Tag Archives: parking

How Congestion Pricing Will Shape Parking in Manhattan

August 6, 2019 Kim Fernandez Leave a comment

By Tim Maloney

Manhattan is overflowing with more than 50 percent of trips in the central business district (CBD) made by motor vehicles, and the average speed for traffic has dropped to 7.1 mph (Mobility Report, 2018). The swollen arteries of the city cause a heart-stopping number of problems for pedestrians and cars. Left unchecked, the congestion crisis will get worse, and the solution needs to be right around the corner.

One solution proposed by the mayor’s Congestion Action Plan was to create a charge during peak travel times into the CBD of New York City. Although this is the first piece of legislation in the U.S. that taxes those who drive in congested areas, New York is hoping it will help raise money for new bike lanes, public transit, and other infrastructure improvements under the Traffic Mobility Act (TMA). Driving will never go away, but the driver will change. This new legislature will help create a framework that allows urban residents in New York to choose their mobility option from a diverse portfolio of options.

While the new congestion pricing legislature may ding parking revenue in the CBD, it will grow revenue on the border of the toll and will force long-term, off-street parking change in the CBD as parking demand evolves.

Parking demand will not drop substantially inside the CBD because everything needs a place to park. There are millions of people working between 60th Street and Battery Park. According to blogger Todd Schneider, NYC sees just more than 700,000 ride-share trips a day–that is a lot of parking opportunity. While drivers wait for their phones to buzz with the next rider destinations, during quick food dashes, and for restroom breaks, they will need a place to park. It is expected that facilities right outside the congestion toll line will see an increase in parking because drivers will be looking for solutions to the last mile of their commutes.

What’s next for us? We’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Tim Maloney is director of strategic partnerships with SpotHero.

Parking & Mobility Article, Resources, Transportation & Mobility

Participation and Buy-in

August 1, 2019 Rachel Yoka Leave a comment

How and why Penn State’s parking chair system works to reduce campus parking pain.

By Ryan Givens, CAPP, and Dave Dorman, CAPP

WITH THE ADVENT OF PAID PARKING at the Pennsylvania State University’s (Penn State) University Park campus more than 20 years ago came the development of a parking chair system with three primary purposes: distributing permits to faculty and staff members, deciding who would be issued what type of permits within allocations, and disseminating parking-related information.

As anyone working in a major university or college setting can appreciate, parking can be a contentious and politically charged subject. From university executives to frontline staff personnel—food preparation, janitorial staff, etc.—where someone parks seems to influence not only how a person’s day starts or ends, but can affect the entire day. Whether a university executive, a physical plant worker, the library front-counter staff, a distinguished faculty member, or members of the university police, everyone deems his or her time valuable, and all serve important roles that jointly contribute to the overall success and mission of the university. While all are important, there is a spoken and unspoken hierarchy and tenure, and decisions about who parks where need to be made. The tough question is who should be making these decisions?

In The Beginning
First, let’s learn more about the parking and infrastructure here at Penn State’s University Park campus and how we make it work: Penn State has more than 12,000 employees (10,200 registered for parking); 44,000 undergraduate students; 6,000 graduate students; and over 1,000 people who visit the University Park campus on a daily basis. As parking professionals, we strive to work in a fair, reasonable, and consistent manner as much as possible (not that those things always go hand-in-hand) to accomplish one primary goal: ensure that everyone is able to access campus, complete daily task(s), and exit campus safely, all while maintaining established parking allocations and providing an exemplary customer service experience. Easy, right?

Parking is a limited resource not only for our campus but also for many of you. Here at University Park, we maintain 22,000+ parking spaces disbursed through 136 parking lots; 2,040 spaces are designated for resident student use, while 1,205 spaces are designated for long-term student storage and 3,600 spaces are reserved for staff and student commuter use. As you can see, this often leaves us with more demand than capacity as the remainder of the spaces are used by faculty and staff, guests to campus hotels, true visitor parking, and students paying the on-campus pay stations.

The Parking Chair System
We employ a philosophy of granting some access to many people instead of a lot of access to just a few. Using this approach and a color and letter zone system, we look at each parking lot or deck designation separately (or at small clusters), then look at the general proximity to the numerous colleges or departments, and consider the number of employees designated within the surrounding buildings. To maximize usage, we allocate between 100 and 107 percent (for our core lots) depending on the size of the lot. For commuter lots our permit allocation is at almost 200 percent. Our allocation format does not account for all employees in any given unit, but it does provide fair and reasonable access for all units that have employees in an area.

We then establish our permit allocations across our lots and decks for the respective departments and colleges. For example, if there are six departments or colleges with employees in the buildings surrounding a parking lot, we look at the ratio of employees in each area and allocate the space based on that ratio. For example, if one college represents 45 percent of the employees, that unit would get 45 percent of the parking spaces.
All our customers are important to us, and if you ask them, they will let you know their need is greater than everyone else’s. Students are fairly easy and fall into basic categories: those residing on campus, long-term on-campus and off-campus storage, and commuter, with each residence determining what permit each student is eligible to purchase. Faculty and staff, however, present a more complicated situation given the various positions and levels within the many positions.

