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TOPIC: Frontline

  • IPMI Shoptalk: Diversity: Rising through the Ranks

    Register for Free Industry Shoptalks here. 

  • Important Conversations

    By Gary Means, CAPP THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF CONVERSATIONS lately about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. If you didn’t get a chance to catch the Fireside Chat On Industry Inclusion back on August 20, 2020, I would encourage you to do so (click here). I was joined by a Read More »

  • Continuing the Conversation

    By Kim Jackson, CAPP GARY MEANS, CAPP, began the conversation for our industry of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the October issue of Parking and Mobility. I have the ex­treme pleasure of continuing the conversation for this issue. DEI is a topic I am and have been passionate about Read More »

  • IPMI News: IPMI Releases Roadmap to Recovery, University Planning, Strategies, and Benchmarking for 2021

    IPMI Releases Roadmap to Recovery, University Planning, Strategies, and Benchmarking for 2021 Download or read the document online.   The fall 2020 semester for higher education campuses has been a mixture of trial and error, adaptation, and survival. With the impacts of the global pandemic continuing to evolve, ensuring some Read More »

  • Flint AutoPark: A Case Study

    Flint AutoPark: A Case Study By Brian Cassady FOR YEARS, FLINT, MICH., unsuccessfully sought to solve the principal dilemma of on-street parking: how to balance the need to regulate curbside spaces to serve a downtown commercial district with consumer desires for hassle-free parking. But recently the city implemented a dynamic Read More »

  • Why Helping Drivers Find Parking Should Be a Priority

    Why Helping Drivers Find Parking Should Be a Priority By Jessica Britton ON AVERAGE, Americans spend 17 hours a year looking for parking. In urban cen­ters, the problem is far more acute. New York City residents spend a painful 107 hours per year searching for parking spaces. However, the scarcity Read More »

  • Important Conversations

    Important Conversations By Gary Means, CAPP THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF CONVERSATIONS lately about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. If you didn’t get a chance to catch the Fireside Chat On Industry Inclusion back on August 20, 2020, I would encourage you to do so (click here). I was joined Read More »

  • Where Should the RVs Go?

    Where Should the RVs Go? With more people homeless, isolating due to COVID-19, or embracing a nomadic lifestyle, cities are charged with figuring out where those living in RVs should park. By Christina Jones, CAPP, MBA WHETHER DUE to economic hardship or by choice of lifestyle, inhabited vehicles are becoming Read More »

  • Tell Me a Story

    Tell Me a Story By Cindy Campbell I’VE GROWN INCREASINGLY DISENCHANTED with the escalating price of my cable tele­vision. I would even go so far as to say it’s become downright offensive. Not to sound like Methuselah, but I’m from the generation that created and first embraced cable TV. Before Read More »

  • Leveraging Technology for Information and Safety

    By Thomas Hartley, CAPP Disney has developed a set of great leadership strategies that are simple, common-sense ideas.  Disney’s strategies help leaders adapt to new challenging demands—as their saying goes, “it’s not the magic that makes it work; it’s the way we work that makes it magic”. The magic is Read More »

  • IPMI’s Roadmap to Recovery, October 5, 2020

    Download the document and find out how the industry is adapting and shaping steps for recovery. 

  • The Customer’s Voice Matters, Now More than Ever

    By Andrew Sachs, CAPP In a world run by online searches, the customer’s story is more powerful than ever. Parking marketing has evolved in recent years. As always, operations need to communicate that they offer convenient and accessible parking with desirable amenities. But the old-school methods are no longer effective Read More »

  • special publications

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

  • news

    Member News: Propark Mobility Launches Certified CleanCo Parking and Transportation Program in Response to COVID-19

    May 26, 2020 Hartford, Connecticut – Propark Mobility announced today that the company’s CleanCo division will be providing industry-leading comprehensive cleaning and sanitation programs for parking and transportation operations across the country, in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. “We are living in a new world, which requires different processes Read More »

  • news

    Member News: Penn Parking Develops More than 3,000 Face Shields for COVID-19 Healthcare Workers

    May 7, 2020- Penn Parking, a Maryland-based parking management company, recently wrapped up the Herculean effort of handcrafting 3,300 PPE face shields for healthcare workers throughout Maryland, Virginia and DC area. The shields are to assist in the fight against COVID-19. Penn Parking leadership, staff and friends worked together to Read More »

  • blog

    Curbside Management in a Recurring Emergency Scenario: A Municipal Perspective

    By Benito O. Pérez, AICP CTP, CPM; and David Carson Lipscomb, MCP This post is part of a special series on curb management and COVID-19. A joint effort of IPMI, Transportation for America, and ITE’s Complete Streets Council, this series strives to document the immediate curbside-related actions and responses to Read More »

