivity in the pavilion), Headshot Alley will be the must-visit area for freshening up even the strongest LinkedIn profiles, compliments of Timothy Haahs & Assocates, Inc. You might still have a chance to be one of the 100 attendees sharing in this exciting new educational and networking opportunity. Visit www.parking.org/100 for more information (email events@parking.org with questions) before it sells out! We can’t wait to see you in Florida!

STEPHANIE SANTORO is a project manager with IPI. She can be reached at santoro@ parking.org.

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STATE & REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT SOUTHWEST PARKING AND TRANSPORATION ASSOCIATION

SWPTA’S RESOUNDING SUCCESS IN THE SOUTHWEST

By Zachary Cook

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ave you heard the good news? The Southwest Parking and Transportation Association (SWPTA) is taking a unique and effective approach to offering education and networking to the parking industry in the Southwest. This year, the volunteer organization has made great strides in community outreach by offering fun and creative networking and educational events throughout the region, and there are more events to come throughout the year!

A Unique Approach SWPTA delivers multiple platforms for parking professionals to engage their communities, including lunch and learns, webinars, online articles, a mid-year training seminar, and the annual conference. But, you may ask yourself, how are these events unique?

Event planning starts with personal outreach by members of the SWPTA board of directors to the institutions the event is meant to serve. After discovering what types of training or educational opportunities the regional institutions find valuable, SWPTA begins creating an interactive curriculum that considers how to best engage the community members, providing an inclusive environment for all attendees and mingling institutions and vendors together as parking professionals. The SWPTA vision is to “Connect, Share, & Educate,” and the inclusive nature of the networking and educational events allows for SWPTA members to do just that.

Engaging Lunch and Learns This year SWPTA added free lunch and learn educational and networking events to the schedule, and the

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INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

first two were great successes. The first, held in March in Albuquerque, N.M., provided active-shooter response training and was attended by institutions from across New Mexico, along with members from Colorado, Arizona, and California. In addition to providing valuable training and a catered lunch, the event was held at the Albuquerque Museum where members networked while having access to the entire exhibit. We followed up with another lunchtime networking event in Phoenix, Ariz., and tackled the topic of license plate recognition.

Attendance was high, and we plan to continue to host similar events throughout the year in Colorado and Utah. Check our website for more information.

Free Webinars SWPTA conducts several webinars throughout the year that allow members and non-members alike to join roundtable or panel discussions on a wide variety of parking and transportation topics. Our webinars include frontline training topics and current issues being addressed by regional parking operations. We even hosted an informative session to assist first-time IPI Conference attendees. A group of industry and

association veterans shared support and useful tips for those who were about to visit New Orleans, La., in May.

Mobile Mid-Year Training Seminar The SWPTA Mid-Year Training Seminar was held in Reno, Nev., in June. Members traveled from across the region to receive frontline training and interact with industry colleagues. The mid-year event travels annually to different cities in the region, offering training that is most requested by member votes as well as bringing new memberships to SWPTA. By engaging the parking community, SWPTA offers value back to the industry where it is needed, ensuring that there are training and networking opportunities throughout the Southwest region.

is SWPTA’s goal to make learning and networking as fun as it is valuable to you and your institution. Please join us Sept. 11–13 in Las Vegas at the Golden Nugget for SWPTA 2017!

Growing SWPTA Membership Thanks to personal outreach from existing members and the association’s membership referral program, SWPTA has grown its membership. More institutions throughout the region are active in SWPTA than ever before.

The membership referral program provides incentives to existing members who refer new institutions into SWPTA membership; the results have been increased participation in all the training and events SWPTA offers throughout the year.

Interactive Annual Conference Mark your calendars! SWPTA’s annual conference presentations have an interactive element that gets people up and moving around the room to engage in group projects.

For example, groups might work toward solutions to real challenges the presenting institution may be facing. The solutions from each group are then presented back to the room and discussed. The interactive charrette approach allows for our diverse collection of parking professionals to share their collective experience and discuss best practices for solutions to real-world issues, all while getting to know colleagues from throughout the region.