University Park has a network of more than 100 designated parking chairs—people. Parking chairs are selected by each college or department; typically these “volunteers” are within the human resources or faculty coordinator offices from each area. These are appointed positions, so the respective college or unit leadership has a vested interest in seeing this task performed as well as possible.
Parking chairs make the decisions within their departments as to who does or doesn’t receive a permit in high-demand parking areas. Transportation services does not have ready access to employees’ personnel records, so we do not know which faculty member may have tenure over another. We do not know whether a department offered parking within a lot under its allocation as a hiring incentive. We do not know the hierarchy that may exist within a department and how that dean views the pecking order when it comes to issuing parking permits. So we (happily) allow each college or unit and the parking chairs to determine their own criteria for assigning parking and to make those politically charged parking assignment decisions.

Advantages
This system allows us to focus on the overall allocation and management of the parking spaces. It also allows chairs to be able to communicate directly with faculty and staff within their respective units, as the chairs provide a network of onsite representatives to answer questions and assist their staffs. Also, it removes the need for 10,000 faculty and staff to come to the parking office. One of the biggest advantages is that transportation services does not have to make all the small decisions; it allows us to focus on the overall allocation and management of the parking spaces.

Challenges
Of course, no system is without some drawbacks, and the parking chair system is no exception. The system is as good or as poor as each respective chair. Therefore, it is paramount to keep in regular contact with the parking chairs and perform spot audits to ensure accurate and updated records.
A major challenge is these are appointed positions, and staffing changes affect parking chair duties. For example, the university recently reorganized and centralized the human resources department. This brought about an almost 75 percent change in parking chairs and a large loss of institutional knowledge about parking at the chair level.
This shift in parking chairs happened in conjunction with other events. We were at the end of our three-year faculty/staff permit cycle and issuing of new permits, along with the implementation our new online faculty/staff registration process. At first, the convergence of these events appeared to be looming as a potential major crisis. However, the events gave us a reason and opportunity to immediately meet with each of the new parking chairs for in-person training. We were able to turn potential chaos into a productive opportunity to network with and establish a positive working relationship between our office and our newest representatives. These relationships are very important as we work to maintain a constant line of communication between the parking office and our parking chairs, making sure that faculty and staff permit holders have positive customer experiences.

Technology
The need to keep the data flow going and records as accurate as possible is critical not only to an efficient parking operation, but also our chair system. At first, our chairs used a two-part faculty/ staff registration form to record everything related to assigning or returning a permit, keeping a copy for themselves and sending us the other copy via interoffice mail.

At first, the convergence of these events appeared to be looming as a potential major crisis. However, the events gave us a reason and opportunity to immediately meet with each of the new parking chairs for in-person training. We were able to turn potential chaos into a productive opportunity to network with and establish a positive working relationship between our office and our newest representatives.

We have worked the past few years with T2 Systems to find a way to better use technology for our chair system. We recently implemented a preferred parker administration (PPA) program and opened an online portal for parking chair use. The portal allows parking chairs to determine the permit they wish to assign and add the employee to their online allotment. The chair then sends a quick email containing the permit number, employee name, and ID number to one of our personnel. Our staff then goes into the portal to complete the permit assignment.

Looking Forward
In addition to our parking chair network, the processes we have developed provide for the gathering and updating of faculty/staff permit data in real time, allowing for up-to-the minute information to be added, which opens the door for future applications, such as mobile parking solutions and license plate recognition (LPR) for access control and enforcement.

We mentioned that a benefit of the chair system is that we can focus more on overall allocations. This is becoming increasingly important as we, like many others, are faced with how to deal with the loss of parking. In addition to losing some parking recently, construction will begin this fall on a parking deck with over 1,600 spaces. This deck is being built on existing parking lots, many of which are overflow lots. Construction will result in a temporary loss of 277 spaces, and we are permanently losing 17 spaces in one of the core lots that overflows into this area.

With these two projects, between 270 and 370 permit holders will be displaced during construction; for some, that loss will be permanent. The only place we are able to handle this volume of permits is on the other side of campus. Needless to say, many drivers will not be happy. This is where the chair system really comes into place. We will work with the chairs to reduce their allocations according to the appropriate percentage of the total allocations in the lots affected during and after construction. Parking chairs will determine who is reallocated and who will remain in the lots by the construction site.

Not only will the parking chair network provide us with a means of working through and assessing the effects of the specific loss of parking, but it will be instrumental in helping to deliver important information for the upcoming parking-related changes to the building projects. In essence, the chairs will be the messengers of news many faculty and staff will not take well. At the end of the project, the parking chairs may have access and insight into information on the assignment or reassignment of office space and personnel into buildings around the construction project. This information will provide us with the opportunity to work those changes into determining future allocations and trying to stay ahead of the curve of change.

We are not sure if this system would work everywhere. In many cases, peers tell us they’ve never heard of such a system. Maybe we benefit from developing this system at the outset of paid parking on campus. Or, perhaps given some of the unique and complex issues the Penn State University setting creates, the parking chair system will only work for us. We have found great value from the insights the parking chairs have to offer and have found this group to be a tremendous asset in the management of parking on campus.

Read the article here.

RYAN GIVENS, CAPP, is associate director of transportation services at Penn State. He can be reached at rjg22@psu.edu.

DAVID DORMAN, CAPP, is parking allocation manager at Penn State. He can be reached at djd6@psu. edu.

