What Are You Even Doing With Your Life?
By Adrienne Tucker, CAPP
If you work for a town, city, or municipal agency and are not attending the member roundtable discussions hosted by IPMI, what are you even doing with your life?
Seriously, though, as an attendee of the Municipal Member Roundtable discussions, I cannot tell you how invaluable the experience is. In our last session, we discussed transportation electrification, land use planning, and parking and curb management policies. We discussed what has been working for various municipalities, what hasn’t worked, where we’ve run into roadblocks, and what our upcoming challenges are.
During our last discussion, I learned that e-bikes have the potential to replace up to 50% of trips within our cities. That’s a huge opportunity for us to create and deploy safe bike infrastructure and create e- and cargo-bike-friendly parking solutions. This could mean more revenue for all operators.
We also discussed electrifying public transportation options like buses, street cars, and rideshare programs. We discussed federal grant programs available to support and build the infrastructure necessary for EV charging and what some of the barriers were for various municipalities in applying for such grants. We exchanged contact information so we could follow up with each other if we had questions or needed assistance down the road.
At the Municipal Member Roundtable, I attended in person at IPMI’s Conference & Expo in Fort Worth last year, we were introduced to the Alliance for Parking Data Standards or APDS. When I returned from IPMI, I discussed with Mike Drow, CAPP, who is on the APDS Board of Directors, about the parking program I was developing in Manhattan, Kansas. Seven months later, I was a part of the first group of operators to take the APDS Advisor Course through IPMI.
The education, networking opportunities, ideas, and experiences you receive from attending the roundtables are immeasurable. And what is even better is that IPMI has them for all parking verticals, not just municipalities! Go, and sign up! What are you waiting for?
Adrienne Tucker, CAPP, is the Parking Services Manager for the City of Manhattan, Kansas. She can be reached at adrienne.tucker@cityofmhk.com.
The next Municipal Member Roundtable will be on April 4, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. EST. Click here for a list of all the remaining 2024 member roundtables.