All Roads Lead to Technology

June 11, 2012 By
EmergingTrends_100sq

According to a new survey released today by the International Parking Institute (IPI), technology, sustainability, revenue-generation, and customer service are the top trends in the parking industry and the things most parking professionals are looking for.

The 2012 Emerging Trends in Parking Survey was released at the IPI Conference & Expo in Phoenix, Ariz., this morning. It showed that cashless, electronic, and automatic payment systems join apps that provide real-time information about parking rates and availability and wireless sensing devices that help improve traffic management as the top in-demand technologies in the industry.

More than one-third of respondents said that demand for sustainable services is a top trend, and that they’re talking about energy-efficient lighting, parking space guidance systems, automatic payment process, solar panels, renewable energy technology, and systems that accommodate electric vehicles and/or encourage alternative methods of travel. Technologies that help people find parking faster take cars off the road; an estimated 30 percent of people driving around cities at any time are looking for parking, wasting fuel and emitting carbons.

Survey participants also said that convincing urban planners, local governments, and architects to include parking professionals in their early planning processes is a priority; doing that, they said, would help prevent many design problems in final projects. And when asked where parking should be included as a course of study in academic institutions, nearly half of the survey participants said schools of urban study, followed by business or public policy schools.

The full survey can be accessed on IPI’s website.

Filed Under: Airports, Architecture, Breaking News, Building & Design, Customer Service, Future of Parking, Hospital & Healthcare, Inside IPI, IPI Conference & Expo, Management & Business Practices, Municipalities, On-Street Equipment, On-Street Parking, Parking Enforcement, Parking Lots, Perception of Parking, Planning, Real Estate, Retail, Safety, Security, Suppliers, Surface Lots, Sustainability, Technology, Wireless Communications

Airport Parking Survey Takes Off

May 11, 2012 By
Rick Decker

It is with many thanks to the 11 members of the working group behind the recently conducted ACI-NA/IPI Parking Survey [PDF], conducted by the Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA), LeighFisher, and the International Parking Institute (IPI) that I share these perspectives. I wish to thank everyone involved for their contributions. I also wish to thank Peter Mandle of LeighFisher and his team for compiling and presenting the survey in a form that is easy to understand and covers the important points, and ACI-NA for their partnership.

We learned some important lessons over and above the value of the information gathered:

  • Streamlined. It is possible to streamline a survey document. It can be short enough that operators will complete it and yet gather the information necessary. This was accomplished by holding fast to our goal of only gathering the level of detail of interest to our audience – both the IPI and ACI-NA members.
  • Repeatable. A well-crafted survey that earns a good response is likely to remain unchanged for the next survey. This means the information gathered can be compared from one survey to the next to observe trends and movement in this industry. This makes the information even more valuable.
  • Collaborative. Collaboration between like-minded trade groups avoids duplicating efforts, reduces costs, and makes the most of committee members’ time.
  • Cost-effective. This type of survey work can be accomplished with current technology. We did not need to spend the expense (time and dollars) to meet face-to-face to accomplish this task.

As a member of IPI’s Board of Directors, I can share with you that IPI has made a concerted effort to collaborate on transportation-related projects with a number of trade groups where greater awareness about parking is a boon to both sets of memberships. These initiatives are proving to be very rewarding. The airport survey is just one example.

I hope you’ll download the report and learn more about airport parking — you may be surprised by what you find!

Filed Under: Airports, Inside IPI