Parking & Mobility Article, Resources, Technology, Transportation & Mobility

Looking Ahead: Moving Faster

August 1, 2019 Rachel Yoka Leave a comment

The changing mobility ecosystem and its effects on the parking industry.

By Nathan Berry

THE TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY has been transformed in the past few years, and innovation shows no signs of slowing down. There are many new forms of transportation, and citizens have dozens of options at their fingertips—public transit, electric scooters, dockless bikes, ride-hailing services, personal and shared vehicles—and autonomous vehicles are on the horizon. All of these modes are competing for valuable curb space, creating new challenges for cities to manage.
With all of these unprecedented changes and the As new modes of mobility are introduced, a new set fast pace of innovation, private companies, cities, and of challenges is forthcoming that expands beyond the universities are striving to stay on top of the trends traditional parking environment. Through conversaand lead the industry by implementing more technolo-tions with city and mobility leaders, I have identified gy to improve and better manage their complex mobil-a few common themes organizations are trying to adity ecosystems. dress as they strive to decrease congestion and create
more livable communities:

Managing the curb.
Collaborating among modes (parking, transit, micro-mobility, etc.).
Dealing with the introduction of scooters and dock-less bikes.
Leveraging technology for mobility management.

Curbside Management
In the past, parking departments have had a primary focus on managing the rates and rules for parking and making sure drivers had a way to pay. But changes in the industry now require parking leaders to think about the bigger picture and how their operations can better manage the curb. It is no longer just about on-street parking and the choice of paying with a meter or a mobile phone; today’s leaders are facing challenges with electric scooters crowding the sidewalk and ride-hailing vehicles stopping at the curb to pick up and drop off riders. To make cities more livable for their citizens and continue driving economic growth, city and parking leaders need a way to understand and manage their unique mobility ecosystems.
As cities make way for the future of mobility, it will be critical to consider autonomous vehicles and other innovations that will require digital systems for operations. Currently in many areas, the curb is managed offline as rules, rates, and regulations live on physical signage or on non-connected systems, which can lead to confusion for drivers and enforcement officers. As new modes of transportation use the curb, centralized digital management is becoming a necessity. Cities can better understand what’s happening on their streets and make decisions to improve congestion and centralize the issuance and validation of access to the curb (parking rights, essentially) in order to make the city more livable, efficient, and equitable.

Coordinating this exchange of information, which often requires collaboration with private companies, requires the city to play a new role. To ensure access without stalling innovation, municipalities have to start leveraging technology to centralize data across modes of transportation so they can make data-driven decisions about how to provide equitable transportation options.

One successful example of effective curbside management is a pilot program with Lyft in San Francisco, Calif. Riders who requested a Lyft on Valencia Street—one of the busiest When cities and parking leaders areas in the city—were directed to a have more control, they can side street to meet their rides instead of manage a complex mobility
blocking the curb on the main street. As a result, average vehicle speed on Valencia
increased, improving the flow of traffic. This small behavior shift for each individual, amplified across the thousands of people using Lyft in this area, has created a larger positive outcome for the city.

Mix-modal Collaboration
With so many possibilities for getting around a city, citizens can use multiple modes of transportation to get from point A to point B, but they are forced to manage each mode separately. Agencies are recognizing this trend and shifting from mode-oriented to user-oriented services.
The shift to mix-modal is well-demonstrated by Miami-Dade’s Department of Transportation and Public Works in Florida. In 2016, Miami-Dade reorganized its entire transportation system under one umbrella agency to embrace the idea of mobility management and improve the transportation experience for citizens. More cities are considering a similar consolidation and approach as they understand that when parking, transit, and micro-mobility are managed collectively, it leads to more collaboration and provides a holistic view of mobility challenges and opportunities. With more data available, leaders can make better decisions for positive city outcomes.
We’re also seeing a convergence of transportation options that focus on the user journey, especially when it comes to first mile/last mile solutions. In April 2018, the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) in North Carolina, announced a partnership with Lyft to offer subsidized rides for users of its CATSPass app. Passengers who originate or terminate a trip at specific station locations receive a contribution toward their Lyft fare. With this partnership, CATS was able to increase public transit usage in the city by providing options to use multiple forms of transportation in a single journey, streamlining the user experience.

Scooters and Micro-mobility
In 2018, scooter companies dropped thousands of scooters in cities across North America, creating great excitement and debate among citizens, city leaders, and mobility companies. With both Lime and Bird boasting more than 10 million scooter rides taken to date and the continued expansion into more cities in the U.S. and abroad, micro-mobility management has risen to the top of challenges that city and parking leaders face.
Many cities responded initially by implementing systems and rules intended to minimize disruption by limiting access to their curbs and streets. But by focusing on the challenges, cities risked missing the opportunity to incorporate new modes of transportation to make their cities more equitable and livable. In the subsequent months, cities have begun the process of building systems to coordinate fleets of micro-mobility vehicles, including the creation of data standards and data-sharing agreements with scooter providers. As those initiatives mature, cities will need to use shared data to ensure the alignment of incentives between public and private sector participants.

Cities and micro-mobility companies have an interest in creating a system in which all parties—end-users, the city, and the micro-mobility companies—can benefit. With a shared data system that can help scooter companies balance supply and demand, citizens will have greater access to transportation options, cities can better control and manage the scooters on their streets, and micro-mobility companies can optimize the number of vehicles available.

