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When I tell people I run operations for a parking authority, I get that look, the polite smile, the raised brow, and the unspoken, “Wait… really? Parking?” Fair question. For over 20 years, I was deep in healthcare construction, overseeing $85 million expansions, building out senior living campuses (complete with their own utility plants), and managing environments where failure was never an option. So how did I end up managing curbs, license plate readers, and debates about whether people should back into spaces? Simple: I said yes. Yes to a new challenge. Yes to an industry most people overlook. And yes to discovering that parking isn’t just about asphalt and meters, it’s about movement. It’s about infrastructure, logistics, and how cities actually breathe. At my first IPMI convention in Louisville, somewhere between a smart mobility panel and a tasting table (it was Kentucky, after all), I realized: this isn’t a detour. It’s a new lane entirely, one that blends engineering with community trust, operations with real human behavior. I even found myself explaining why you can’t throw a rooftop party on a parking deck (people move around more than 4,000-pound vehicles). That’s parking: where physics meets people, and strategy gets tested by reality. So if you’ve ever wondered whether your skills can leap industries, here’s your sign. Sometimes, the best opportunities don’t shine. Sometimes, they just look like a parking spot. Mark Toro, PTMP, is the Deputy Director of Allentown Parking Authority. Mark can be reached at mtoro@allentownparking.com.

We obtained our first mobile LPR system in 2021 with the intention of going permitless after the first year of working out all the bugs, kinks and nuisances that having virtual permits brings. The uncertainty of budget constraints related to the pandemic and the turnover of staff delayed the roll out by several years. We made the decision that 2026 is the year to go permitless at Kent State! Some initial thoughts to help make the transition smooth include the following.  We’re planning to implement slowly with targeted user groups initially. We’ll start with students first, then faculty and staff, vendors and contractors, visitors, then events. This should allow us time to work through any issues that might arise and eliminate the largest group of permits initially to provide the greatest efficiency upfront. We plan to engage our university marketing and communications team to provide a roll out platform to inform our stakeholders prior to implementation. We envision a social media campaign and email marketing to raise awareness. The most difficult groups to capture and what we foresee being the biggest challenge to permitless operations is the one-time visitors and events. We’re currently analyzing different solutions to see what is the most cost effective and user-friendly options for our guests to campus. These groups have been our biggest hangup because we don’t know quite how to handle them yet in a permitless environment. We’re looking forward to the efficiencies that LPR provides, but we also know that this will be a big change for our campus community. Meredith Garrett, PTMP, is the Assistant Director of Public Safety, Parking & Transit Services for Kent State University. Meredith can be reached at mgarre12@kent.edu.

“The university is a series of individual entrepreneurs held together by a common grievance about parking.” Clark Kerr’s observation from his time as Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley still rings true. Decades later, parking remains one of the most persistent sources of frustration on college and university campuses. Students circle lots looking for spaces, faculty want reliable access near offices and classrooms, visitors struggle to understand where they can park, and administrators are left balancing competing needs with limited resources. What has changed since Kerr’s era is the technology available to manage parking. Yet many universities still rely on physical permits, spreadsheets, and manual processes that no longer align with the expectations of modern campus communities. Parking has become part of the daily campus experience, and outdated systems can undermine that experience before the day even begins. University parking is inherently complex. Faculty, staff, resident students, commuters, athletes, and event attendees all have different needs, usage patterns, and expectations. Managing these demands fairly with legacy tools almost guarantees confusion and dissatisfaction. Cloud-based digital parking management platforms are built to handle this complexity. They provide flexible tools that adapt to different user groups and demand patterns, while offering online self-service for permits, payments, and renewals. Automation reduces errors, eliminates the cost and waste of physical permits, and frees parking staff from routine administrative work. Financial oversight improves as well, with automated reporting and account-level tracking across departments or campuses. Rutgers University’s digital parking management program illustrates the impact of this shift. By moving to a modern cloud-based system, the university was able to combine permit types, enable online transactions and system-wide access, improve event and guest parking, and gain real-time data for planning and pricing. Compliance improved, complaints declined, and parking became more predictable for users. For many people, parking is their first interaction with campus. Digital parking management helps ensure that experience is efficient, transparent, and far less frustrating, turning a long-standing grievance into a strategic operational advantage. Click here to read the Parking & Mobility magazine article. Chris Perry, PTMP, is the Senior Vice President of Parking Base. He can be reached at chris.perry@parkingbase.com.

If the past several years revealed anything about urban mobility, it’s that the curb has quietly become one of the most politically charged, economically valuable, and publicly visible pieces of city infrastructure. Leaders from Austin, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. participated in IPMI’s Building Blocks webinar, where they shared how curb space has transformed from simple parking real estate into a multi-use frontline for transportation, commerce, and public life in their cities. In the not-so-distant past, the curb was a brief pause. A moment between where we were and where we were going. We parallel parked the car, checked for signs, maybe paid a meter, then went on to our destination. Much has changed. The once quiet edge of the street is now a full-blown stage for rideshare zones, sidewalk cafes, e-commerce deliveries, bike lanes, EV charging, micromobility, and bus priority projects. As Ken Hustings noted, curb space has become so valuable that a meter rate increase in Los Angeles was not only acceptable; it helped the city preserve staff positions during a fiscal crisis. The public’s relationship with the curb shifted in a very real way during the pandemic. As downtowns emptied and front doors became loading docks, people noticed just how much work the curb was doing behind the scenes. Take-out, package deliveries, and temporary restaurant patios all depended on it, and when it wasn’t managed well, the impacts were hard to ignore. David Lipscomb, Washington, D.C.’s curbside manager, recalled that this moment was eye-opening for residents. A minor inconvenience had quickly become a safety and access issue as delivery vehicles stacked up, cafe tables spilled onto sidewalks, and curb space was pushed to its limits. The public began paying attention to what mobility professionals had long understood: unmanaged curb space creates chaos. Awareness is just the first step. Turning that awareness into better outcomes requires updated policies and a different kind of leadership. Today’s parking and mobility professionals aren’t just managing assets; they’re also storytellers, educators, and coalition builders. Joseph Al-Hajeri, Austin’s Park Enterprise Manager, described his role as “getting the public to nerd out” about curb management using data, pilots, and transparent communication so that complex policy becomes shared understanding. In today’s rapidly evolving mobility landscape, the curb has become the new City Hall: a high-stakes, high-visibility arena where decisions play out block by block. And those who manage the curb are emerging as some of the most influential communicators shaping urban policy and public understanding. Maria Irshad, PTMP, MPA, is the Deputy Director for The City of Houston (ParkHouston). Maria can be reached at Maria.Irshad@houstontx.gov.

We received so many great responses to the January/February 2026 question that we wanted to share them all!