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IPMI News: IPMI Celebrates 2020 Awards of Excellence Winners for Creativity, Design, Innovation in Parking & Mobility

August 19, 2020

The International Parking & Mobility Institute (IPMI) recently recognized seven outstanding 2020 Awards of Excellence winners.  IPMI’s Awards of Excellence program showcases outstanding parking and transportation facilities and innovative programs to further the parking, transportation, and mobility industry. Entries are reviewed by a panel of expert judges from every segment Read More »

IPMI News: IPMI Releases Roadmap to Recovery, Special Edition: July 2020

July 10, 2020

Download IPMI”s Roadmap to Recovery, a special edition capturing the latest on the parking, transportation, and mobility industry’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. Share your experience and your expertise.  Complete the 2020 IPMI COVID-19 Industry Response and Impact Benchmark Survey before July 30, 2020. One lucky participant will win a Read More »

Member News: Rich & Associates Names David Rich Vice President

June 10, 2020

Southfield, MI (June 18, 2020)—Rich & Associates is pleased to announce the promotion of David Rich to vice president. As vice president, David oversees the firm’s national business development efforts. “David has been an integral part of the Rich & Associates team since 1986,” said Richard C. Rich, president of Read More »

Why is it Raining in my Parking Structure?

May 28, 2020

By Scott Weiland Ever wonder why it is raining inside your parking structure?  Well, it is a sign that your parking structure needs attention. Water is the No. 1 cause of parking structure deterioration. Water-saturated concrete can freeze, expand, and spall. Combined with oxygen, water can also cause corrosion of Read More »

2020 AOE Gallery: Nebraska Medical Center, Lot 1 Restoration

May 25, 2020

2020 AOE Gallery: San Francisco International Airport Garage

2020 AOE Gallery: Terminal Garage, Nashville International Airport

The Parking Podcast Episode E28: An Interview with Dennis Burns and Conversation about Consulting

May 12, 2020

Dennis Burns, CAPP, Senior Practice Builder with Kimley-Horn, discusses consulting, strategic plans and Frisbee golf. Check it out here https://www.parkingcast.com/

Member News: Westward Industries –GO-4 Parking-Specific Vehicles Now with LPR Friendly Dashboard

April 30, 2020

Let your vehicle become your office! Westward Industries is now the first manufacturer of parking-specific vehicles to offer custom dashboard features turning your dash into a workstation. Developed specifically based on insight and requests from users incorporating license-plate recognition technologies, these features are designed to enhance the experience of parking Read More »

Member News: Salt Lake City International Airport chooses Park Assist

April 28, 2020

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – April 28th, 2020 – Park Assist® has been awarded the Parking Guidance System (PGS) contract for Salt Lake City International Airport’s latest parking garage. Salt Lake City is building a new International Airport (SLC) to replace the existing structure. Serving more than 26 million passengers Read More »

Laying the Groundwork

January 9, 2020

The right steps to extend the life of your parking facility. Read the full article here.

THE GREEN STANDARD: Smart Parking Lots: Tech Hubs of the Future

November 23, 2019

By Rita Azrelyant, MA, CAPP PARKING LOTS ARE OFTEN THOUGHT OF AS VAST WASTELANDS of bituminous pitch for the sole purpose of lodging vehicles—vehicles that sit idle for hours, days, weeks, and possibly months—but what if we alter our concept of parking lots and envision them as technological hubs of Read More »

Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places

By Jeff Speck NORTH AMERICA, ALONG WITH MUCH OF THE WORLD, has been building and rebuilding its cities and towns quite badly for more than half a century. To do it properly would have been easy; we used to be great at it. But, like voting for president, just because Read More »

Parking: A DIY Fail: Want parking and mobility to work? Bring in the pros.

November 16, 2019

By Rita Azrelyant I LOVE DO-IT-YOURSELF (DIY) PROJECTS. I see so many fabulous posts on Etsy, Pinterest, and Instagram of handcrafted jewelry, artisan cakes, and animal-inspired bento lunch boxes, and I think to myself, “I can do that! How hard can it be?” Well, it’s pretty hard because my inspirations Read More »

Parking Under the Canals: An innovative garage offers plenty of parking in an unused space—under water.

By Bas Symons and Dirk van Weelden IN THE 1970s, parking problems in the older neighborhoods of Amsterdam were so severe that cars were left on the sidewalks. People had to negotiate their way around them to get to the store or the tram stop, there was little opportunity for Read More »

Aesthetic Revolution: San Antonio’s new Tobin Center Garage serves many purposes with style

THE NEW TOBIN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS opened in 2014 and revolutionized the arts scene in downtown San Antonio, Texas, bringing an influx of people to an area of town that already had limited parking. As a result, just a short walk away from its namesake, the Tobin Center Read More »

Future $ense: Does designing garages with an eye—and a budget—toward future re-adaptation make realistic sense? A conversation with industry experts.

November 11, 2019

Our Panelists James Anderson, Regional Sales Manager, Watson Bowman Acme Corp. Michael App, AIA, LEED AP, NCARB, Director of Architecture, TimHaahs Jonathan Brown, Regional Manager, SP+ John Bushman, PE, President and CEO, Walker Consultants Matt Davis, Associate Principal, Watry Design John Hammerschlag, President, Hammerschlag & Co., Inc. Jeremy Rocha, PE, Read More »

GARAGE CASE STUDY: An Automated Solution to Parking Perils

October 1, 2019

By Christian Hermansen PARKING IS A NECESSARY EVIL IN THE PUBLIC’S MIND. It’s something we all do be­fore going shopping, hanging out with friends, or catching a game. It’s the experi­ence before the experience. As someone who has recently joined the parking-sphere, I see parking as something where you either Read More »

The California City Embracing the Future of EVs

By Taylor Kim, AIA, LEED AP HOME TO ELECTRIC VEHICLE (EV) PIONEER TESLA, it is no surprise that the city of Palo Alto, Calif., leads the nation in electric vehicle sales at nearly 30 percent of new cars sold. As the city has embraced this technology and its role as Read More »

Future of Proofing Parking Buildings

By Fernando Sanchez IN THE UNITED STATES, the entrenched relationship that vehicles have with everyday life has affected the development of cities—most notably parking buildings and other single-purpose forms of mobility structures. Imagining a world without extensive miles of packed highways, parking searches, and construction of single-purpose storage monoliths implies Read More »

Just Published: A Practical Guide for Solving Accessible Parking Challenges

August 12, 2019

The IPMI-led Accessible Parking Coalition (APC), has just published Let’s Make Accessible Parking More Accessible. This groundbreaking, free, downloadable 24-page publication, written for parking and mobility professionals and decision-makers, was developed by a team of IPMI members serving on the APC Advisory Council, in conjunction with advocacy groups for people Read More »

IPMI News: So Cool! IPMI’s 2019 Awards of Excellence Winners Dazzle with Design, Innovation and Forward-Thinking Function

June 12, 2019

Honorees celebrate the history of flight at an airport terminal, conceal parking beneath an Amsterdam canal, improve neighborhoods, and model sustainability (Anaheim, Calif. – June 2019) With creative design and meticulous planning, it appears almost anything is possible in parking and mobility today, as the seven recipients of the International Read More »

Overview: How to Become an Accredited Parking Organization

May 22, 2019

Download the summary here. 