Leveraging Technology
The new innovations in our industry have the potential to positively affect cities and their citizens, but the missing piece is often having the right technology to implement desired solutions. Organizations are looking to implement technology that creates simpler and more efficient systems for drivers, enforcement officials, and city leaders, while providing unprecedented access to data about parking trends, behaviors, payments, enforcement officer routes, and more, all in real time. This information is the key to tackling broader city initiatives, such as ensuring equity, reducing congestion, and fostering innovation, and allows transportation leaders to make data-driven decisions for better mobility management.

Parking and transportation leaders understand the importance of technology, but there are many options to consider. The first step is to help leaders better understand mobility trends by leveraging technology to manage all forms of transportation in one place. A mobility platform is the solution, allowing cities to connect multiple mobility services (mobile pay for parking, digital permits, parking enforcement, meters, micro-mobility, ride-hailing services, and more) in a centralized hub. Cities then have real-time access to data to help identify trends, make informed policy decisions, and effectively code the curb. The platform can also house information about rates, rules, and regulations, which can then be pushed out to all of the connected services.

With a more connected system, it becomes easier for cities to make adjustments, big and small, that will influence the daily decisions citizens make about how to travel throughout the city. When cities and parking leaders have more control, they can manage a complex mobility ecosystem and ultimately, provide a positive experience for their citizens and promote economic growth in a sustainable way.

The bottom line is that cities, universities, and agencies are facing many of the same challenges, regardless of their organization’s size or location. Innovation is not slowing down, and the changes that will affect our industry this year and in the years to come are unknown, which is why there needs to be an established system of collaboration between private and public sectors. Private and public organizations will lead the way with new technology and developments, making it critical that the public sector has the tools necessary to keep up and stay on pace. With greater collaboration, organizations can share best practices that can help everyone be successful.

Read the article here.

NATHAN BERRY is regional sales director at Passport. He can be reached at nathan.berry@ passportinc.com.

Parking & Mobility Article, Resources, Transportation & Mobility

EV Charging: The Quiet Change

August 1, 2019 Rachel Yoka Leave a comment

By Michael T. App, AIA

ADVANCEMENTS IN MOBILITY HAVE LED some city planners and architects to take the position that that there won’t be a need for parking garages in the future. They assume that everyone will be using ride-hailing services and won’t own personal vehicles. This position always generates a lot of conversation. However, the quiet change that is happening—and rarely gets the same amount of coverage—is that several automakers are planning to halt production of the internal combustion engine and only release electric cars. This will require significantly more charging stations, and it has been said that the garage will be the gas station of the future.
The reality is that most people park at their office in the morning and never move their cars until leaving, rendering the charging station unproductive most of the day.

Accommodating Electric Vehicles

A parking planner needs to consider several things when designing a parking garage to accommodate electric cars with charging stations. First, who are the users of the garage? Garages that serve offices have users who park and stay all day. Garages that serve residential units have users who park for long periods of time as well. Patrons using garages that serve shopping districts or hospitals typically are only parked for a few hours. Parkers at an airport may be parked for extended periods. Each of these uses would need a specific and different charging solution.

Charge times for electric vehicles (EVs) vary depending on battery pack size and vehicle power acceptance rate, with most requiring approximately four hours on a Level 2 station for a full charge. This typically equates to approximately 33 miles per hour of charge. The average U.S. resident drives approximately 13,500 miles per year, equating to 37 miles per day. Based on those statistics, it is possible that in one hour on a Level 2 charging station (a $20,000 piece of equipment) an EV can achieve enough power to make the average commute to the office and back home each day. With the standard charging time, a Level 2 charging station could provide a full charge for two cars per day. Based on this mileage, an electric car would only need to achieve a full charge once every three days. This would allow six cars to be charged by a single Level 2 charging station. However, the reality is that most people park at their office in the morning and never move their cars until leaving, rendering the charging station unproductive most of the day.

In contrast, residential style Level 1 charging stations (a standard household outlet) could be provided. The charging time would be significantly longer, providing only six miles for every hour of charge, but there could be considerably more stations. Assuming that every car would charge every day for eight to 10 hours, each would have adequate power for daily commuting.

Garage Considerations
A parking garage owner has some considerations as well. The first question might be to ask, “Why are electric-charging stations being installed?” It may be that the owner is trying to satisfy Parksmart requirements. Or the owner may be trying to entice EV owners to park in the garage.

A second question an owner might ask is, “How much charge needs to be provided?” Many owners are now realizing that they do not need to provide a full charge, and some are questioning the need to provide any charge at all. An owner would also need to determine if a fee for the power that is used by the electric car is worth trying to collect. In many cases, some owners of garages with charging stations have found the effort and cost to charge for the cost of the electricity used is more trouble than it is worth, so they just provide the power for free.

Recognizing that most charging can be done on a residential-style charging station, parking planners must navigate through the design process with their clients to determine if it is necessary or desired to provide charging stations in public parking garages that serve hospitals, airports, office complexes, and shopping areas and what type of charging station to install. Parking planners working with those developing residential properties and the associated parking facility should recommend that a standard electrical outlet be provided for each parking stall, or provisions for the addition of 100 percent charging coverage, in preparation for a time when more of us are driving electric vehicles.