In addition to offering a unique educational format by day, SWPTA is known for organizing interesting and sometimes competitive social events in the evenings.

From events held in captivating environments such as the Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz., to a citywide scavenger hunt in downtown Las Vegas, Nev., it parking.org/tpp

Expanding Online Presence With the addition of a social media chair to the SWPTA Communications Committee, SWPTA is now active on Twitter and LinkedIn. Get the latest updates in your preferred feed or visit southwestparking.org for the latest information. SWPTA’s online resources are regularly updated with event information, training opportunities, original articles and organization information.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/swpta Twitter: @SWParking

Thank you!

The SWPTA Board of Directors is thankful to all our members and sponsors for making everything we offer possible. Through continued support and efforts by volunteers, SWPTA is active and thriving in the southwest!

ZACHARY COOK is with iParq. He can be reached at zcook@ iparq.com.

AUGUST 2017 | INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE

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COMMUNITY DIGEST

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NDECT USA announced the installation of a state-of-theart parking guidance system in Texas A&M University’s Cain Garage. Through this project, 1,283 INDECT parking guidance sensors were mounted throughout the parking structure and an additional 287 surface-mounted Nedap Sensit sensors were installed on the garage’s roof. The Cain Garage parking structure, which is located in the center of campus, serves more than 60,000 students, staff, and faculty. The facility provides premier parking for visitors to campus, including for the Memorial Student Center, MSC Bookstore, and Kyle Field—the fourth-largest stadium in the U.S. “Texas A&M has one of the largest campuses in Texas, and with all of the events that take place there it’s not unusual for the campus to attract well over 100,000 visitors to campus,” says Dale Fowler, director of INDECT USA. “The garage’s parking guidance system provides an extraordinarily customer-friendly parking experience to visitors or guests using the garage.”

The INDECT sensors are mounted above parking spaces and feature a color-coded system of lights to indicate where parking is available. Because they were mounted on the parking structure’s ceiling, the high-visibility LED lights located on each sensor can easily be seen across parking aisles.

LED signs located at the end of each driving aisle also indicate how many spaces are available in each.

In addition to the ceiling-mounted INDECT sensors inside the garage, Nedap Sensit parking guidance sensors, software integration, and ongoing automated sensor maintenance monitoring, provided by IPsens (www.ipsens.net) were installed in each rooftop parking space where overhead sensor installation was not possible. The combination of INDECT ceiling-mounted and Nedap surface-mounted sensors permits complete coverage and parking guidance for each of the parking facility’s 1,434 spaces.

The Cain Garage parking guidance suite was installed by Parking Guidance Systems, LLC.

Berlin Schonefeld Airport Chooses Park Assist BERLIN SCHONEFELD AIRPORT in Berlin, Germany, will become the first airport in Europe to install Park Assist®’s patented M4 camera based parking guidance system (PGS).

Partnering with APCOA, Park Assist will introduce its advanced smart sensor PGS to help the airport provide a stress-free parking experience for travelers.

Berlin Schonefeld Airport operates five terminals, 47 check-in desks, and 52 aircraft parking stands and serves more than 11.6 million passengers per year. There are more than 4,000 parking spaces located within a short walk to the terminals. Travelers will be treated to an

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effortless parking experience with the M4’s unique smart sensor and real-time digital signage guidance to open spaces, the Find Your Car™ feature, and opportunities to select premium-parking benefits.

According to customer surveys, people who may be on tight schedules; families with children; and business travelers want the ability to select convenient parking spaces to ease their transition to the terminal. Park Assist’s SelectRate™ tool will enable the airport to fulfill this need without having to invest in expensive gate systems or costly loss of spaces. It is a win-win solution that meets customer needs while

INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

increasing efficiency and revenue for the airport.