Parking and the City

March 21, 2019

By Donald Shoup AT THE DAWN OF THE AUTOMOBILE AGE, suppose Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller had asked how city planning could increase the demand for cars and gasoline. Consider three options. First, divide the city into separate zones (housing here, jobs there, shopping somewhere else) to create travel Read More »

Revisiting Green Approaches

By Brian Shaw, CAPP STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA has a growing and effective sustain­ability enterprise that covers most aspects of the university’s operations and systems. However, it never hurts to revisit our approaches occasionally. I was recently asked by our new university leadership to provide an overview and, arguably, a justification Read More »

Past, Present, and Future

March 20, 2019

What industry experts think about predicting parking demand. Compiled by Mark Santos, PE IT’S NO SURPRISE to avid readers of this magazine that our industry is changing rapidly. Technology can both increase efficiency and cause disruption. Mobility solutions affect and transform consumer behavior. Nevertheless, parking owners and operators need to Read More »

Making an Entrance — and an EXIT

By Michael Pendergrass, AIA, LEED AP; Matt Davis; and Taylor Kim. AIA, LEED AP WHEN WE THINK OF A PARKING STRUCTURE as simply a store place for cars, it’s easy to see it as an end point; its purpose and function are fulfilled once a car is parked. However, the Read More »

Being Part of the TDM Conversation

By Tim Maloney THERE’S A LOT OF TALK ABOUT INFRASTRUCTURE in the parking, transportation, and mobility space. We place a great deal of emphasis, and appropriately so, on creating and connecting online and offline systems that provide the best experience for our customers as their expectations for parking continue to Read More »

Engineering as Sustainability Tool

By Juan Ramos, LEED AP BD+C I ALWAYS HATED VALUE ENGINEERING (VE). As a young designer, I imagined how the interior glass bridge symbolized our journey through life, its transparency juxtaposed with the adjacent green wall’s filtering of sightlines as you waited in line to pick up your coffee. I’d Read More »

SPARKS OF CREATIVITY: A mural project at the Downtown Eugene Transit Station was paid for with parking revenue.

Parking. What’s the first thing in customers’ minds when they see that word? It might be tickets or meters or parking garages, but no matter what it is, the feeling associated may not be a good one. The parking services program in Eugene, Ore., Epark Eugene, aims to change that Read More »

Ready to Expand Your EV Offerings?

By Daniel Ciarcia, LEED GA IF YOU’VE JOINED A GROWING NUMBER OF GARAGE OWNERS and oper­ators by installing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, you’ve likely noticed demand for these stations increasing. With sales of EVs in the U.S. surging 45 percent from 2016 to 2017 and patrons competing for those Read More »

Accessibility and EV Charging Stations

By Michelle Wendler, AIA THE DEMAND FOR INSTALLATION OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE (EV) charging stations has increased dramatically in the last three years. In some jurisdictions, there are requirements for installing electric conduit now to provide infrastructure for future charging stations. Many clients are requesting more stations as they receive requests Read More »

Room for a City to Come to Life

March 12, 2019

With a capacity of up to 1,000 cars, Dokk1 Parking in Aarhus, Denmark, is the largest fully automated parking system in Europe and an example for big-city parking of the future. By Peter Fangel Poulsen Cars are a natural part of the city’s heartbeat, and many people are dependent on Read More »

The Evolution of Urban Parking

By Clement Gibson, CAPP, and Randy Jones Charlotte’s Park It! program has revolutionized parking in the city center. Charlotte’s Park It! Program has grown and changed with transportation trends to serve city residents and guests beautifully. Charlotte, N.C., is a captivating, colorful, and cosmopolitan city. Center city has three professional Read More »

IPMI Parking Data Analytics Snapshot (2017)

February 20, 2019

Download the full pdf here.

2020 Insider’s Guide to the International Parking & Mobility Institute

Download the full document to explore member benefits, member survey results, and more.

Planning for the Short Term

February 5, 2019

Industry experts talk about their strategies for sustainability and efficiency. Compiled by Rachel Yoka, CAPP, LEED AP BD+C 17-12 planning for the short term EVERY ASPECT of garage planning, design, construction, and operation has sustainability effects. The choices we make affect the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit—but Read More »

A Green Year in Review

Sustainable parking case studies that made 2017 greener. MEGAN LEINART, LEED AP BD+C 2017 has been another year for the books, and the parking, trans­portation, and mobility industry is no exception. We continue to see significant advancements in sustainability in parking design and construction, technologies, and management and operations. Experts Read More »

Going Green: How parking can become a part of the global green infrastructure

February 3, 2019

By Sarah Stanley AS THE WORLD’S LARGEST CAR MARKET, China is making significant moves to spur the growth of electric vehicles (EVs). The Chinese government announced this past fall that it will be moving toward banning the sale and production of fossil fuel vehicles. China is not the first to Read More »

The Future of Parking

By John Dorsett No one can know what the future holds, but I am optimistic parking will play a meaningful role and not be buried somewhere with all of the buggy whips. Parking has changed in past decades, it will continue to change, and the change will likely be incremental. Read More »

An Autonomous Future Right Now

By Kim Fernandez The tour of your new neighborhood begins on an eight-passenger, electric, autonomous shuttle. You settle in and enjoy watching the scenery go by outside—houses and townhouses, shops and restaurants, offices and parks, and the massive solar farm that powers it all. When you reach the edge of Read More »

Smart Parking: Transforming the Experience of Parking

September 25, 2018

Smart parking can benefit citizens, businesses and the environment, Julian O’Kelly from the British Parking Association outlines the importance of smart parking solutions. Smart parking is a term increasingly used by governments, manufacturers and tech developers to cover the many innovations designed to deliver more consistent, user centred and economical Read More »

A Guide to Parking

April 14, 2018

IPI’s mission to advance the parking profession manifests in a number of ways – through top-notch education, certification and accreditation, and connecting our community through the conference and expo and now online through Forum.    Publications are another hallmark program of our organization; take a look through this magazine and the Read More »

Forum, IPI’s New Online Community

April 5, 2018

Forum is an online community that gives members a powerful new way to access and share parking, transportation, and mobility-industry information and on-the-job experiences. IPI members can log in and join vibrant discussions, gain others’ perspectives on questions and challenges, access a robust, online library of member knowledge and resources, Read More »

The Importance of Wayfinding

February 13, 2018

By Thomas W. Gaffery, IV, MBA, CAPP Whether a university, municipality, airport, transit agency, or private parking operator, wayfinding is something we should all spend some time on. A successful wayfinding signage implementation will result in a dramatic benefit to you and your customers. Questions encountered in the field will Read More »

Branding to the Curb

January 17, 2018

By Renee Smith, JD MBA In today’s competitive environment, branding is the name of the game. Parking owners who rely on hourly parkers to generate revenue usually face competition from other parking facilities, and the most successful know how to make theirs stand out. Organizations that provide parking as an Read More »

Sustainability Framework

May 8, 2017

Industry-wide goals and action items for sustainable parking solutions. Sustainability Framework 2017

Art and the Garage: A New Take

December 6, 2016

By Robert Fries, CAPP We can all agree that parking garages can be utilitarian, stark, and visually unappealing at times. Whether it is design, cost constraints, or construction limitations, function can override form and result in a structure without its own unique character or a lively and inviting sense of place. Read More »

Staying Put

November 22, 2016

by Geary Robinson What it means to shelter in place and how to know it’s the right decision during a crisis. In the first grade at Washington Elementary School, Lawton, Okla., the bell rang and our teacher instructed us to leave our classroom, line up in the hallway, turn and face Read More »

Experts Needed

October 28, 2016

by Pierre Koudelka Why the way your RFPs are written is setting you up for disappointment and what the industry can do about it. As it pertains specifically to parking access and revenue control systems (PARCS), your RFP may not be getting you what you intend. In my career as a manufacturer and consultant of Read More »

Future Thinking

June 1, 2016

By David Kubik, AIA, LEED AP BD+C Within the Past decade, cities have become home to more than half of the global population, and the United Nations projects that the proportion of urban dwellers will reach 66 percent by 2050. Growing populations are putting a strain on the physical infrastructure Read More »

Careful Considerations

By Pierre Koudelka I wrote an article last year about parking equipment and new applications in which I said, “Our system of specifying, purchasing, and managing, for whatever reason, is far too accepting of the status quo” (See the January 2015 issue of The Parking Professional). Since then, lots of Read More »

Cupertino Garage: Demand-Control Ventilation System Pays for Itself with Energy Savings

May 12, 2016

One of the greatest sources of energy consumption – and consequent operational costs – for an enclosed, commercial garage is the mechanical system that ventilates it. Ventilation can account for more than 30 percent of a property’s total, annual energy bill, consuming upwards of 400,000-kilowatt hours (kWh) per year. Some Read More »

Parking Management — Planning, Design and Operations

The third volume in the Parking 101 Series provides you the best information and training available to succeed as a parking and transportation professional. Learn from the top experts in the parking industry through chapters such as: Parking Demand Studies Projecting Parking Usage Successful Parking System Organizational Models Essential Elements Read More »

Case Study: Transformative Restoration: From Eyesore to Talk of the Town in Lexington, Ky.