Read the article here.

MICHAEL T. APP, AIA, is director of architecture with Timothy Haahs and Associates and a member of IPMI’s Planning, Design, & Construction Committee. He can be reached at mapp@timhaahs.com.

Outreach and Media Relations, Parking & Mobility Article, Resources, Transportation & Mobility

Looking Forward: IPMI Board Chair David Onorato, CAPP, on parking, mobility, teamwork, and those Pittsburgh sports teams.

July 17, 2019 Rachel Yoka Leave a comment

by David Onorato, CAPP

LIKE SO MANY INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS, David Onorato, CAPP, sort of fell into parking. “It was by luck,” he says. “I was working with the [Pittsburgh] city finance department and there was an opening in the parking authority. I was asked if I wanted to move there and I said yes. It’s parking—how hard can it be, right? Little did I know.”

Since that move in 1995, Now, he’s looking ahead to industry changes, how they’ll affect his operation and his beloved hometown, and how they’ll change things for members of IPMI, where he was installed as Board of Directors chair in June.

“The industry is unique,” he says. “Both in its field of operation and in the co-workers and peers you meet. Everyone is very willing to share information, and we’re all in the same boat together. The networking is stronger in this industry than any other industry I’ve seen.”

Getting There

Onorato and his wife, Cathy, have been married for 34 years and have three children, David, Lauren, and Matt. Onorato grew up on the north side of Pittsburgh with a brother and three sisters. His dad, Geno, was a machinist, and his mom, Vivian, taught grade school. Onorato says his parents always emphasized education as the path to success.

Growing up in a large Italian family meant weekly Sunday dinners. “Our parents always gave us comfort in that we felt we had everything we needed.” The family, all 33 members, vacationed together every year for 30 years. “People would wonder how we survived the vacations,” he says with a laugh. The extended family is still close-knit.

Onorato earned a bachelor’s degree from Clarion University and a master’s from Robert Morris University (both in Pennsylvania), worked for the city finance department, transferred to the parking authority, and soon got involved with the Pennsylvania Parking Association and IPMI, earning his CAPP certificate in 2010.

It wasn’t long before the Pittsburgh Parking Authority started making headlines as a forward-thinking municipal organization.

Pittsburgh Parking Grows

“I was involved with the regional association and IPMI in 2010, and that’s when the public-private partnerships (P3s) were being considered,” he says. “The mayor asked me to run a P3 to evaluate the options.” A successful bid was received but was rejected for political reasons. Onorato calls the process eye-opening.

“The private operators were doing it, and they gave us a blueprint,” he says. “The larger value was in on-street parking, and I remember saying that if we do nothing, we can’t be upset if we’re not here in five years. We knew what had to be done.”

The city’s meters were single-space, 30-year-old devices. Onorato’s team hired a consultant to evaluate what was available in the market, and they issued an RFP for multi-space meters. Ten bids were received, and five companies were interviewed. Then pay-by-plate came onto the scene. “We decided to reject all the bids and go with pay-by-plate,” Onorato says. “We did our due diligence. We knew it had never been done in the U.S., and we knew we didn’t want a major capital improvement that would be obsolete in three years.”

Pittsburgh installed pay-by-plate and launched it in 2012, carefully educating the public along the way.

“They were very accepting,” Onorato says—so much so that two years later, the city began offering pay-by-phone. Today, 50 percent of parking transactions are conducted that way, and Pittsburgh has hosted about 10 cities whose officials visited to see how similar setups could work for them.

The city was named IPMI’s Parking Organization of the Year in 2015 and earned Accredited Parking Organization (APO) status, becoming one of the first municipalities to be accredited. “IPMI set the standard with APO,” Onorato says. “When they launched it, we were excited and wanted our organization to apply. It proved more beneficial than I first realized. It established where we were at as an organization and set the bar for the goals we needed to reach. It was a great learning tool for the entire organization.

“APO helped us evaluate our operations against established industry standards,” he continues. “We used it as an educational tool for internal processes—we were doing things and took them for granted.”

The process, he says, made authority staff better at what they were doing, and the recertification requirement helps keep them focused on continual improvement. “We keep it in our vision,” he says. “We always think about what we need to do to meet the APO requirements moving forward. It puts us—the parking industry—on a playing field with other industries that have standards, so we’re recognized as leaders and as professionals.”

Getting Involved

Onorato attended his first IPMI (then IPI) Conference & Expo in 2005, looking to get more immersed in his industry. “I was impressed and knew I wanted to get involved,” he says. “My first thought was to earn CAPP.” He and Christopher Speers, CAPP, the authority’s director of parking services, both earned their certifications in 2010 and aimed for more involvement at the next year’s Conference—in Pittsburgh.

“I got to know the staff,” he says. “I liked what the organization represented, and I decided this was the path I wanted to take.” Having the Conference in his hometown, he says, offered him a great perspective into the behind-the-scenes work and allowed him to witness firsthand how everyone in the organization worked together.

“I decided to run for the Board,” he says. “It took several times, but I got there. And I am very impressed with the Board and their knowledge and background and skill and the way they get things done. There’s a lot of teamwork there.”

He eventually became treasurer and then chair-elect and was installed as chair last month, in Anaheim, Calif.