  • COVID-19 Information Clearinghouse: Resources and Documents

    Read all the COVID-19 Information Resource and Document postings here. To search all resources by keyword, search the Resource Library. Submit Postings Here   Member Post: June 18, 2020: Barnacle® Parking Produces, Donates Critical Face Shields to Frontline Workers Across the Country, shared by Barnacle IPMI Post: June 9, 2020: Read More »

  • blog

    The Parking & Mobility Industry Comes Together in a Time of Need

    By Brett Wood, CAPP, PE This blog is part of a special series on curb management and COVID-19. A joint effort of IPMI, Transportation for America, and ITE, this series strives to document the immediate curbside-related actions and responses to COVID-19, as well as create a knowledge base of strategies Read More »

  • Do Parking Enforcement Officers need Bicycle Training?

    By: Pamela Corbin, CAPP Many municipalities use bicycles for parking enforcement, parking ambassador programs, and law enforcement, but they don’t all have bicycle safety training. As cities become more congested, the need for bike patrols will increase, but is bicycle training needed? Everyone learned to ride a bike as a Read More »

  • Onsite Course: Vistelar Non-Escalation/De-Escalation Training

    Course Description: IPMI wants you to know about an additional training resource designed for frontline parking professionals. Addressing the need for physical escape and self-defense techniques, Vistelar’s 2-day instructor-led non-escalation/de-escalation course offers participants the tools necessary to stay safe. To learn more, visit  https://vistelar.com/  (You will be leaving the IPMI Read More »

  • Parking Spotlight: The Sweet Smell Of Success: Arizona State University Leads The Way

    By Shasta Philpot HOW DO YOU EFFICIENTLY MANAGE A PARKING PROGRAM for a university with 11 parking facilities spread across four campuses, and that serves more than 100,000 students? Obviously it’s a monumental task. Arizona State University Parking and Transit Services (PTS) has found that the secret of success can Read More »

  • Insider’s Guide to Professional Development

    Download this comprehensive resource here!

  • IPMI Video: CAPP Certification for Industry Professionals

    Take your career, and your team, to the next level with CAPP Certification. Check out this short video about the program and what it meant for todays’ leaders in the parking, transportation, and mobility industry. To find out more about the program and download the Certification Handbook, visit Read More »

  • Seizing Opportunity

    Jorge Aja Banos, CAPP Opportunities will not come knocking on your door—you must go search for them. Some are right in front of our eyes and others are hidden gems that must be found. Opportunities are all over the place: at home, at work, in our relationships, in our personal Read More »

  • Just Published: A Practical Guide for Solving Accessible Parking Challenges

    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 »

  • On-Site Training: Tactical Communication 201: Setting the Tone through Effective Communication

    The second of two seminars designed to assist frontline staff in delivering excellent customer service. Attendees learn techniques intended to assist them with communication challenges frequently encountered when dealing with customers. This session focuses attention on the influences that affect our ability to successfully communicate with the public and co-workers. Read More »

  • On-Site Training: Tactical Communication 101: Dealing Effectively with Difficult & Aggressive Behavior

    This is an interactive course designed to help participants defuse and de-escalate conflict. The course is intended to provide frontline customer service personnel with tools and options to calmly and effectively address aggressive behaviors and challenging situations encountered during the course of performing their duties. Learning Objectives for Tactical Communication Read More »

  • On-Site Training: Industry Fundamentals: Best Practices for Parking & Mobility Programs

    This session provides an overview of the larger parking & mobility industry today. Presentation topics will include tools and technologies, curb management, level of service expectations, transportation program messaging, and the advantage of community partnerships. Best practices for parking and transportation programs and services will be discussed. Learning Objectives for Read More »

  • Airport Knights: How DFW Airport’s Courtesy Patrol helped customers, eased parking, and grew a giant fan base.

    By Robert Petersen, CAPP DALLAS FORT WORTH INTERNATIONAL (DFW) AIRPORT launched its Courtesy Patrol program in 2013 to provide assistance to guests parking at its terminal garages. Members of this team seek out guests who need assistance with jump-starts, tire inflations, and locating vehicles. Ser­vice is provided seven days a Read More »

  • Ready, Set, Engage!

    By Julius E. Rhodes, SHPR IN THE 19TH CENTURY, an individual whose philosophy is widely mis­understood said that people are disconnected from their work and each other. Now mind you, during the 19th century there was no internet and nothing remotely related to the technology we take for granted in Read More »

  • IPMI Parking Data Analytics Snapshot (2017)

    Download the full pdf here.

