University

Reimagining Parking Delivery at the University of California, Berkeley

Reducing Environmental Impact

Montreal, QC – McGill University has officially launched HONK, North America’s leading provider of contactless payments for parking and mobility, as its mobile parking platform for students and visitors across campus. The move simplifies the parking process for thousands of students and campus visitors, replacing 2 pay-and-display machines and bringing contactless payments to 13 outdoor parking lots, 12 downtown and one at Macdonald Campus.

Adrienne shared strategies for shifting parking enforcement from rigid rule enforcement to customer-focused solutions, emphasizing education over punishment and empowering officers with field discretion. She highlighted initiatives at Kansas State University, including a donations-for-citations program, vehicle inspections, and alternative resolution options. The presentation reinforced treating parking officers as ambassadors rather than enforcers and encouraged attendees to adopt service-oriented approaches in their own operations. The session concluded with a Q and A covering uniform standards, email communication, and faculty parking expectations.

This session delves into the psychology behind driver behavior and parking decisions—and how cities, campuses, and parking operators can shape driver behavior through smarter use of technology and data. Various solutions are enabling drivers to make more informed, personalized parking decisions than ever before.

As parking professionals, we are very comfortable with providing parking as a service. People visit our parking location because it is close to where they want to go. The actual experience of parking is not the event that they are looking forward to, it is part of a process to get to that event. So, what happens when parking IS the main event? It means that professionals that are used to providing efficient and effective service now need to consider another aspect – hospitality.

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

Torrance, CA — HONK, North America’s leading provider of contactless payments for parking, announced that El Camino College has replaced its legacy parking permit system with HONK’s fully digital, automated solution — streamlining operations, improving the campus parking experience, and laying the foundation for future growth. The College’s move away from physical permits represents a broader shift in how parking is managed, with HONK’s digital platform giving El Camino new tools to streamline day-to-day operations for both administrators and campus drivers. Administrative teams now spend less time on manual tracking, accounting, and reconciliation – everything is digital, easier to audit, and less prone to error. “We needed a modern parking solution that would make our internal operations more efficient while improving the overall experience for our students and staff, said Matthew Vander Horck, Chief of Police,  El Camino College. “HONK delivered a system that is intuitive for our team, reduces administrative burden, and gives our campus community a simple, mobile-first way to park— with the flexibility to grow as our needs continue to evolve.” For students and staff — the people parking on campus every day — the change is even more visible. Parking is now mobile-first, giving drivers a faster, more intuitive experience that aligns with how they already use technology. No more waiting in line, managing paper passes, or dealing with lost permits. The system supports popular mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, which means drivers can pay using the same tools they already rely on every day. Behind the scenes, the system has also helped reduce long-term operational costs. By shifting away from hardware-heavy infrastructure, El Camino has minimized the need for expensive equipment replacements and ongoing maintenance. “El Camino’s move to digital parking reflects what we’ve seen work well across higher education,” said Matt Critchell, Chief Revenue Officer, HONK. “Schools are looking for systems that are easy for students to use and simple for teams to manage, and El Camino now has a parking program that reduces manual work, scales as needs change, and supports a modern campus experience.” About El Camino College Founded in 1947, El Camino College is situated on a beautiful and spacious 126-acre campus near Torrance, California. The college enrolls about 33,000 students each semester and boasts a curriculum of about 200 degree and certificate programs taught by exceptional faculty in an environment that supports equity and student success.

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

Join us for a live interview where Kacey Siskind, SVP of Account Management at HONK, sits down with Linda Braak, Director of Customer Care & Planning at UC Davis, to discuss what UC Davis has learned since redefining its permit parking program and why working with HONK has made a difference.

In 2023 my home state of Minnesota adopted the “Safety Stop” or “Idaho Stop” for bicycles.  This allows bicycles to treat a stop sign like a yield sign.  So if no one is coming, the bike can roll through the intersection.  It was interesting to hear the feedback from regular vehicle commuters who’s first reaction was often along the lines of, “That can’t be safe.  Why do bicycles get to break the law?”  While there is a good amount of data to show that overall this is safer for cyclists, another advantage is better flow for regular vehicles.   When presenting information to groups of people that you are trying to convince it is helpful to frame it with the benefits to the individual person.  Someone that hasn’t commuted on a bicycle and maybe hasn’t ridden one since childhood probably doesn’t think much about how traffic flows with bicycles.   So the next time someone says bikes should obey all of the traffic laws of a car, ask them to think about a situation where they are behind a bike. With a safety stop, the bike is able to proceed through the intersection and is out of their way before they need to navigate the intersection.  They don’t need to wait behind the bike as it stops, then gets going again, possibly a little more wobbly for a few feet until they are out of the way and you are able to navigate the intersection. For thoughtful motorists, understanding the positive benefits to themselves and overall traffic flow can help turn them into allies. Ben Schnabel, PTMP, is an Assistant Director for Parking Operations at the University of Minnesota. Ben can be reached at schna015@umn.edu.

Why Digital Parking Management is the Future of University Parking