Tag Archives: IPMI2020

Reassessing Mobility Technology

Technology business professional developmentBy John Nolan, CAPP, MSM

Why do we spend so much money on business technology? We do so to help leverage our operations and improve business outcomes. These outcomes include our ability to deliver timely and accurate information—information that improves service outcomes but at the same time increases customer expectations.

Technology, like any product, is subject to the lifecycle effect. The product lifecycle is broken into four stages: development, growth, maturity, and decline. The process of strategizing ways to continuously support and maintain a product that avoids decline is called product lifecycle management. Within this management cycle exits the ability for competent management to extend and improve technology’s impact on their operation. When technology companies fail to understand or recognize where they are in that lifecycle realm, it often results in competitors or outside influencers jumping into the market and leaving them behind.

As a managing director of 12 various service departments, the ongoing assessing of various technologies is critical to delivering system performance that is essential to high-quality outcomes.

Within our parking organizations, parking leadership must constantly keep in mind the process of total quality management (TQM) and continuous quality improvement (CQI). Research within the marketplace to improve our condition, impose project discipline, and promote better communication through data and metrics is critical to performance excellence.

Amazon’s recent quarterly report significantly beat analysts’ expectations. The No. 1 factor the market cited was their switch to one-day service. The investment they made last year in managing their service lifecycle is now beginning to pay big dividends and once again challenging the marketplace for service dominance.

It’s very important that as parking professionals, we continuously engage with ourselves and our teams to understand what technologies in the market will improve our operation, especially when vendors are unresponsive. And, it’s important to not be afraid to make changes that improve our operation and our customers’ experience, even when it’s easier to continue with the status quo.

John Nolan, CAPP, MSM, is managing director of transportation services at Harvard University. He will present on this topic during the 2020 IPMI Virtual Parking & Mobility Conference & Expo, June 1-2, wherever you are. Click here for details and to register.

 

Parking and the Autonomous Future

Autonomous Vehincles self drivingBy Josh Naramore

There has been a tremendous amount of media attention the last few years offering prognostications and insight into a future where autonomous vehicles are the norm. For the City of Grand Rapids, Mich., the future has merged with the present.

In July 2019, the city with partners launched the Grand Rapids Autonomous Vehicle Initiative (AVGR). AVGR is a collaborative, public-private effort to test the readiness of Grand Rapids for self-driving vehicles.

Through the testing of autonomous shuttles, the partnership aims to create more livable cities, attract next-generation innovation and job creators, and place Grand Rapids at the forefront of testing technology in the real world. The partnership has committed to engage the public, explore ridership trends, innovate accessibility for individuals with disabilities, and study impacts to the built environment. Understanding how autonomous mobility will operate in our world and how people will use or adapt to autonomous mobility is essential to making these systems accessible to people of all backgrounds and abilities. Parking and mobility professionals need to prepare for what the future holds and plan to manage it accordingly.

A future in which autonomous vehicles are the norm requires concerted effort on the part of key stakeholders—both in the public and private sector—to develop vehicles, infrastructure, and operational domain sooner rather than later. As the next wave of mobility emerges, it is vital that Grand Rapids stays on the forefront of learning and understanding how new technologies shape and cultivate consumer behavior.

Josh Naramore is director of Mobile GR & Parking Services for the City of Grand Rapids, Mich. He will present on this topic at the 2020 IPMI Virtual Parking & Mobility Conference & Expo; click here for details and to register.

 

IPMI News: Important Message from the IPMI CEO & Chair

#IPMI2020 Goes Virtual

Pivoting our Conference & Expo to a Virtual Event

 

Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our members, partners, and employees. During the last few weeks, we have been closely monitoring the evolving situation with the COVID-19 outbreak to ensure we are taking every precaution to look after our community. After careful consideration, we’ve decided there will be no physical event for the 2020 IPMI Conference & Expo. Instead, we will reimagine the 2020 IPMI Conference & Expo as a virtual experience.

Tentatively scheduled for June 1 – 2, 2020, the IPMI Virtual Parking & Mobility Conference & Expo will deliver the education that is the hallmark of our association to you, wherever you are. In the coming weeks, we will release the comprehensive education program, online networking, and virtual Expo.

We are working to get the information you need as quickly as possible. Our Conference team is in the process of finalizing plans and will launch an FAQ page for attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors, addressing registration for the virtual event and all refund options. Our team will be in touch with you on or before April 10, 2020.

Few industries pull together to support their community like ours, and we thank you for your confidence in the weeks and months ahead. In the interim, IPMI will host free online industry-specific Shoptalks addressing the COVID-19 crisis and the industry response beginning this Tuesday, March 24 and continuing March 31, with additional resources to come. These will be offered live and recorded to share with those who can’t attend; click here to pre-register.

We look forward to supporting you in this critical time and unveiling the IPMI Virtual Parking & Mobility Conference & Expo. Your support in continuing the important work of advancing the parking, transportation, and mobility industry is greatly appreciated. It is an honor and a privilege for IPMI to serve our members and the entire community.

Shawn D. Conrad, CAE
Chief Executive Officer
International Parking & Mobility Institute 

David G. Onorato, CAPP
Chair, IPMI Board of Directors
Pittsburgh Parking Authority

Managing Homelessness in Parking

By Kristen Becker, PE

IPMI Blog- Homelessness in ParkingPeople just don’t realize how parking affects many aspects of our communities. It’s not just about rates and time limits; we also deal with other challenges, including the homelessness crisis. It’s a tough topic no one wants to discuss.

The City of Spokane, Wash., has been trying to address the impacts of vehicle habitation throughout our residential communities. Our parking enforcement officers are dealing with matters that go far beyond a simple parking ticket, and the city is dealing with the extensive costs of monitoring and responding to residential complaints regarding dilapidated vehicles populating the streets. The challenge is significant and the cost is great.

Towing companies are trying to provide the resources necessary to handle the size of motor homes and campers, and the city faces other considerations when the vehicles are purchased at auction for pennies on the dollar and then recycled back to residential streets. Thousands of complaints are received and our parking enforcement resources have been dispatched and redirected from their daily duties to identify vehicles that are immobile and derelict. Often, the vehicles don’t run and become gathering spots for illicit activities.

This matter goes far beyond parking management operations and the sensitivity of removing someone’s home from the streets is contentious. We are trying to find the balance of how to manage this complicated social issue and the associated costs. We look forward to sharing our experience at the 2020 IPMI Conference.

Kristen Becker, PE, is development services center director with the City of Spokane, Wash. She will be presenting on this topic at the 2020 IPMI Conference & Expo, May 31 – June 3, in San Antonio, Texas. For information and to register, click here.