Goals

“I want to keep the organization on the path it’s on now,” he says. “We’ve had great leadership in past years that has established our path for the future. I want to continue to build upon our past successes.” Onorato noted that adding “mobility” to the organization’s name last fall was a major decision in keeping parking organizations relevant, ensuring they are key players going forward. “Mobility is a major factor. It has to be a key aspect of our vision, and we have to stay on that path as far as transportation network companies, electric vehicles, bikes, shared rides, and transit. It’s not just about parking, but we have to maintain parking as a vital role in the industry. It’s up to us to keep the seat at the table now that we have it.”

Data is also top-of-mind. “All users want to see data,” he says. “We have the technology today to collect mass volumes of data, and it is what we do with the data that will determine the future of the industry. Data has the potential to enhance the industry and the end user’s experience. And with that, and mobility, the thought has to be how we keep people satisfied with changing needs. We have to set the trends and decide what the future of parking and mobility is going forward.”

Onorato remains grateful to past Boards and their members and says the mentors he met at the beginning of his parking career remain so and have since become great friends.

“There are two past chairs to whom I’m very grateful to. I met them early on at the then-IPI conferences, and they have been my sounding board for vetting my strategies. Those two are Roamy Valera, CAPP, and Kim Jackson, CAPP, who are recognized as industry leaders. They always have given me good advice that was a basis for my decisions.”

Back to Pittsburgh

Onorato says he can’t wait to welcome IPMI members back to Pittsburgh for the IPMI Leadership Summit in October (parking-mobility.org/100).

“My first role as chair of the organization will be to host the meeting in Pittsburgh, and I’m very excited about that,” he says. “I’m looking forward to welcoming everyone to the city and would encourage them to get out and see the city. We have restaurants, theaters, and lots to see right in the CBD. The perception of Pittsburgh is different than the reality once you get here, and I’m going to encourage first-timers to take the time to enjoy the city.”

The Pittsburgh Parking Authority enjoys a great, productive relationship with the mayor and city council. Onorato says that comes from time spent building trust.

“We have a great relationship, and we work as a team,” he says. “We had some learning curves—we’re an authority and separate and self-sufficient, but without the city, there is no authority. So we work hand-in-hand, helping fund some operations and different organizations. We understand our relationship with the city, and they understand theirs with us. They see us as a team player, and our individual success comes from our joint success.”

During his free time, Onorato enjoys following Pittsburgh sports teams, which showcase the city on a national level. He is a frequent spectator at games and has been fortunate enough to attend three Super Bowls and one Stanley Cup Finals. He also enjoys time at his lake house with his family. It’s frequently visited by their children and their friends. “I see them more up there on the weekends than I do at home,” he laughs.

Read the article here.

IPMI Blog, Resources

Voting Law’s Parking Requirements Create Controversy

July 10, 2019 Kim Fernandez Leave a comment

A new Florida law that requires “sufficient nonpermitted parking” at early-voting sites has raised the ire of many who feel it excludes college-age voters from participating in elections by prohibiting on-campus voting. It’s become part of a lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters of Florida, a group of students, and a nonprofit organization.

The law in question went into effect July 1 and requires enough nonpermitted parking for all anticipated voters at a voting site. Critics say it was a last-minute amendment ta larger election-law package and was designed to keep younger voters out of the polls; the requirement is nearly impossible to meet on a college campus. The lawsuit also notes it would be difficult to comply with in dense urban neighborhoods as well, and that parking shouldn’t play a role in election law.

Read the whole story here.

IPMI Blog, Resources

Parking Hits People Magazine–in a Good Way

July 3, 2019 Kim Fernandez Leave a comment

Las Vegas Parking Services got national attention this week when it started accepting donated school supplies as payment for parking citations. People magazine ran a story about the effort, approved by the city council. Through July 19, people can drop off school supplies of an equal or greater value than their parking fine to clear their tickets. All the supplies will be donated to a local nonprofit that distributes them to schools and teachers in need.

Well done, Las Vegas! Read the whole story here.

Education & Training, Parking & Mobility Article, Resources, State and Regional Associations, Transportation & Mobility

ON THE FRONTLINE: Getting Unstuck

July 1, 2019 Rachel Yoka Leave a comment

By Cindy Campbell

I RECENTLY READ AN INTERESTING statement in an online forum: “You know when you order a new item off the menu and you don’t really like it but you keep eating it—and every bite you’re like, ‘Nope, this is awful, but I already committed to it.’ Yeah, some of us are doing that in our careers.”

This statement reminds me of many discussions I’ve had with colleagues through the years. Perhaps someone you know has talked to you about their job dissatisfaction or maybe you’ve personally experienced this feeling. Whenever someone stays in a job long after they should have identified a new professional path for themselves, you have to wonder what’s keeping them from seeking new opportunities where they might actually find both personal and professional satisfaction.

Finding a Good Fit

Why do we stay in a work environment where we’re not blooming? Frequently, we stay for the money. Financial stability is important, but we step into dangerous territory when money becomes our sole reason for staying in a bad work situation. It happens all too frequently—health and happiness are sacrificed for money. Health issues related to work stress and job dissatisfaction can include high blood pressure, heart and circulatory issues, sleep issues, migraines, depression, ulcers, and obesity, to name just a few.