April 22, 2016

The question of whether to demolish or repair the badly deteriorating, 40-year-old Helix Parking Structure, located between two government buildings in Lexington, Ky., ultimately led to a $4 million renovation project that incorporated significant structural and waterproofing repairs, lighting upgrades, signage enhancement, exterior revitalization, and numerous other sustainability features. Drivers Read More »

Case Study: City of Ann Arbor’s Library Lane Parking Garage: Beauty Meets Function

The Library Lane underground parking structure was strategically conceived to help  revitalize downtown Ann Arbor’s midtown area while encouraging new private investment and creating a stronger connection between Main Street and the University of Michigan campus. The city of Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority wanted 761 spaces to support new Read More »

Experts Needed

April 12, 2016

Why the way your RFPs are written is setting you up for disappointment and what the industry can do about it. By Pierre Koudelka As it pertains specifically to parking access and revenue control systems (PARCS), your RFP may not be getting you what you intend. In my career as Read More »

City of Ann Arbor’s Library Lane Parking Garage: Beauty Meets Function

March 16, 2016

The Library Lane underground parking structure was strategically conceived to help revitalize downtown Ann Arbor’s midtown area, while encouraging new private investment and creating a stronger connection between Main Street and the University of Michigan campus. The city of Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority wanted 761 spaces to support new Read More »

Cornell University’s Forest Home Parking Garage Earns Green Garage Certification

Among the first parking structures to earn Green Garage Certification in the United States, the Forest Home Garage, constructed in 2009, is a perfect example of how sustainable innovation can be achieved through retrofitting an existing facility. Located at the north end of the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, NY, the garage plays an important Read More »

Sustainable Parking Design & Management: A Practitioner’s Handbook

March 11, 2016

Sustainable Parking Design & Management: A Practitioner’s Handbook is the parking industry’s first reference book on sustainability. The parking industry has a tremendous role to play in sustainability, and this handbook will guide parking professionals in their green initiatives. Available on Amazon, this is a must-have reference for every parking professional.

Industria del Estacionamiento – Winter 2016, Volume 1

February 27, 2016

Industria del Estacionamiento, launched in January 2016, is IPI’s Spanish-language magazine, bringing news, trends, case studies, and analysis to Spanish-speaking parking professionals with a focus on Mexico and Latin America. Each biennial issue of the electronic magazine includes a note from IPI and four to six features, incorporating original content Read More »

National Guidelines A Green Idea

February 13, 2016

By Paul Wessel I was struck when reading “In Sickness and In Health,” Christina Onesirosan Martinez’s April Parking Matters® Blog (blog.parking.org) post, that Britain’s Department of Health had issued comprehensive parking guidelines. It’s hard to imagine the U.S. National Institutes of Health or Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services doing Read More »

Greening the Walls

By Vicki Lee Parking structures haven’t traditionally been viewed as things of beauty; historically, they’ve been thought of as dull, gray, and packed with vehicles that emit pollutants. An increasingly popular solution to this challenge has been to cover parking garages’ façades with living green walls. Green walls, also known Read More »

EVs Everywhere

By Sarah Olexsak When it comes to parking, employers and facility managers are working together to make plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging stations the next bike racks. Parking providers that offer charging to workplaces can have a competitive advantage when attracting clients in ­cutting-edge industries. Employers have long recognized that Read More »

Lots of Greening

By Brian McKelligett The city of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., recently completed an almost one-year renovation of its very popular and recently renamed Cox’s Landing 15th Street Boat Launch. This launch facility has long been popular with boaters thanks to its easy access to the ocean. The city estimates that more Read More »

Making a LEEP

By Michael Myer There’s no doubt about it: Parking facility lighting has come a long way in recent years, saving energy, money, and nearly countless resources. Thanks to a new campaign and awards program, it’s taking a giant LEEP and hopes to achieve more than 500 million square feet of Read More »

Making the Garage Green in Every Way

By Brian Shaw, CAPP I recently started working for Stanford University as its director of parking and transportation services. Stanford is known as one of the leading sustainable universities in the country, and a number of ranking and recognition programs have given the university high marks for its sustainability programs Read More »

Modern Chauffeurs

By Soumya S. Dey, PE, PMP, and Stephanie Dock, AICP The parking industry has seen more changes in the last decade than it did in the preceding 60-plus years, since the first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City in 1935. Fundamental shifts are underway that can be categorized into Read More »

Elevating the Art of Parking

By Jim Ketai The Bedrock Real Estate Services team is on a mission to revitalize Detroit by creating jobs, excitement, and opportunity. The short-term results we have achieved since 2011 are noteworthy: 40 properties, including several historic skyscrapers, have been acquired, and more than 100 businesses have been recruited to Read More »

Not So New

By Isaiah Mouw, CAPP, LEED GA The first purpose-built garage was constructed in Chicago in 1898. Again in Chicago, the earliest recorded multilevel parking garage was built in 1918. Less than a year later, as World War I came to a close, downtown Louisville, Ky., welcomed its first parking facility: Read More »

Before I Do

By Brian Mitchell The average parking facility operator or owner may be involved in one or two major purchases a year, while the average parking sales rep is involved in hundreds. At any given time, a sales rep could be involved in initial discussions with a potential customer, preparing a Read More »

Doing It Right

By William Timmer Up until late 2010, Tacoma, Wash. was one of the few U.S. cities with a population of more than 200,000 that did not have some form of paid on-street parking. The downtown retail core is zoned for mixed use with commercial space for a full range of Read More »

Illuminating

By Philip Lavee The historic Hills Plaza building in San Francisco’s South of Market waterfront district is home to high-profile companies including Google and global architecture and design firm Gensler. When global commercial real estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) decided to upgrade the lighting in the parking garage, Read More »

Permits? What Permits?

By Alan M. Rucker and David Davitaia Nearly 25,000 daily parkers use lots and count on the Department of Transportation to provide an accurately enforced and cost-effective approach to parking at the University of Maryland, College Park. Decades ago, the backbone of that system was bumper stickers indicating lot assignment, Read More »

From the Far Horizon

By David Hill, MA, CAPP, and J.D. Hassan As parking professionals, we are no strangers to technological innovation; our industry turns on technology and new ideas and concepts are all around us. But every once in a while, a new idea comes along that has the potential to completely change Read More »

Predictive Parking

By Robert C. Hampshire and Tayo Fabusuyi The Pittsburgh Cultural District is home to the arts and entertainment scene supported by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (PCT), a nonprofit arts organization established in 1984 to lead the cultural and economic development of downtown Pittsburgh, primarily through the use of the arts. Read More »

App Nation

By Mike Drow, CAPP, Peter Lange, and Blake Laufer, CAPP There’s an app for this and an app for that! Companies have Facebook pages so you can like them, and celebrities are Tweeting about any and all topics. And every person and business seems to have their own website. Trying Read More »

There are Many Steps to Sustainability

By Mike Drow, CAPP and Rick Decker, CAPP Many facility owners and operating managers seek to operate in a more sustainable manner. We can use many technological methods to achieve this goal, from installing solar panels and wind turbines to generate electricity, to using improved construction materials. Many of the Read More »

Sustainability and Parking

February 12, 2016

By Megan Leinart, LEED AP BD+C One of the most popular and likely heavily debated subjects in the parking industry is sustainability. The topic has been one to elicit a significant amount of interest and excitement in public gatherings and mediums, along with a certain level of skepticism in more Read More »

A Class Apart

By Bill Smith It wasn’t so long ago that “sustainable parking” was a bit of an oxymoron. But times change, sometimes drastically, and parking has embraced green practices. This year, seven facilities became the first in the world to earn Certified Green Garage designation—a milestone indeed. IPI is proud to Read More »

