/ MOBILITY & TECH
Managing Change Through Financial Diversification By Brett Wood, CAPP, PE
A
S AN INDUSTRY, we have been positioning ourselves for disruption for several years. How
would we respond to impacts from micro-mobility, ride-share, and ultimately autonomous vehicles and the impending changes to parking demands and activity? In the years leading up to 2020, we spent considerable time and brainpower thinking about how to adapt management, operations, design, and implementation of parking as a means of responding to these disruptions and maintaining sustainable operations moving forward. And then spring 2020 happened and everything was turned on its head. Where we had been preparing and moving in the direction of change management, change was thrust upon us in an unpredictable manner. Overnight demand for traditional parking evaporated and the needs at our curbs and in our communities was transformed. And financial resources that support not only the performance of our programs but also customer service opportunities in and around our communities and campuses were reduced dramatically. Why was that? During the last 20 years, our programs have evolved well beyond parking into the realms of transportation, mobility, and community building. But our income streams haven’t evolved in real time. We still relied on the parked car to pay for everything, even though we were re- investing those dollars into all the other buckets we inherited. If 2020 proved anything, it’s that change can come quicker than we think and if we don’t find ways to diversify our pro-
10 PARKING & MOBILITY / JUNE 2021 / PARKING-MOBILITY.ORG
grams and our financial resources, we likely won’t be well positioned for the larger changes that will shift our transportation systems.
Traditional Financial Resources Traditionally, our programs have been funded by the parked car. In the municipal world, that includes transient parking, monthly parking, event parking, and citations. There may be other sources of funding, but they are minuscule in comparison to those main types. In the university world, funding is generated from annual or semester permits, daily parking, citations, and events. Disruptions to parking demand—such as a large shift of employees working from home—have an adverse effect on all these financial resources. In 2020, most programs saw 50 percent or more of their typical income disappear for more than half the year.