If any of these sound familiar, I have a couple of questions for you to consider: Do you recall the last time you felt like you had a great day at work? Do you remember what it feels like to enjoy your work? Let me be clear: There isn’t a job that exists where every day at the office will be fulfilling or fun, but life is too short to work in a position that never brings satisfaction. If this is sounding uncomfortably familiar, perhaps it’s time to think about employment options.

Getting Unstuck

Nothing will change without first making the conscious decision to do something different, but how do you go about it? Here are some things to consider if you’re looking to make a job change:

The grass isn’t always greener. Let’s start this conversation with a dose of reality: A 2016 study found more than 50 percent of American workers dislike their current jobs. (You are truly not alone.) Keep in mind that all jobs have their high and low points. Before deciding to make a career change, make sure your attitude and outlook aren’t major stumbling blocks. If you’re starting off the day believing it’s going to be bad, it can quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Even that dream job won’t seem so dreamy if you have a perpetually negative attitude.

Invest in yourself. Are you prepared for that next step? There are employment options every day in the mobility industry. If you’re concerned that your current qualifications won’t get you where you want to be, hold off on the job search until you can present yourself in the best possible light. IPMI offers a full array of professional development options. Are you a CAPP? If you haven’t taken this career enhancing step, maybe it’s time (see parking-mobility.org/capp for information). You can also take advantage of the CAPP Mentor Program to help you along the way.

Follow the leader. Before you can chart your course, it’s helpful to know how someone else achieved their professional goals. Who has a job you aspire to? How did that person land their current position? You’d be surprised how willing colleagues are to share their stories and to help you achieve your goals.

Bottom line: If you find yourself spending the majority of your time feeling frustrated and unsatisfied with your current position, perhaps it’s time to consider revisiting your priorities. Believe me—your life is worth it.

Read the article here.

CINDY CAMPBELL is IPMI’s senior training and development specialist. She is available for onsite training and professional development and can be reached at campbell@parking-mobility.org.

Case Studies, Parking & Mobility Article, Resources, Technology, Transportation & Mobility

THE GREEN STANDARD: Taking Stock in What You Have: A Case Study

July 1, 2019 Rachel Yoka Leave a comment

By Josh Naramore

IN THREE YEARS LIVING IN MY HOUSE, I have passed through the kitchen countless times. The shades that hung above the kitchen windows never impressed me, but when I spontaneously removed them last weekend, I was taken aback by the change. I had more light and could see the beautiful wood trim surrounding the window, and all it took was a different perspective.

Sometimes when things have existed for a long time, we take them for granted, especially in the public sector. It’s important for cities, universities, airports, and other institutions that offer transit service to continually revisit their brand and marketing and not take these assets for granted.

For almost 40 years, the City of Grand Rapids, Mich., has operated a transit service to shuttle commuters from remote parking facilities to job centers throughout our downtown area. This service is paid for with parking revenue and has recently gone through a transformation to better meet the growing demands of the city.

History of DASH

The city has operated a transit service since the 1970s; it was originally branded as the Grand Rapids Urban Shuttle—the Gus Bus. In the 1990s, Gus was rebranded to the Downtown Area Shuttle (DASH), with new colors, logo, and bus wraps. Commuters showed their parking cards and received free transit trips. The service was offered Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. DASH offered 10-minute service from 6 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m. and 30-minute service the rest of the day.

DASH continued without revision for nearly 20 years. Ridership remained flat during those years with about 1,000 riders per day. The service routes had not kept up with changes in the downtown development environment.

Grand Rapids has changed dramatically. There are thousands more residents, and employment has grown to almost 50,000 employees. A new convention center increased the number of downtown visitors, and Van Andel Arena hosts a growing number of concerts, special events, and games of the Grand Rapids Griffins, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings. With all this growth and change, DASH faced new challenges and opportunities.

The Rebrand

I did not realize what the DASH was until a few months after starting my job with the city. Yet, our department was responsible for the service. A free transit shuttle was a huge asset that was not being fully leveraged—only a small percentage of commuters even knew about it.

Our convention and visitors bureau requested that the city explore increasing DASH service to weekends and later hours of service and rebrand its look and feel. The city partnered with a private marketing firm, The Grey Matter Group, and worked with downtown employers, residents, hotels, and daily users to devise ways to improve the service.

We went into the rebrand exercise with eyes wide open and a willingness to change everything. After ridership surveys of users and drivers and focus groups with other stakeholders, the city decided to keep the name. Our team spent six months workshopping logo designs and color palettes and testing marketing tag lines. We also thoughtfully worked through changes to service routes and hours of operation. Instead of focusing solely on the Monday-Friday daytime commuter population, the service was expanded to target growing retail and service employment as well as visitors.

In August 2018, the new DASH service started with two new routes that offer seven-day service and late-night weekend service. Expanded hours give visitors attending special events access to cheaper parking in remote parking lots. Bus headways are maintained consistently at seven to eight minutes all day. DASH got a refreshed logo and color scheme, along with maps and marketing materials in English and Spanish. For the first time, the city also began purchasing advertising on billboards, at event venues, and in local businesses to market DASH.