With a standard Park Assist installation, smart-sensor cameras will be put in place to identify vehicles and monitor occupancy in every parking space. Airport parking operators will be able to capture streaming video whenever motion is detected in or around a space.

Upon exit, Park Assist’s Park Finder™ feature will enable returning parkers to find the exact location of their vehicles by simply typing in the license plate number at a touchscreen kiosk or on a smartphone app—and/or by inserting a parking ticket at a pay station.

KATHERINE WELLES / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Texas A&M Chooses INDECT for Parking Guidance

Whoosh! Parking App Rolled Out in Kingston, N.Y.

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CCESS TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION (ATI) and Parkeon announced they rolled out the Whoosh! mobile parking payment app for the City of Kingston, N.Y. Whoosh! allows drivers

to pay for parking with their smartphones, tablets, and computers instead of having to search for change for the parking meters.

The Whoosh! app is available at all— approximately 400—on-street parking

meter locations throughout downtown Kingston. Once registered, app users can make parking payments, receive time-expiration notifications, and extend their parking stay all from their mobile devices.

Time extension can also be made on the Apple Watch.

ATI and Parkeon worked with the city’s citation management vendor, Complus Data Innovations (CDI), to integrate Whoosh! payments into CDI’s citation issuance system. Enforcement officers will know in real time if a motorist has made a payment via Whoosh! just by checking for the license plate number on their handhelds.

Whoosh! ambassadors have been onsite in Kingston in bright pink T-shirts informing parkers and merchants about the new app.

WGI acquires Carl Walker, Inc. ZWEIG GROUP, a full-service AE consulting firm based in Fayetteville, Ark., facilitated WGI’s acquisition of Carl Walker, Inc., a deal that gives the buyer a 12th business line, nearly 400 associates, and an important footprint in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, and Texas.

For WGI, a design, planning, and surveying firm based in West Palm Beach, Fla., this is the third acquisition in three years. By joining forces with Kalamazoo, Mich.,-based Carl Walker—which specializes in the creative planning and design of sustainable parking structures supported by the rapidly changing automation technology transforming its marketplace—WGI solidifies its standing as a major player.

Bringing these two iconic firms together was a lot of work and well worth the effort, says Jamie Claire Kiser, Zweig Group’s director of consulting, who represented the seller. “This transaction is an embodiment of the ultimate M&A goal—to make one-plus-one equal three. It’s always a pleasure working with firms that respect each other throughout the process,” she says.

Gary Cudney, president and CEO of Carl Walker, as well as the firm’s principals, executives, and associates, will continue in their current roles, ensuring a smooth transition for Carl Walker’s clients and staff. The branded Carl Walker name will continue and be integrated with WGI, operating as Carl Walker, a division of WGI.

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AUGUST 2017 | INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE

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COMMUNITY DIGEST

Nedap wins Intertraffic Parking Solutions Award 2017

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EDAP WAS RECOGNIZED with the Intertraffic Parking Solutions Award 2017 for its smart parking solution in the Turkish city of Izmir. Nedap won the award during the ceremony at the start of Intertraffic Istanbul for its SENSIT smart parking sensors.

SENSIT monitors the vehicle occupancy of individual parking spaces in the streets of Izmir, resulting in improved parking guidance and efficient monitoring of all paid, time-restricted, and disabled parking zones.

As part of the city’s large-scale intelligent transportation systems (ITS) implementation that includes solutions to optimize traffic and transportation, 2.000 parking spaces are equipped with Nedap’s smart parking sensor system, which integrates with traffic management

to monitor vehicle occupancy of individual parking spaces.

Based on real-time information, motorists are guided to available spaces easily. In addition, all paid, time restricted, and disabled parking zones can be monitored efficiently.The project was realized by the Czech companies Cross in a joint-venture with AZD Praha.

