In this learning lab, Rachel Barra, Management Analyst for the City of Tacoma Parking Services, will share the city’s 9-year permit program journey, from paper to digital using gtechna’s permitting solution. She will also discuss what Tacoma envisions as the next steps in its permit program. Rachel will also share her team’s experience leveraging gtechna’s LPR technology to conduct internal on-street occupancy studies, instead of hiring an outside consultant.
Summary
Featured Speaker:
Rachel Barra, Management Analyst, has been with the City of Tacoma’s Parking Services for 6 years. Her efforts have been focused on maximizing the use of the right-of-way through effective parking management. She is responsible for overseeing Tacoma’s Residential Parking Program, leads data-driven conversations, and acts as the primary liaison for the city’s Parking Technical Advisory Group
Co-presenter:
Mitesh Sharma, gtechna, has spent the last 15 years lending his insights and expertise in the software industry working with government agencies and multinational brands like TiVo, Virgin Media, Walmart and Broadcom. During this time Mitesh has been proud to get the opportunity to develop and deploy complex enterprise products. In the past few years as Product Line Manager for the gtechna product suite, Mitesh has worked with several government authorities and municipalities to implement new digital residential parking and LPR programs in 15+ cities across U.S & Canada.
Parking Best Practices In The ‘New Normal’: A Deeper Look Into Occupancy and The Evolution Of Digital Permits
Presented by gtechna
Learn more about why cities are migrating to online solutions like virtual permits to offer simple and safe ways to park in zones where space can be a scarce commodity and why creating contactless convenient options for parking is more important than ever in the midst of a pandemic.
In this learning lab, Rachel Barra, Management Analyst for the City of Tacoma Parking Services, will share the city’s 9-year permit program journey, from paper to digital using gtechna’s permitting solution. She will also discuss what Tacoma envisions as the next steps in its permit program. Rachel will also share her team’s experience leveraging gtechna’s LPR technology to conduct internal on-street occupancy studies, instead of hiring an outside consultant.
Featured Speaker:
Rachel Barra, Management Analyst, has been with the City of Tacoma’s Parking Services for 6 years. Her efforts have been focused on maximizing the use of the right-of-way through effective parking management. She is responsible for overseeing Tacoma’s Residential Parking Program, leads data-driven conversations, and acts as the primary liaison for the city’s Parking Technical Advisory Group
Co-presenter:
Mitesh Sharma, gtechna, has spent the last 15 years lending his insights and expertise in the software industry working with government agencies and multinational brands like TiVo, Virgin Media, Walmart and Broadcom. During this time Mitesh has been proud to get the opportunity to develop and deploy complex enterprise products. In the past few years as Product Line Manager for the gtechna product suite, Mitesh has worked with several government authorities and municipalities to implement new digital residential parking and LPR programs in 15+ cities across U.S & Canada.
Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), electric vehicle (EV) charging, and cashless parking payments are the three top trends we’ll see in transportation this year, according to Global Banking & FinanceReview.
“The biggest challenge on all businesses into 2021 will be how they continue to adapt and react to the ever changing new normal we are all experiencing,” says the article published earlier this morning. It goes on to say the top three transportation trends will be:
MaaS: With habit changes thanks to COVID lockdowns, better technology, and a desire for simpler planning, MaaS–the ability to plan a journey from start to finish in one place–has found its footing. The development of apps that let people plug in a start and a finish to get a list of transportation options and pay for them all in one place is a big boost.
EV charging: More EVs are being sold than ever and forecasts say there will be 42 million charging points worldwide by 2030. Demand for charging plus faster, easier to pay for systems mean chargers are becoming a necessary part of infrastructure.
Cashless payment for parking: “Drivers are more self-reliant and empowered than ever before, having adopted technologies that work to make their life increasingly efficient,” says the article–and COVID-19 accelerated a push for contactless on top of cashless. This trend will continue to grow.
This post is part of a special series on curb management and COVID-19. A joint effort of International Parking and Mobility Institute (IPMI), Transportation for America, and Institute of Transportation Engineer’s Complete Streets Council, this series strives to document the immediate curbside-related actions and responses to COVID-19, as well as create a knowledge base of strategies that communities can use to manage the curbside during future emergencies.
By Mae Hanzlik
Flexible curbside management is a small, but key, piece of many cities’ response to COVID-19. Often, these efforts have been supported or made possible with the support and technology of private-sector partners. Transportation for America reached out to its Smart Cities Collaborative sponsors to hear how they’re responding to COVID-19 and working with jurisdictions to adapt curbside management.