Green Thoughts

Green parking is more than a catchphrase: It’s a new way of thinking about the parking industry and doing business in a way that’s attractive to employees, customers, and the bottom line. And it’s moving super fast, with advances and new developments almost every day. We asked four leading experts Read More »

Municipal Residential Permit Parking Programs Legal or Not

By Leonard T. Bier, JD, CAPP Resident permit parking (RPP) is a well-established parking management tool throughout the United States. However, what we take for granted today was not a legal certainty until 1977. Steve Monetti, former executive director of the Fort Lee Parking Authority, N.J., as well as a Read More »

A First Taste of EMV

By James Maglothin, PE, PMP The liability shift for EMV payments has occurred. Owners and operators of paid parking facilities are either in the process of implementing EMV payment terminals or planning for the transition to an EMV solution. Guiding clients through the process has been both interesting and challenging. Read More »

Going Gateless

By Chris Chettle Parking access revenue control systems (PARCS) remain the most popular solution deployed to manage access and payment in garage facilities. These systems provide a range of valuable solutions to deal with complex user requirements for permit and transient parkers while supporting gated access to maximize compliance and Read More »

Incorporating Green Parking Into a Community

February 11, 2016

By Jody Miller There is a range of unique ways parking facilities—both renovation projects and new builds—are incorporating sustainable practices. Some are quite unique and step outside the box of standard parking-facility thinking. Across the nation, more and more parking facilities are implementing interesting ways to make parking garages more Read More »

Artsy Parking

By Melonie Curry Despite being one of the largest and fastest-growing cities in the nation, there’s one thing the City of Houston can’t get enough of: free parking. In Houston’s Warehouse District, streets fill rapidly with the vehicles of employees and university students, leaving area residents and business owners searching Read More »

Big Picture

By Mike Martindill and Mitch Skyer Georgia Regents University Augusta (GRU) is a ­newly-formed consolidation of two long standing universities: the Medical College of Georgia and Augusta State University. The schools are only a few miles apart in Augusta and were two of eight the Georgia Board of Regents elected Read More »

It’s Chip Time – Are You Ready

By Randy Vanderhoof Merchants of all kinds are now fully immersed in the process of migrating to Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) chip-based payments, and the U.S. parking industry plays a large role in that transition. In many places, customers are already used to paying for parking with credit and debit Read More »

Case Study Greening a Campus

By Mark Pace and J. Michael Whitcomb, PE Montgomery College in Maryland has incorporated ice thermal storage in its campus central plants as a summertime electrical demand management strategy since the early 1990s. Highly efficient rotary screw industrial chillers that use ammonia refrigerant (R717) operate at night when electrical demand Read More »

Placemaking and Parking

January 26, 2016

By Isaiah Mouw, CAPP and Brent Matthews, CAPP In the 1950s and ’60s the City of Chattanooga, Tenn., was one of the leading manufacturing cities in the U.S. With that success came the typical unintended consequences for a manufacturing city: pollution, smog, and ugly industrial plants. In 1969, network news Read More »

Mixing It Up

By Bill Kavanagh, AIA, NCARB Mixed-use projects with parking facilities are becoming more common. As land becomes ­scarcer, building a freestanding garage may be a missed opportunity. Often, parking authorities and other parking entities are involved in mixed-use projects that include multiple owners, both public and private. Let’s examine issues Read More »

A New Evaluation Criterion For Parking Equipment

By Vicki Pero, SPRH Not so long ago when an organization considered facility parking equipment for purchase, there were three common areas of consideration: ease of use, durability, and revenue control and reporting. Like many other things in our industry, the criteria have expanded in recent years to include a Read More »

Transition Station Goes Green

By Mark Bolton Parking structures are open for long hours, sometimes all day and night. Some spaces are infrequently occupied and open to daylight, making additional lighting unnecessary. In addition, energy costs are rising and industry standards (developed by organizations such as the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Read More »

Benefits of an Integrated Life Cycle

By Jeremy Rocha, PE It’s just a garage. Most parking consultants have heard that statement too many times to count. As members of the parking industry, we know parking shouldn’t be an afterthought or mere code requirement. We also understand that the parking experience offers the first and last impression Read More »

Rethinking Parking

By Danette Perry, CAPP, and Willa Ng, PE Berkeley, Calif.: the birthplace of the Free Speech movement, the first city to pass a tax on sugar, and the latest city to take on demand-based parking pricing? Though it sounds out of place at first, the City of Berkeley’s goBerkeley pilot Read More »

Parking as Public Policy Priority

By Perry Eggleston, CAPP For years, we’ve heard the joke, “What does parking policy have in common with jumbo shrimp? Some experts say both are oxymorons.” Historically speaking, parking planning was left to the urban planner, who used antiquated space ratios to determine parking requirements for new construction projects. When Read More »

Making The Most

By Ryan Baker and Chris Chettle, CAPP There’s been a shift in parking technology adoption in recent years. Where single-space meters and gated systems once monopolized the parking landscape, both public and private parking operators are now realizing the benefits of multi-space parking pay stations. This technology offers the flexibility Read More »

An Easy Approach to Innovation

By Julius E. Rhodes, SPHR Innovation has been a hot topic since Ben Franklin first flew a kite in a thunderstorm to search for electricity. The major differences between Ben Franklin’s time and today are about 200 years and the enormous amount of information people are continually bombarded with as Read More »

Automated Vehicle Storage Retrieval System Update

By Donald R. Monahan, PE After completion of the first two fully automated vehicle storage/retrieval systems (AVSRS) in October 2002 (Hoboken, N.J., and Washington, D.C.), it took another five years before the third system was completed in the U.S., in New York City. To date, 14 systems have been completed, Read More »

SANDAG Parking Management Toolbox

By Antoinette Meier, AICP, Marisa Mangan, and Brett Wood, CAPP For cities well-staffed and versed in all things parking, it may seem easy: Assess the problem, apply the solution, and keep moving along. But what about communities or towns who have never even considered the benefits or impacts of parking Read More »

Tech Check

By Pierre Koudelka I had the pleasure of attending the Airports Council International (ACI) conference in Atlanta recently. Like any participant, I spent a good deal of time attending the seminars and walking through the exhibit hall. It became clear early on that ACI is a tight organization in that Read More »

Spiraling Upward

By Juan Ramos, LEED AP BD+C The City of Allentown, Pa., is experiencing a significant makeover of its downtown as a result of many exciting development plans. During the course of two short years, the city and its downtown core have transformed from a rather uninviting stretch of pawnshops, tattoo Read More »

Setting the Airport Ground Transport Road Map

January 20, 2016

By Cristina Lynn and Shane de Wit We’ve all been told, “Don’t run before you can walk.” How many times have we tried to do so, whether physically or metaphorically? And what were the results? Airports around the world find themselves in various states of development, whether due to demand Read More »

Really Ride Sharing

By Josh Kavanagh, CAPP Transportation options are expanding rapidly in communities across the United States, and that’s a good thing; expanding choice is good for consumers and can spur innovation and economic development. However, when those choices come in the form of disruptive technologies and business models, they create unique Read More »

Pricing Prominence

By Rachel Weinberger, PhD; Amy H. Auchincloss, PhD, MPH; and Semra Aytur, PhD, MPH Off-street parking prices—not meter prices, fines, or time limits—appear to affect whether people drive or use transit. Parking supply and cost may influence how often people choose to use public transit, but without large-scale data, little Read More »

Real Numbers

By Jay Primus The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) manages San Francisco’s parking, but for many years couldn’t answer a simple question: how many parking spaces are there in the city? We weren’t alone; to the best of our knowledge, no other major city can accurately answer this question. Read More »

Parking Management in Abu Dhabi

By Mohammed Al Muhairi and Tope Longe The regulation and civil enforcement of parking, though introduced decades ago in some countries, debuted in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi (AD), in October 2009. The strategic management and implementation of change programs often pose challenges to managers, Read More »