“We are honored with this recognition by the professional jury. This award emphasizes that Nedap’s SENSIT is seen as the leading smart parking platform for on-street parking in cities worldwide. It is great to see that SENSIT is recognized for adding true value to ITS projects. It is one of the reasons that more and more cities rely on SENSIT to solve their mobility challenges,” says Ido Wentink, business development manager at Nedap.

Learn, connect, and engage in person. IPI comes to you with the best training in the industry.

Go to parking.org for more information and start the conversation today!

We

our Volunteers.

IPI thanks all of our volunteers for making the 2017 IPI Conference & Expo a smashing success!

We invite members – both experienced and new to the industry – to apply to join our team of talented volunteers.

Consider one of the following committees: i Awards of Excellence i Conference Program

Visit Mark your calendar, and parking.org/volunteer be on the lookout for for information. the more Call for Volunteers in July 2017.

i Planning, Design, and Construction i Education Development i Membership and Community Building i Parking Matters® i Parking Research i Parking Technology i Professional Recognition i Safety & Security i Sustainability

COMMUNITY DIGEST

Survey Finds Americans Don’t Trust Ride-Sharing Companies to Build Driverless Cars

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Key findings of the INRIX Connected & Autonomous Vehicle Consumer Survey include: ●● Trust and Confidence: Trust is a vital component for brands to build lasting relationships with consumers.

New entrants into the automotive industry face challenges compared to legacy brands.

In the U.S. ●● Technology giants (e.g., Apple and Google) are trusted slightly more than automakers to build autonomous vehicles (27 percent vs. 23 percent), followed distantly by ride-sharing companies (4 percent). ●● Six out of 10 respondents (62 percent) believe AVs will be widely available within a decade. ●● While 75 percent of baby boomers believe that autonomous vehicles will likely improve access for the elderly, 53 percent are still unlikely to purchase an AV.

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Internationally ●● Almost three (2.8) times as many Germans trust traditional carmakers to build autonomous cars compared to tech giants, and fewer than 4 percent of respondents trust ride-sharing. ●● Nearly half of current connected car owners say they would likely or definitely purchase an autonomous vehicle, compared to 19 percent of non-connected car owners. ●● More than two-thirds of all Germans believe that autonomous vehicles will likely improve access for the elderly.

44 are more likely to trust technology companies with their data, while their older counterparts have more trust in automakers. ●● Nearly 90 percent of connected car owners trust other companies with their vehicle data, while only 60 percent of non-connected car owners trust others.

In an increasingly connected world, an enormous amount of data is generated by vehicles and their passengers. Consumers are concerned about how this data is handled, stored, and shared.

U.S. ●● Blind spot warning is the most desired new car feature, followed by stolen vehicle warning/tracking, night vision, road incident alerts and re-routing, and rear/front collision alerts. ●● 71 percent of respondents expect autonomous vehicles to be as safe or safer than today’s cars. ●● 73 percent of baby boomers don’t believe AVs will be safer than cars on the road today.

U.S. ●● 1.4 times as many Americans trust established tech giants to secure their connected car data than automakers. ●● Generation X and millennials trust tech companies the most with their vehicle data, while nearly half of baby boomers trust no one. ●● 29 percent of respondents do not trust any company to secure their in-car data and privacy.

Internationally ●● 1.5 times as many British drivers trust traditional car makers with their data compared to Silicon Valley’s tech giants. Thirty-four percent of all respondents do not trust anyone. ●● Across all countries surveyed, consumers under age

INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

Road Safety: Traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of preventable death globally.

Many believe connected car technology and autonomous vehicles will herald a new safety era for people on the road.

International ●● Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they would be most interested in blind spot warning technology, followed by night vision and rear/ front collision alert. ●● 85 percent of Italian drivers believe AVs will be at least as safe as current cars. ●● Respondents are most willing to pay for safetyrelated connected car tech compared with other categories like infotainment, driver assistance, and vehicle management.

ISTOCK

NRIX, Inc. recently published the results of its Connected & Autonomous Vehicle (AV) Consumer Survey, with insight into the products, services, and pain points emerging in this multi-trillion dollar market.