Adapting their platforms and launching new tools
To accommodate increased food takeout and deliveries, Coord, a curbside management software company, is offering their platform at no cost for 90 days to cities in its coverage area. Coord also worked with existing city customers who were identifying locations for temporary loading zones and fast-tracked specific feature requests.
Downtown Santa Monica Inc. (DTSM), a business improvement nonprofit in Santa Monica, Calif., used Coord’s data collection and analysis to help them quickly stand up a program where essential businesses could temporarily convert metered parking into short-term loading. “[We] were looking for any opportunity to support our district businesses during the COVID-19 crisis,” Benjamin DeWitte, DTSM’s research and data manager, shared with us. “Our prior research into curb usage, driven by COORD data collection and analysis, indicated that a shift from metered parking to short-term loading could positively impact access and efficiency for those who rely on delivery and take out business.”
Populus, whose data platform helps cities manage their curbs, streets, and sidewalks, is working with their existing city customers to provide digital solutions that support “Open Streets” and “Slow Streets”. They’re also inviting cities and agencies to apply to their Open Streets Initiative where they’ll partner with a handful of cities on implementing dynamic street policies and provide them with complimentary access to their Street Manager platform. The deadline to apply is May 15.
Lacuna, a transportation technology company, is launching a dynamic curb reservation system in May that allows cities to remotely allocate sections of curb in real-time to accommodate deliveries of food, freight, and other essential supplies.
Establishing internal teams to work directly with cities
Uber has put together an internal team that’s dedicated to working with cities and stakeholders to ensure safe access points for trips to essential places like hospitals, grocery stores, and pharmacies. They are also reaching out to cities to learn how they can best support city efforts to ensure adequate space for social distancing, offering the use of geofencing and in-app routing changes to support car-free streets.
Strong public and private partnerships are key to emergency response. We hope to continue to see the private sector work alongside municipalities to offer support and transformative tech solutions.
Mae Hanzlik is a program manager for Transportation for America in Washington, D.C.
Major changes have occurred since the mandatory COVID-19 restrictions. Social distancing and PPE (personal protective equipment) have become common discussion points. Grocery stores have added cashier shields, marked spacing on the floor, metered customers, and facemasks. Several retail stores are pushing scan-and-go options to allow customers to shop without any direct interaction with store staff. (I’ve been using scan-and-go at Sam’s Club for a few years now—it is awesome!)
As we take these lessons to the parking industry, now is the time to think about how we will be interacting with our customers. Many options that may not have been considered before the outbreak will likely gain acceptance and even be sought after by the consumer. These include adding contactless payments using an NFC reader to allow payment with your cell phone (or even smartwatch) rather than interacting with a credit card reader or using cash. Reservations that allow entry and exit with a license plate or bar code will likely see a surge in popularity as users plan their trip in advance. Hands-free monthly parking access will no doubt be considered the new standard, most likely with license plate recognition, AVI, or Bluetooth.
Consider going asset-light by adding a parking payment app or marketing an existing app. Public service announcements can be helpful to get the word out to a receptive audience that has increased interest in avoiding unnecessary touching and interaction with public devices. If pay-by-plate is not already in place, it may be worth considering to improve efficiency and reduce officers potential exposure from walking an enforcement route.
These are challenging times. My prediction, along with many other parking professionals, is that now is the time to embrace technology that facilitates frictionless parking and reduce unnecessary public exposure.
Jon Martens, CAPP, AICP, is a consultant at Walker Consultants and a member of IPMI’s Technology Committee.
Rachel Barra, Management Analyst, has been with the City of Tacoma’s Parking Services for 6 years. Her efforts have been focused on maximizing the use of the right-of-way through effective parking management. She is responsible for overseeing Tacoma’s Residential Parking Program, leads data-driven conversations, and acts as the primary liaison for the city’s Parking Technical Advisory Group
Mitesh Sharma, gtechna, has spent the last 15 years lending his insights and expertise in the software industry working with government agencies and multinational brands like TiVo, Virgin Media, Walmart and Broadcom. During this time Mitesh has been proud to get the opportunity to develop and deploy complex enterprise products. In the past few years as Product Line Manager for the gtechna product suite, Mitesh has worked with several government authorities and municipalities to implement new digital residential parking and LPR programs in 15+ cities across U.S & Canada.
Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), electric vehicle (EV) charging, and cashless parking payments are the three top trends we’ll see in transportation this year, according to Global Banking & Finance Review.