Garage Ventilation Options Improve

By Frank Nagle One of the major sources of energy consumption and operational cost for an enclosed garage is the mechanical ventilation system. Indeed, as much as two-thirds of the monthly/annual energy bill can be attributed to ventilation costs for garage operators running their properties’ garage fans in accordance with Read More »

A Robotic Revolution

By Wes Guckert, PTP A report recently issued by the United Nations highlighted a global trend: More than half (54 percent) of the world’s population lives in urban areas. This trend isn’t expected to slow anytime soon. In fact, that number is forecast to rise to 66 percent by 2050. Read More »

A Smarter Parking Solution

By Graham Arndt A new smarter parking initiative at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, illustrates that meters are no longer the must-have item for paid parking. Curtin University’s pay-as-you-go (PAYG) parking system is the first of its kind to be introduced into Australia and possibly the world. The system successfully Read More »

Mixed Use Dreams

By Per Linde Frank Lloyd Wright designed gorgeous houses. Frank Gehry dreamed up amazing concert halls and museums. An architect known for incredible parking garages? They’re few and far between, but an architectural competition that challenged participants to design just that might have found the industry’s future stars. Combo Competitions, Read More »

Changing Perspectives

By Rob Ley Eskenazi Hospital was established in the 1850s in Indianapolis to treat soldiers with smallpox. It has since become one of the largest hospitals in the Midwest and primarily cares for low- to medium-income patients. A few years ago, the hospital began construction of a massive expansion. Included Read More »

Not Just Cars Anymore

By Joe Balskus As a transportation engineer and being relatively new to parking in the last decade, I have learned that the worlds of parking and mobility are merging into a new paradigm. Mobility includes parking but is not defined by it. The principles of Complete Streets are mainstream, and Read More »

Utility Meets Beauty

By Wendy DeCapite According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 105 million commercial parking spaces in the U.S. As cities grow more crowded and new businesses emerge in the suburbs, the need for parking garages has increased. Despite its status as a functional necessity, the parking garage Read More »

Meeting Conflicting Demands

By Dave McKinney, EdH, CAPP Customers have highly diverse expectations of those who provide parking services. Administrators of parking operations face the formidable challenge of meeting multiple customer expectations while also achieving financial business objectives. In the course of setting and achieving goals related to meeting many diverse demands, parking Read More »

Success On Two Wheels

By Holly Parker As a practitioner in the specialized profession of higher-ed sustainable transportation for more than 13 years, I can confidently say that I looked for the perfect bikeshare solution for a university campus for about a dozen years. Anyone who sees bikesharing as the economical, scalable, and emission-free Read More »

Five Ways to Go Green at Your Garage for Free

By Isaiah Mouw, CAPP One of the core principles of sustainability is the triple bottom line. You’ve heard it before: people, profit, and planet. Too often, profit can be undervalued. Spending money without regard for return on investment (ROI) is not truly sustainable in the long term. Funds (from revenue, Read More »

Planning a Rehabilitation Project

By John M. Porter, PE You took the first step to evaluate the condition of your parking garage by hiring a specialist to perform an assessment. The condition assessment report identified the extent of deterioration and distress, rehabilitation alternatives, and estimated construction costs. Although you’ve been budgeting for this rehabilitation Read More »

The Future of Parking Policies

By Sjoerd Stienstra For a long time, parking has been seen as a relatively independent subject that’s mainly connected to traffic and transport policies. Parking policy is largely developed against the background of expectations regarding the future developments of car use and ownership. Over time, the focus started shifting toward Read More »

That’s Not What I Ordered

By Neill Hurley None of us would walk into a car dealership and say, “Give me a car, any car will do.” Most of the time, we put a lot of thought into the features and functionalities we need before a final vehicle decision is made. If we don’t spend Read More »

Charging Up

By John Hipchen When their new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations officially went online last November, administrators at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFUMS) in North Chicago, Ill., said they had taken another big step toward walking the walk when it came to their commitment to a sustainable Read More »

Parking Plus

By June Williamson Parking has been an essential part of suburban development in North America since the Ford Model T was introduced in 1911. More than a century has passed, and it is high time for parking needs to be rethought, just as automobiles themselves and the fuels they run Read More »

Lean Smart Parking

By Christopher Dance On-street parking sensors are working in cities from Los Angeles to Moscow. The benefits of data from such sensors are undeniable. As guidance apps move from cellphones to in-car systems, drivers will rely on sensor data to quickly find nearby spaces. Comparisons of sensor data with meter Read More »

Identifying Untapped Potential

By Trevyr Meade With Green Garage Certification officially launched, our industry has come together to showcase the untapped potential that lies in the parking spaces we own and operate. Our work has developed an industry-specific standard that communicates to cities, campuses, and commercial real estate the contribution parking can make Read More »

Garage Ventilation

By Frank Nagle When it comes to capturing energy savings in commercial garages, lighting retrofits have become the first go-to action. That’s for good reason: Lighting retrofits provide an effective means to reduce energy consumption. But, another big savings generator comes in another area that’s also worth serious consideration: retrofitting Read More »

Real World Results

By Matt Davis and Michelle Wendler, AIA While communities often add parking to meet existing demand, some forward-thinking areas, such as Pasadena and Baldwin Park, Calif., have flipped their thinking to see parking as a catalyst for redevelopment. Pasadena has a successful track record in its historic downtown of building Read More »

Building the Invisible Garage

BY K. Vance Kelley, AIA Tradition and modernity come together seamlessly at the Kansas Statehouse, where a 550-space underground parking garage has transformed the visitor and staff experience, while solving a host of logistical and practical parking concerns for the 140-year-old capitol. “The most noticeable thing about this garage is Read More »

Navigating the Maze

January 19, 2016

By Thomas Szubka, CAPP I recently had the opportunity to share a presentation about the City of Tampa, Fla., Parking Division’s experiences implementing new technology during the past few years. Later, in a roundtable-type discussion, I heard a smaller municipality’s parking professional mention that it was the role of larger Read More »

Parking Without Apology

By John P. Blood, AIA and Elizabeth Danze, AIA Parking in central Austin, Texas, is at a premium. Faced with the challenge of locating a much-needed garage along a leafy boulevard adjacent to a residential neighborhood and across from a large park, we at Danze Blood Architects sought to create Read More »

Striding for Community Success

By Robin Davenport This is the month gym memberships, purchased with all good intentions 30 days ago, lose their luster. Attendance falls—that extra half-hour of sleep is much more appealing than a few miles on the treadmill, after all—and many of us lose our will to keep exercising. Here in Read More »

Thinking in Groups

By Alvin “Aalim” Turner In almost every aspect of our busy lives during the last few decades, we have witnessed technology solutions grow by leaps and bounds. Who knew that something called an “app” would become such a resourceful and necessary tool in our daily lives? We continue to live Read More »

Paying Power

By Amie Devero and Brett Wood, CAPP The parking industry has seen a technological revolution during the past few decades, especially in payment processing and flexibility. This quickly-evolving landscape stands in contrast to our not-so-distant past, when a cigar box and a smile were all the tools frontline parking professionals Read More »

Doubling Down

By Eric VanDuyne and John Vincent We were given the opportunity to investigate deteriorated conditions in a five-level, post-tensioned concrete parking structure located in the midwest U.S. back in 1991. At that time, the structure was 15 years old and exhibited widespread deterioration to concrete surfaces on elevated levels of Read More »

SPREADING THE WORD

By David G. Onorato, CAPP A 2012 decision by the Public Parking Authority of Pittsburgh established the city as the first in the U.S. to commit to the adoption of multi-space, pay-by-license-plate technology to manage a full network of on- and off-street metered marking. The primary objective of the commitment Read More »

Blowing in the Wind

By Jacinta Messer Environmental artist Ned Kahn is known for his large-scale art depicting natural phenomena that include wind, water, and fire. His art is sustainable and fluid, often incorporating materials and movement that capture the elements in multiple dimensions; it’s so profound that even Smithsonian magazine has featured his Read More »