The INRIX Research survey revealed three key themes around consumer experiences of, and their attitudes toward, connected cars and autonomous vehicles: concerns around data privacy, the importance of road and vehicle safety, and the level of trust and confidence in the connected car and autonomous vehicles market. The report also found that familiarity with emerging technologies and their benefits will be central to winning customers. In addition, it found that current owners of connected vehicles (aggregated across the five countries) are significantly more receptive to connected features, more trusting of data sharing, and more likely to purchase an autonomous vehicle.

“A new battleground is emerging between automakers, tech companies, and ride-sharing companies in the race to develop connected and autonomous vehicles,” explains Bob Pishue, senior economist at INRIX. “With hundreds of millions of connected cars expected to be on the roads within the next 15 years, the market share will be owned by companies that can educate drivers and gain consumer trust.”

PA R K I N G S O L U T I O N S C O M P E T I T I O N 2 0 1 8

DO YOU HAVE THE NEXT BIG IDEA?

Call for Entries opens October 16, 2017.

The Parking Solutions Competition is a design and development parking challenge for college students. Finalists demonstrate creativity, innovation, realism, applicability, scalability, and presentation skills.

Visit parking.org/parkingsolutions and follow #IPIparkingsolutions for competition details and announcements.

parking.org/parkingsolutions

COMMUNITY DIGEST

TagMaster Solves Parking Challenges with RFID

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DVANCEMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY are rapidly changing the way we park by providing new, innovative solutions for common problems.

In dense, urban areas where mixed-use developments are on the rise, one of those common challenges is separating key user groups. For instance, when developments offer both residential and retail space, how do we provide convenient parking for shoppers without compromising convenient access to designated spaces for residents?

Developer Equity Residential recently leveraged radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to tackle this issue for several residential and retail mixed-use developments in San Francisco, Calif. To provide the experience Equity Residential desired for their residents, it was important that parking for tenants be effectively separated from retail guests.

Watry Design, Inc. an integrated architecture, structural engineering, and planning firm that specializes in parking,

teamed with TagMaster North America, a leading provider of vehicle identification solutions, to design and implement a solution that would allow residents access to gated parking areas simply by placing a TagMaster RFID tag on the windshield of each resident vehicle and installing long-range and hands-free RFID readers at vehicle entry and exit points. This RFID system eliminates the need for proximity cards or other entry devices that can easily be lost or cause congestion as users search for their device upon arrival.

One of the developments successfully using TagMaster RFID technology is the Parc on Powell Apartments in Emeryville, which includes ground floor retail in addition to apartment homes. Both residents and retail visitors enter the parking facility via gate arm, but while retail users must stop to obtain a ticket, the TagMaster RFID tag opens the gate for residents from 20 feet away.

Residents then proceed to their designated area secured by a roll-down gate controlled

by the same RFID tag. This prevents retail users from accessing residential parking, and provides tenants with a hassle-free experience. Security is highly maintained for after-hours access, all while providing a high level of convenience for tenants.

RFID technology can also benefit urban developments facing space constraints. At the Azure Apartments in Mission Bay, utilizing TagMaster North America’s RFID systems for garage entry eliminated the need for parking access equipment outside of a roll-down gate where curbside space was extremely limited. Not only does this solution avoid pedestrian conflicts that would have arisen due to vehicles blocking sidewalks, but it also prevents vandalism and unwarranted wear and tear on equipment installed outside the structure. At both of these high-rise developments, installation of a TagMaster RFID system improved security, increased home values, and provided residents with easy and efficient access to their designated parking areas.

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LL TRAFFIC SOLUTIONS recently launched SmartZone for Schools, the first and only radar speed displays with audible alerts that sound when a vehicle traveling over a pre-programmed speed threshold limit passes the sign.

