Josh Cantor, CAPP Director, Parking & Transportation George Mason University I’ve taken advantage of slower times to meet with as many vendors as possible to get a better idea of what parking solutions exist and better understand advances in parking technology. While I don’t jump at whatever is the latest thing, it helps me understand the parking environment for when the time is right to make upgrades and add new solutions.
Kathryn Hebert, PhD
David Hill, CAPP, MA
President and CEO TPMConnect
CEO Clayton Hill Associates
Parking management and technology are at the center of all mobility and critical to creating comprehensive solutions and infrastructure. There needs to be a paradigm shift from a solo/siloed approach in favor of a collaborative, team-like approach. It will require enhanced relationship building, outreach, and partnerships with other mobility representatives to create sustainable solutions.
Consider the needs of the customer for freedom, simplicity, and help complying with unfamiliar processes. There is a great temptation to fall in love with the cool tech—remember that real people have to remember complicated passwords, their phone batteries die, network connections fail, and the effort they go through has to be proportional to the benefits provided. Before rolling out, walk through the process you are asking your increasingly large numbers of customers to follow and question if the benefit is worth the investment.
Larry Cohen, CAPP Executive Director Lancaster Parking Authority Only in the movies could we have foreseen the impact to our industry from an epidemic like COVID-19. It is imperative through lessons learned to put in place programs (hardware and software systems) and policies that have the capability to adapt now and in the future. Evaluate your current program and identify what can be changed with minimal costs, and what will need to be planned for in ongoing capital upgrades.
Casey Jones, CAPP Senior Parking and Mobility Planner DESMAN Keep the big-picture goal in mind when pursuing any new innovation. New technology should improve customer satisfaction, reduce operational costs, or improve revenue collection and revenue security. If it can do all three, you should be confident in your investment decision.
/ HAVE A QUESTION? Send it to editor@parking-mobility.org and watch this space for answers from the experts.
The opinions and thoughts expressed by the contributors do not necessarily reflect the opinions and viewpoints of the International Parking & Mobility Institute or official policies of IPMI.
20 PARKING & MOBILITY / APRIL 2021 / PARKING-MOBILITY.ORG