Customer Service Enhancement from an Unusual Source

By Mark N. Santos, PE During the closing session of the Florida Parking Association’s (FPA) 34th Annual Conference & Tradeshow, FPA featured Liliana Rambo, CAPP, IPI chair and director of parking services, Houston Airport System. She provided an exciting and informative talk on Parking Matters®. A particularly memorable point for Read More »

Garage Gallery

By Erin Galat In 2012, American Style Magazine named Jacksonville the 15th top city for art in the U.S. Since that time, the public art movement for this northeast Florida city has only grown stronger and picked up a broader selection of canvases along the way. Jacksonville recently welcomed a Read More »

Greening the Lot

By Isaiah Mouw, CAPP, LEED Green Associate It’s an overcast day in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., but that doesn’t stop dozens of parking professionals from boarding a shuttle bus to tour a recently upgraded sustainable parking operation. On the way, Green Parking Council (GPC) Executive Director Paul Wessel and Rachel Yoka, Read More »

Parking Space Invaders

By Christopher Speers, CAPP I have to admit right from the start that I did a double take when I received my first call in 2012 from the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP). They were inquiring about the Pittsburgh Parking Authority’s interest in collaborating with BikePgh—the city’s main bicycle advocacy group—to Read More »

By the Parking Industry, for the Parking Industry

By Rachel Yoka, LEED AP BD+C, CPSM I recently had the opportunity to participate in the first joint meeting of the boards of directors of the International Parking Institute (IPI) and the Green Parking Council (GPC), which became an affiliate and the “sustainability arm” of IPI last summer. Our recent Read More »

Integrating Innovation

By Rachel Yoka, LEED AP BD+C, CPSM We consultants have another big and bold year ahead of us. I don’t mean the next big project we land or the next big conference (such as the 2014 IPI Conference & Expo in Dallas, June 1-4). Although these are undoubtedly at the Read More »

Car Sharing at a Mile High

By Robert Ferrin Launched earlier this year, Denver’s car sharing program is a fee-based service that provides a shared vehicle fleet to members 24 hours per day, seven days per week, at unattended self-service locations. Car use is provided at minute-based, hourly, or per-mile rates that include fuel, insurance, and Read More »

Understanding the Triple Bottom Line and Applying It to Your Program

By L. Dennis Burns, CAPP Sustainability still means many different things to different people and groups. The term “triple bottom line” has emerged as a helpful phrase for what most mean when incorporating the principles of sustainability within institutional planning frameworks; it refers to the effects that sustainable business practices Read More »

From the Ground Down

By Rich Wagner, CAPP Permeable paving includes a range of sustainable materials and techniques for using pavements with a base and sub-base that allow stormwater to move through the surface. In addition to reducing runoff, this structure effectively traps suspended solids and filters pollutants from the water. Although some porous Read More »

Open Possibilities

By John Barnett Architect John Capdevielle, II, Baton Rouge, La., says the tendency for those in his profession to get set in their ways is natural. Despite being in his mid-60s, he is resisting that tendency because new technology and new construction materials can bring improved performance and reduced costs Read More »

Parking Garages and Green Walls

By Isaiah Mouw, CAPP, LEED Green Associate We have all seen our share of bland, unappealing parking garages. Unfortunately, many of us have had a hand in designing them as well. One may point out the obvious: that the primary goal of the parking garage is to simply park cars. Read More »

How Much does a Structure Cost

By H. Dean Penny, PE How much barbecue do you need to feed a group of 30? How many cookies will this recipe make? How many drinks are in a pitcher? Have you ever tried to accurately answer a question that had more than one possible answer? In each of Read More »

A Prolific Partnership

By Gina Fiandaca Public private partnerships (P3) between major local governments and private companies are critical to the successful development and execution of sophisticated, high-volume programs such as the processing and collection of parking tickets. These partnerships allow governments to allocate resources to establishing policies, building core competencies, providing oversight, Read More »

Unlocking the Grid

By Bill Smith The eyes of the world will be on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the next few years, as the city gears up to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. These events bring prestige, lots of attention, and billions of Read More »

Evaluating Parking Programs

January 18, 2016

By Jack Santa I am sometimes assigned to evaluate the parking and/or transportation operation of an organization using my experience as both a consultant and as a commercial parking and transportation operator. The evaluation is usually commissioned to recommend methods to enhance service delivery and/or reduce costs. While parking operations Read More »

Who’s In Charge

By Bridgette Brady, CAPP The Intercollegiate Athletic Department at Washington State (WSU) is fortunate to have an outstanding relationship with the university’s transportation services,” says Bill Moos, Washington State University’s director of athletics. “The two units work together to establish and implement policies and procedures that apply to game day Read More »

It’s Academic

By Bryan Townley During the most recent semester at The Ohio State University, I enrolled in my first city planning studio—one of the capstone classes of the undergraduate planning program. Because these studio classes are arranged in a way that allows students to work directly with municipalities, they function as Read More »

Branded

By Mark E. Hairr The University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK) recently embarked on a campus infrastructure improvements effort that resulted in an historic level of campus construction. This extensive upgrade to campus facilities is a key element in supporting the high level academic and research programs necessary to move Read More »

Off the Grid

By Bill Schoenfisch When Long Beach City College (LBCC) first opened in 1927 with an enrollment of 503 students, its current enrollment of more than 27,000 probably seemed like an impossible dream. The college later split into three separate campuses by function, and renamed its original Long Beach location the Read More »

Maintenence Matters

By Gregory J. Neiderer, PE Some parking facility owners and operators believe that as long as their structures continue to serve the public, few maintenance-related tasks need to be performed. Nothing could be further from the truth—facility maintenance is downright essential. One of the most important things an owner or Read More »

The Basics of Intellectual Property

By Ralph G. Fischer, Esq. and Jason P. Wrona, Esq. Technological innovation is driving the evolution of the parking industry. The demand for enhanced revenues, sustainable technology, real-time statistics, and smart products pressure manufacturers and developers to continually innovate or be left behind. Examples of these innovations abound: manual meter Read More »

What’s the End

January 16, 2016

By David Feehan A remarkable story continues to unfold in the United States: the rebuilding and reinvention of our core cities. One of the fundamental lessons we’ve learned is that there aren’t really any silver bullets. After many years of building and implementing the projects and programs du jour, we’ve Read More »

Maximizing Change Minimizing Pain

By Garrett Coleman Does the idea of upgrading your parking facility’s payment systems raise the hair on the back of your neck from the thought of lanes being shut down, traffic jams, issuing new monthly access credentials, and facing a complete database transfer? Upgrading a garage parking system does not Read More »

Outstanding Accomplishments

By Anderson C. Moore and Molly Winter Every so often, a photo or description of a parking facility or operation can nearly take your breath away. A design, an idea, a technique, or a strategy can be so brilliant and so unusual, even it its simplicity, that it sticks in Read More »

Tourist Transitions

January 15, 2016

By Brian Andersen, CAPP, MBA Over the years, I have witnessed the parking metamorphosis of Park City, Utah, which is a resort town. The city’s skiing is legendary and attracts many to this beautiful region, but its proximity to an urban area and major airport hub has generated some parking Read More »

To Market To Market

By Michael Klein, CAPP Have you ever wondered if it’s possible to use market forces to allocate on-street parking without incurring the wrath and ire of the public? Would you like to improve customer service, support efficient development, and improve your financial performance? One paradigm shift will allow you to Read More »

Beyond Supply & Demand

By Brett Wood, CAPP, PE The parking supply and demand study is one of the oldest staples in the parking professional’s toolbox. It happens in all sorts of parking departments and operations, and is always intended to answer the questions: How much parking do I have? How much parking do Read More »

Rolling Controversy

By Kim Fernandez The City of Chicago followed several other major cities last July when it passed an ordinance banning food trucks from parking within 200 feet of fixed businesses that serve food. Their ordinance, which also required the trucks to broadcast their whereabouts via GPS devices, went a bit Read More »

Managing Moped Parking

By Patrick J. Kass, CAPP The University of Wisconsin-Madison is located in downtown Madison and is home to 75,000 employees, students, and visitors on a daily basis. The campus has 13,000 parking spaces to meet its daily need. To support the access needs of the campus, a number of alternative Read More »