Designed specifically for school zones, SmartZone for Schools gives child pedestrians and bike riders the precious seconds they need to get to safety. The audible alerts and flashing beacons grab the attention of speeding drivers so they can immediately slow down before tragedy strikes. These web-enabled speed signs make it easier for school districts, municipalities, and law enforcement to optimize safety and protect students in school zones.

“About 78 percent of drivers speed in school zones, and 1 in 10 are distracted by mobile devices and other unsafe driving

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INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

behaviors. Add to that the number of students busy talking or texting and it’s no wonder that thousands of students are injured or worse each year,” says All Traffic Solutions CEO Jim Weaver.

“Our goal is to lower the incidence of school zone injuries one municipality at a time by giving schools and law enforcement effective, easy-to-use traffic calming devices to keep kids safe.”

“SmartZone for Schools delivers cloud-enabled access and management so users can remotely program and schedule speed limits, alerts, and beacons for the days and times when school is in session,” says Andy Souders, All Traffic Solutions CTO and vice president of engineering. “Speed and volume reports identify which areas require additional safety measures and provide meaningful statistics for effective planning.”

ISTOCK

ALL TRAFFIC SOLUTIONS LAUNCHES SYSTEM FOR SCHOOL ZONES

COMMUNITY DIGEST

Increased Protection for UL325 Retroreflective Photoeye EMX now offers a protective hood for its UL325 retroreflective photoeye. The new hood for the IRB-RET is designed to protect against the elements, including rain, fog, sleet, and snow. The hood also prevents damage from accidental contact by vehicles and industrial equipment. The IRB-RET-HD is constructed of zinc-plated steel with a black powder-coated finish. Installation is made easy by using the photoeye’s existing mounting holes. The industrial strength and robust appearance of the IRB-RET hood ensures long-term, reliable use.

2017 marks EMX Industries’ 30th anniversary of proudly manufacturing its access control products in Cleveland, Ohio.

Phoenix Convention Center Project Awarded to ParkPro and Amano McGann

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throughput, provide comprehensive reporting options, and offer patrons flexible and secure payment choices,” says ParkPro Sales Manager Blaine Shelton. With that in mind, the city of Phoenix selected Amano McGann’s OPUSeries® hardware coupled with iParcProfessional® Parking Management Software for their new PARCS. ParkPro will be installing EMVcapable exit terminals, pay-on-foot stations, and point-of-sale terminals to help the Phoenix Convention Center stay up to date with the latest PCI com-

pliance regulations. Wade Bettisworth, Amano McGann’s Western Region vice president, elaborated; “Amano McGann’s solution uses EMV-capable terminals that accomplish end-to-end, EMVCo.-compliant processing using a cloud-based, third-party gateway.”

Using Amano McGann’s integrated FlexScan technology, paired with eParcSuite web-based solutions, the convention center will also be able to provide patrons with printed or smartphone scannable short-term passes and validations.

ISTOCK

HE CITY OF PHOENIX, ARIZ., has contracted ParkPro, in collaboration with Amano McGann, to replace the existing parking access and revenue control system (PARCS) at the Phoenix Convention Center. Installation is set to begin in September.

The Phoenix Convention Center has more than 4,300 covered parking spaces located in seven garages.

“Due to the high-volume nature of the facility, the convention center required a system that will increase

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INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

VISUALIZE YOUR SUCCESS: WAYS TO EARN OR MAINTAIN YOUR CAPP CREDENTIAL New CAPP Resource Guide and sample CAPP exam questions available today at parking.org!

Have you considered earning your CAPP? It’s the world’s leading credential in parking and a pathway to personal accomplishment and career opportunities.

Good news: It’s now more convenient to prepare for the CAPP credential and find an exam testing center near you.