The Future

The expanded service has increased our service costs by 50 percent. Ridership has increased 30 percent year-to-year and continues to grow every month. Parking revenue in historically underutilized surface lots is up 20 percent over previous years. Because of responsiveness of the hotel and visitor businesses to the changes, the city is exploring the potential for private revenue to help offset some of the increased costs. There is also new demand from residents, employers, and businesses to expand the DASH service into neighborhood business districts outside downtown.

The city has partnered with our downtown development authority and will leverage funding to install improved transit shelters at all DASH stops. These will include solar lighting, trash/recycling receptacles, benches, improved signage, and advertising panels. These ad panels combined with selling advertising space on buses will help pay for snow removal and cleanup at all stops. We’ve also started purchasing new compressed natural gas vehicles and will test electric vehicles in partnership with our regional transit agency. All the new vehicles will have more transparent windows to better allow riders to see out and be seen.

The DASH rebranding has demonstrated to our community the effects of expanded mobility accessibility by thoughtfully updating something that has existed in plain sight for a long time. Remember the shades on the window? Often we, as transportation professionals, are under pressure to deliver better customer service by purchasing new technologies or larger capital investments. Sometimes, taking stock and understanding the existing assets in our communities can have a more significant impact.

Read the article here.

JOSH NARAMORE is director, mobile GR and parking services, with the City of Grand Rapids, Mich., and Co-Chair of IPMI’s Sustainability Committee. He can be reached at jnaramore@grand-rapids.mi.us.

Parking & Mobility Article, Resources, Technology, Transportation & Mobility

The Future of Mobility

July 1, 2019 Rachel Yoka Leave a comment

By Kelsey Owens

CITIES ARE EVOLVING faster than ever before. Populations are getting denser, congestion is increasing, and new modes of transportation are being introduced, bringing tremendous opportunities and challenges. With the increasing rate of innovation, what will cities look like five, 10, or 20 years down the road?

The future is unknown, but that can’t stop parking and transportation leaders from taking action now. To prepare for the future, cities need to create a digital transportation infrastructure, focus on the customer journey, and develop dynamic pricing models to influence behaviors in order to create fair and equitable solutions.

Building a Digital Infrastructure

Since the introduction of cars, cities have adapted their physical infrastructure to support these vehicles. Roads, sidewalks, curbs, stop signs, traffic lights, medians, crosswalks, street signs, and parking meters all require physical changes to improve the way vehicles and people move around a city.

Most city solutions have been focused on hardware and physical infrastructure, but with the growth of technology, the focus is shifting to software and tech solutions. A decade ago, U.S. cities began to implement mobile pay-for-parking apps to supplement parking meters and provide a digital way to pay. Now, some cities are removing meters altogether in favor of a mobile-only solution.

As the world becomes more digital, transportation leaders should consider changing their city infrastructure at a digital level. To determine if a parking space is full, cities can develop predictive availability models based on historical data and trends. Instead of imposing scooter caps or medallion-like permits, cities can implement a digital solution to manage scooter distribution across their city. A solid digital foundation can help create a more connected mobility ecosystem. This allows cities to more flexibly adopt new innovations and gives them control over what technologies are implemented to best serve citizens’ needs.

User-oriented Transportation Solutions

With many possibilities for getting around, citizens can use multiple modes of transportation to get from point A to point B, but they have to manage each mode separately. Agencies are recognizing this trend and shifting from mode-oriented to user-oriented services.

One example is Miami-Dade’s Department of Transportation and Public Works in Florida, which was created to embrace mobility management and improve the transportation experience for citizens. More cities are considering a similar approach as they understand that when parking, transit, and micro-mobility are managed collectively, leaders can make better decisions for positive city outcomes.

We’re also seeing a focus on the user journey for first- and last-mile solutions. In 2018, the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) began a partnership with Lyft to offer subsidized rides for users of the CATSPass app. Passengers who originate or terminate a trip at specific locations receive a contribution toward their Lyft fares. With this partnership, CATS increased public transit use by providing options to use multiple forms of transportation in a single journey.

Influencing Behaviors through Pricing

Dynamic, progressive, and congestion pricing are hot topics in the mobility industry. Some agencies have implemented pricing models, such as the San Francisco Bay Bridge in California, which charges a higher toll during rush hour to reduce bridge traffic, and the Long Island Rail Road in New York, which charges higher fares at peak times. Some cities, such as Boston, Mass., and Chicago, Ill., have tried dynamic pricing models for on-street parking.

Price can be a motivating factor for consumers, influencing behaviors to achieve desired outcomes. By raising parking prices in a downtown area and reducing them outside the city center, people are more inclined to park farther away and find a secondary method of transportation to get to their final destinations. This can lessen circling for parking—a leading cause of city congestion.

The idea of dynamic pricing is going beyond tolls and car parking and is being applied to micro-mobility. The cities of Charlotte, N.C.; Detroit, Mich.; and Omaha, Neb., are in the midst of a six-month pilot program to test pricing models for scooter parking to make them more accessible and decrease sidewalk congestion.

Our industry is at a critical point, with unlimited opportunities, but many unknowns lie ahead. Transportation leaders need to think proactively about how to create systems today that can be adapted easily as new modes and challenges arise.

Read the article here.

KELSEY OWENS is director of municipal sales at Passport and a member of IPMI’s Technology Committee. She can be reached at kelsey.owens@passportinc.com.