For Love of Parking

By Kim Fernandez It’s not unusual to hear about people falling in love with old buildings. It’s why historic commissions exist, after all, and there are entire online communities dedicated to abandoned hospitals, homes, and schools that feature photos, commentary, and ponderings of what might become of them. But a Read More »

SAVE ME A PARKING SPACE

By Leonard T. Bier, JD, CAPP We often ask our friends and family to save us a place in line to purchase tickets at a concert venue, to get into a theatre, or for in-store promotions. Not as common but certainly a practice that occurs on a daily basis is Read More »

The Real Value of Parking

By Jim Zullo, CAPP As most people who read The Parking Professional understand, being a parking professional is a particularly unique experience. We have all faced the blank stares of family members, former classmates, and even people on the street when they hear of our chosen career path for the Read More »

Let There Be Light

By Kyle Leighton Michigan State University (MSU), East Lansing, Mich., is a public research university ranked as the ninth-largest university in the U.S., with 47,800 students and 2,954 faculty members. It is home to the renowned Wharton Center for Performing Arts, whose massive facility hosts 17 Lansing Symphony Orchestra concerts Read More »

Energy Efficient Structure Lighting

By Donald R. Monahan, PE Politicians and the general public have increased their attention on global warming in recent years. This enhanced awareness has resulted in new government and utility-sponsored programs that provide rebates and tax incentives to increase energy efficiency and encourage conservation. Retrofitting your parking facility with more Read More »

Establishing a New Technology

By Clyde Church We are usually skeptical when a new technology arrives in our industry. We wait to see if it will live up to its developers’ claims and who adopts it first, and then listen for unanticipated problems and risks in deployment. When we select new technologies, our reputations Read More »

Forward Thinking

By Chris Gray, PE Leaders in the county of Berks, Pa., understands the importance of long-term maintenance and doing things right the first time. In the spring of 2011, the county set out to undertake a large restoration project for its main office/courthouse building. The Berks County Services Center, a Read More »

Absolutely Automated

By Iris Sharon The City of West Hollywood, Calif., is undertaking a capital improvement project to develop premiere public facilities, parks, and open spaces. The 25th Anniversary Capital Project, launched in 2009, includes three major components. One of them is the West Hollywood City Hall Automated Parking Garage and Community Read More »

Taking Command

By Mark Wright The line was growing by the moment. Six cars ahead, a driver—who had overlooked or ignored the “pay before you leave” signs—puzzled over the ticket slots and buttons at the exit gate kiosk. As moments turned into minutes, waiting drivers’ hands started inching toward their horns. One Read More »

Here Comes the Sun

By Mark Botts and Isaiah Mouw, CAPP The American road system is breaking. As materials age and wear from weather, time, and traffic, the infrastructure suffers breakdowns. Traditionally, a patch-and-repair method has been applied to the problem, but that solution lacks the ability to keep pace with decay. And if Read More »

Calming the Storm

January 12, 2016

By Seth Brown Parking professionals view a highly-used and busy parking lot as an amenity that generates income and adds value to the property being served. Stormwater professionals, in contrast, look at the same parking lot or facility and see a source of increased water pollution, high rates of stormwater Read More »

Greening Your Garage

By Dennis A. Safford Who knew doing the right thing for the planet could make you more money? Implementing sustainable initiatives in parking facilities that benefit the environment and society does not mean you need to sacrifice dollars. At face value, it would seem that the urban parking garage is Read More »

The Forest for the Trees

By Federico Lopez Many industries—perhaps most—directly and indirectly emit greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and are in part responsible for climate change; the parking sector is not an exception. Just like all other businesses, Bogota, Colombia’s City Parking consumes energy, fossil fuels, and water, and generates waste in its daily Read More »

Multi Modal Magic

By Ross Allanson, CAPP, and Atif Saeed, CAPP Infrastructure that’s designed and built to meet transportation needs makes a big difference in how our communities function and grow. The City of Minneapolis’ leadership and regional partners have traditionally been forward-thinking when it comes to creating a favorable environment for a Read More »

ON THE CUTTING EDGE

By Allen Greenberg The U.S. Secretary of Transportation recently announced discretionary funding awards for 12 different programs, including the Value Pricing Pilot Program (VPPP). The VPPP awards include seven parking pricing projects. Before this announcement, the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) comprehensive Contemporary Approaches to Parking Pricing: A Primer (visit parking.org/fhwaprimer Read More »

High Value

By Colin Stewart The discussion of on-street parking rates is a common one in the media as municipalities large and small realize they need to increase rates to increase revenue or generate turnover. Most cities have recognized that price is a more demand-based and customer-friendly way to generate turnover than Read More »

Sustainable Campus

By Gabriel Mendez and Shereen Shaw Arizona State University has a long history of dedication to sustainability. As the nation’s largest public university in terms of enrollment, ASU leads by example, setting short- and long-term sustainability goals that touch every university department. These include the mitigation of carbon emissions from Read More »

Mixed Use Parking Structure Design

By John Purinton, PE, SE A trend in the parking industry for the last decade, especially in downtown, urban, or educational settings, has been to include some type of mixed-use in new projects. Most of these mixed-use applications are retail and are located on the ground floor, where pedestrians will Read More »

Set Adrift

By Jasper Mulder With real estate at a premium, especially in crowded city centers, developing new parking lots and garages is becoming increasingly difficult. Obstacles to potential locations include financial viability, planning procedures, environmental considerations, and infrastructural implications. New solutions have to be found, and in the Netherlands, floating and Read More »

Diamond Outside the Ballpark

By Art Noriega As is true near many major league baseball stadiums, community concerns about parking convenience and availability at the new Miami Marlins Park ran high before opening day this spring. Skepticism subsided quickly once the season was underway, thanks to advance research and planning by the Marlins organization Read More »

Reach the Beach

By Ken Stewart If you fly into San Juan, Puerto Rico for IPI’s Latin Parking Conference & Expo, Dec. 9-12 (latin.parking.org), from the north during daylight hours, the view from the plane will be of sandy beaches, high rise hotels, and condos. Just to the north of the city, you’ll Read More »

What Has Your Parking Deck Done for You Lately

By Joey D. Rowland, PE and Thomas Carlson-Reddig, AIA, LEED AP Parking decks were once considered necessary evils and relegated to secondary status in the minds of campus planners. While much attention was lavished on academic buildings and student unions, parking was shoved onto the outskirts of campus on undesired Read More »

First of its Kind

By Jeonghoon Lee Parking garage sites are very unique. They are located in the heart of the city where there is a high volume of traffic. However, how many of them are built and used properly? When I first started designing the Herma Parking Building outside of Seoul, South Korea, Read More »

POP

By Kim Fernandez Rina Cutler, Philadelphia’s deputy mayor for transportation found herself stuck in traffic one day in 2009. There’s only so much one can do in such a situation, and once the obligatory radio station switching, dashboard dusting, and finger examining is finished, scanning the landscape helps fill the Read More »

Staying Green

By Michelle Wendler, AIA In this column, I offer maintenance suggestions for two common green features that either are or may soon be part of your parking structure. Proper planning and maintenance will make and keep these systems excellent life cycle choices for your facility. Photovoltaic Solar Systems An advantage Read More »

Light for All

By Susan Pollay This summer, the Ann Arbor (Mich.) Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and the City of Ann Arbor held a party to celebrate the grand opening of the new 711-space underground Library Lane parking structure. A disc jockey spun car-related tunes, a variety of vintage cars were on display, Read More »

Man vs Machine

By Don Monahan, P.E. Robotic parking structures, more commonly referred to as automated vehicle storage/retrieval systems (AVSRS), are rapidly gaining momentum and popularity. Does an AVSRS garage make sense for you? The first two automated vehicle storage systems in the U.S. were completed in 2002 in Hoboken, N.J. (314 spaces) Read More »