Take the first step. Start here: parking.org/CAPP

CAPP is a rigorous certification program that covers seven topic areas: I. General Knowledge II. General Management III. Operations Management IV. Financial and Operational Auditing V. Federal, State, and Local Laws VI. Marketing and Public Relations VII. Analysis and Application of Technology

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Architecture | Engineering | Consulting The leading expert in developing structured parking solutions.

www.ipd-global.com | 877 IPD PARK

parking.org/tpp

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ADVERTISERS INDEX CHANCE Management Advisors. . . . . . 57 chancemanagement.com 215.564.6464

Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.. . . 7, 56 kimley-horn.com/parking 919.653.6646

TIBA Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 tibaparking.com 770.491.7586

DPS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 dpstickets.com 877.375.5355

Magnetic AutoControl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 ac-magnetic.com/usa 321.635.8585

Timothy Haahs & Associates, Inc. . . . . 56 timhaahs.com 484.342.0200

EDC Corporation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2 aimsparking.com 800.886.6316

MITI Manufacturing Co., Inc... . . . . . . . . 47 mitico.com 866.545.6484

TNR Doors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 tnrdoors.com 866.792.9968

Hรถrmann High Performance Doors. . . . . 1 hormann-flexon.com 800.365.3667

ParkingSoft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 parkingsoft.com 877.884.PARK

Toledo Ticket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4 toledoticket.com 800.533.6620

International Parking Design.. . . . . . . . . 57 ipd-global.com 877.437.727

PCI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 pci.org 312.360.3216

Walker Parking Consultants. . . . . . . . . . 57 walkerparking.com 800.860.1579

IPS Group Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3 ipsgroupinc.com 858.404.0607

Rich & Associates, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 richassoc.com 248.353.5080

WGI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13, 56 wginc.com 866-909-202

PARKING BREAK

JIM BASS is landside operations manager at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, Little Rock, Ark. He can be reached at jbass@fly-lit.com or 501.537.7354.

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INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE | AUGUST 2017

Highlighted are IPI and IPI Allied State and Regional Association Events

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

2017 August 15

October 3-4

October 25–27

New England Parking Council Golf Tournament Stow, Mass. newenglandparkingcouncil.org

IPI International Parking & Mobility Conference Bogotá, Colombia parking.org

Parking Association of the Virginias Annual Conference Williamsburg, Va. parking.org/calendar

August 16

October 8–11

November 1-2

Middle Atlantic Parking Association Parking and Baseball Washington, D.C. midatlanticparkingassociation.org

Campus Parking & Transportation Association (CPTA) Norman, Okla. cptaonlione.com

Middle Atlantic Parking Association Fall Conference Baltimore, Md. midatlanticparkingassociation.org

September 11–13

October 10–13

November 8–10

Southwest Parking and Transportation Association Annual Fall Conference Las Vegas, Nev. southwestparking.org

New York State Parking Association Silver Anniversary Albany, N.Y. nyspa.net

Greenbuild Boston, Mass. greenbuildexpo.com

September 20–22

October 13 Middle Atlantic Parking Association Fall Golf Outing Windsor Mill, Md. midatlanticparkingassociation.org

California Public Parking Association Annual Conference Monterey, Calif. cppaparking.org

GPALs Summit at the European Parking Association Rotterdam, Netherlands parking.org/gpals

September 27–29 Pennsylvania Parking Association 2017 Annual Conference & Expo Erie, Pa. paparking.org

September 27–29 Carolinas Parking Association Annual Conference & Tradeshow Asheville, N.C. carolinasparking.org

October 17–20

November 28— December 1

Canadian Parking Association Annual Conference Banff, Alberta, Canada canadianparking.ca

Florida Parking Association Conference & Tradeshow Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. flparking.org

October 23–24 IPI’s Leadership Summit Atlanta Beach, Fla. parking.org/100

October 24-25 IPI/Abrapark International Parking Conference São Paulo, Brazil parking.org

parking.org/tpp

November 15–17

Save the Date!

2018 IPI Conference & Expo June 3–6, 2018 Orlando, Fla. | parking.org

AUGUST 2017 | INTERNATIONAL PARKING INSTITUTE

59

Be the expert and share your knowledge.

To submit, visit ipiconference.parking.org/2018

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