Going Once Going Twice Sold

By Sheryl Boyd Chapman University has used parking auctions to allocate a portion of its parking resources for the past four years. We initially implemented three separate auctions with plans to expand the system to include most core campus parking facilities. But before addressing our parking auctions, a little background Read More »

Taxi Hydrant Zones

January 8, 2016

By Troy McLeod Like many large cities, Alberta, Canada’s Calgary has a high demand for on-street, short-stay public and taxi parking space. Calgary’s taxi industry faced changing restrictions in 2010. Taxis were no longer allowed to wait for fares at the airport, but had to move to the downtown core. Read More »

America’s Parking Lot

By Kim Fernandez IT STARTED, AS MANY THINGS HAVE, WITH A BET. Aspiring filmmaker Jonny Mars was tending bar in Texas in 2006 and talking smack with a longtime customer about football. The trash-talk wasn’t about the game itself, though. It was about the best way to watch. “I’d never Read More »

On Parking Discussions and Innovation

By Joseph P. Sciulli Highway Administration’s white paper, Contemporary Approaches to Parking Pricing: A Primer (see p. 46 in that issue), which was presented at the 2012 IPI Conference & Expo. The paper’s stated purpose is to “encourage discussion and innovation within the parking field.” We welcome this input, as Read More »

Form & Function

By Michael Greco, Michael Pipitone, Wendy Feuer, and Guillermo Leiva In 2008, the New York City (NYC) Department of Transportation (DOT), in partnership with the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, announced an international design competition for a unique NYC bicycle rack. The goal was to develop an attractive, functional rack Read More »

Illuminating

January 4, 2016

By Pete Barth When a Baltimore County, Md. garage was about six weeks into its high-tech lighting makeover, Wayne Mixdorf, CAPP, director of parking for the Baltimore County Revenue Authority (BCRA) received a phone call from the local power company. “They thought something was wrong with the electric meter,” recalls Read More »

Planning to Ride Smart

By Mike Harris Over the last few years, Mississippi State University has experienced historic growth. This increase is a national trend, from the numbers I have seen in academia. Factors behind our institution’s recent growth include the economic climate that has slowed job creation and the realization that the world Read More »

Transit parking best practices deliver sustainable benefits to parking facilities and communities

By Matt Davis As communities develop and refine walkable, transit-friendly environments, stakeholders experience challenges associated with parking. These vibrant neighborhoods become popular destinations, which increases congestion and the demand for parking. The following transit parking best practices are designed to help stakeholders navigate these challenges and achieve efficient and effective Read More »

Backing In

By John A. Nawn, P.E., PTOE In many communities’ central business districts (CBDs), a lack of available parking close to retail and commercial establishments is seen as a deterrent to continued retail development and reinvestment. One solution is back-in angle parking. The biomechanics necessary to position a car into a Read More »

Pedaling Parking

By Rep. Earl Blumenauer America is undergoing a bicycle renaissance as more and more people discover—or rediscover—the joys of riding a bike. When I was a child, learning how to ride a bike marked a rite of passage to personal independence; I was able to travel beyond my own yard Read More »

An MIT professor rethinks parking lots as the centers of their communities

By Eran Ben-Joseph, Ph.D. I had very big shoes to fill in the early 2000s. I was just starting my career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and part of my teaching obligation included a course titled “Site Planning.” This is not just any other course at MIT: it Read More »

Street Smarts

By Heather Medley and Eric Crouch Students riding the bus to the Texas Tech campus felt and heard a thump after their vehicle stopped to pick up more passengers. Looking out the window, they saw a student sprawled on the ground with his backpack contents scattered and his cell phone Read More »

Shooting for Three

By Jeff Petry On January 11, 2011, the University of Oregon opened the doors of its Matthew Knight Arena. The state-of-the-art $227 million, 12,500 seat arena was built next to a traditional residential, university neighborhood in Eugene, Ore. (population 150,000). The night was a success for the Oregon Ducks, as Read More »

Explosion Erosion

By I. Paul Lew, P.E., CAPP It’s been nearly two years since a failed attempt to detonate a vehicle bomb in New York’s Times Square. As was demonstrated in this event and more so in the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing and bomb in the garage of the World Read More »

Parking Professionals Predict the Future in 50 Years

January 3, 2016

If you were cool 50 years ago, you likely pined after Motor Trend magazine’s car of the year—a shiny Buick Special with a newfangled V6 engine they declared almost indistinguishable from everybody else’s V8. Your jaw hit the floor when grainy video of Marilyn Monroe crooning “Happy Birthday” to President Read More »

Seven Parking Garages Become First in US to Achieve Green Garage Certification

January 2, 2016

Seven Parking Garages Become First in U.S. to Achieve Green Garage Certification New ‘Green Garages’ include corporate, university, airport, and hotel facilities in Los Angeles; Metro Washington, D.C.; Denver, Houston; Cambridge, Mass.; and Ithaca, N.Y. (LAS VEGAS – July 1, 2015) — The Green Parking Council (GPC) today announced the Read More »

Press Release, 6/2/14, Green Parking Council Launches Program

Green Parking Council Launches Program to Certify Parking Garages that Meet New Industry Guidelines for Sustainability Launching June 2, Green Garage Certification Program, considered “LEED for parking garages,” recognizes sustainable design, technology, and management (Dallas, Texas- June 2) Responding to the growing desire for more livable communities and rising concern Read More »

Press Release, 12/18/14 IPI and Green Parking Council Collaborate

International Parking Institute and Green Parking Council Collaborate with GBCI, the Certification Body for LEED New collaboration recognizes importance of sustainable parking facility design and management to the built environment Washington, D.C. (Dec. 18, 2014) – In recognition of the importance of sustainable parking facilities and practices to the development Read More »

Press Release, 6/4/14, 2014’s Best Designed Parking Facilities

2014’s Best Designed Parking Facilities Show off the Places Where People Park Cars International parking competition winners include garages that are architectural delights, an airport’s canopied parking atrium, an environmentally friendly garage under America’s oldest park, and a soaring, sustainable new garage in a small municipality with big ideas about Read More »

Press Release, 5/7/14, Groundbreaking New Book on Sustainable Parking

Groundbreaking New Book on Sustainable Parking Design and Management Advances “Green” Parking Solutions Sustainable Parking Design and Management: A Practitioner’s Handbook provides theory, application, and case studies from parking architects, planners, and LEED-certified parking experts (Alexandria, VA – May 6) A comprehensive new book, now available for pre-order from the Read More »

Press Release, 12/10/13, LEEP Competition to Honor Parking Facilities

LEEP Competition to Honor Parking Facilities for High-Efficiency Lighting April 2014 awards, sponsored by a coalition of parking and building groups with support from the U.S. Department of Energy, will recognize facilities with the greatest energy and cost savings January 10, 2014 is the deadline for submissions to be recognized Read More »

2013-05-14 Green Parking Council Becomes an Affiliate of IPI

Green Parking Council Becomes an Affiliate of the International Parking Institute Joining forces will further enhance the parking industry’s efforts toward sustainable solutions (FREDERICKSBURG, VA – May 14, 2013) Under an agreement approved by the boards of both organizations, the International Parking Institute (IPI) and the Green Parking Council (GPC) Read More »

2012-10-29 Smart Parking, Smart Cities

Smart Parking, Smart Cities: World’s Leading Parking Experts to Share Insights with Latin American Architects, Urban Planners, Developers, Government Officials, and Business Leaders Latin Parking Conference & Expo to Convene Dec. 9-12, in San Juan, Puerto Rico An increasing number of government leaders, architects, urban planners, transportation officials, and economic Read More »

Why Parking Matters – 2015 White Paper

December 15, 2015

Explains why parking and the expertise of parking professionals are integral to the future of cities. Why Parking Matters – 2015 White Paper

Tale of Two Cities Smart Parking Infographic

Illustrated comparison of a city with and without smart parking solutions. Tale of Two Cities Smart Parking Infographic

DOE Workplace Charging Challenge

Led by the U.S. Department of Energy, the initiative urges employers to install workplace plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging stations. DOE Workplace Charging Challenge