  • special publications

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

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

  • A Guide to Parking

    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 »

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    Forum, IPI’s New Online Community

    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 »

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    On the Go

    On the Go Mobile payments gain momentum in the parking industry.  The parking industry has greatly evolved in recent years with the introduction of new and better technologies. Even well into the 1990s, some parking garages used cigar boxes to accept payments—consumers simply dropped cash into the box and parked Read More »

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    Battening Down

    Battening Down One way to deal with the unpredictable costs of winter weather.   Believe it or not, snow and ice are right around the corner. The volatility of the past several winters, from mild temperatures to record snowfall, has complicated the already difficult task of budgeting during the winter months. This Read More »

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    Safer Shuttles

    Safer Shuttles Do you know the rules and regulations governing shuttle operations? How to comply and minimize your risk.  T he Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the governing arm concerning commercial transportation regulations, last year collected fines for shuttle infractions in excess of $33 million from different transit agencies around the U.S. Read More »

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    Stranger in a Strange Land

    Stranger in a Strange Land What happens when a seasoned parking planner becomes a frontline intern? (Hint: It’s half fabulous and half hilarious.)   You know, sometimes it’s just interesting to hear how other people perceive you. That’s how this all started—I was sitting around with some of my favorite Southwestern parking Read More »

  • publications

    Leaving the Desk

    by Gloria Gallo, CAPP Looking for insight into your parking operation? Spend a day with a frontline professional. AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE FORT LEE, N.J., PARKING AUTHORITY (LPA), I find it critical to spend time out on the street with my employees from time to time to get an idea of the issues they encounter on a regular basis. Read More »

  • publications

    Ahead of the Train

    By Robert Ferrin and Brett Wood, PE, CAPP Building a parking program from the ground up.  What if you could build a parking program from scratch? Where would you start? What would your central tenets be? How would you integrate the wealth of knowledge gained by parking professionals during the past Read More »

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    Wow Your Customers

    By Dennis Snow Three keys for delivering great service.  The term “customer service” evokes different images in people’s minds. One image could be that of friendly, smiling, helpful employees who go out of their way to serve you. Or it could be the opposite—indifferent, unfriendly employees who can’t wait for you Read More »

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    BECOMING OUTSTANDING

    By Cindy Campbell Customer service is an interesting thing, isn’t it? As with most service industries, it seems as if parking agencies talk about customer service and how to deliver it ad nauseam. We all want to be on the receiving end of superior service delivery, but many still struggle Read More »

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    Watch It!

    By Julius E. Rhodes, SPHR I have have heard it said many times that if there is a choice between what you say and what you do, people will always pay attention to what you do. While I do not disagree with this statement, I would like to add another point of view Read More »

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    White House Calling

    White House Calling The unique challenges posed to parking professionals when the president and friends pay a visit.  While presidential politics is consuming the news across the U.S. this year, it’s always a focal point of life here in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Many sites around the region serve Read More »

  • publications

    Pay, Park, Tweet

    By Chris Blondell Like most working people, those in the parking industry have good days and bad days. You’ve probably been in a situation where you’re having a great day, everyone’s car is parked where it should be, traffic is moving in great order, and then suddenly, a man who’s Read More »

  • publications

    Why Cash May Still be King

    By Bryan Alexander The data breaches that hit the parking industry in 2014 offered a stark reminder that parking is just as vulnerable to credit card fraud as any other industry. Worldwide, credit card fraud has reached $14 billion a year, and while the hit experienced by the parking industry Read More »

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    Lost In Translation – Speaking Clearly

    By Bill Smith Have you ever traveled abroad to someplace where people speak a different language? How did it go? Was it difficult to order a meal? Or check into a hotel? Or maybe get directions from someone on the street? When you are in a foreign country, it’s easy Read More »

  • Kindred Spirits

    By Cindy Campbell I had the pleasure of attending many of the U.S. state and regional parking and transportation conferences this past fall. With the conference season now behind us, I got to thinking about the extent of work and planning it takes to execute a successful conference event. The Read More »

  • Parking Safety Matters PSA and Fact Sheet: Heatstroke

    Combined public safety ad and fact sheet on preventing heatstroke deaths of children in parked cars. Get the fact sheet only.

  • On-Site Training: Conflict Resolution

    Course Description This course provides attendees with concepts related to workplace conflict. Topics include sources of workplace conflict, personal motivations that contribute to conflict, and an assessment of attendees’ personal communication style as it relates to conflict. Learning Objectives for Conflict Resolution: Examine the four sources of workplace conflict. Evaluate Read More »

  • On-Site Training: Customer Service

    Course Description This introductory course provides attendees with basic concepts related to the delivery of customer service. Topics include the dimensions of customer service, customer acknowledgment, effective communication methods, and techniques that can be used when interacting with difficult customers. Learning Objectives for Customer Service: Review statistics on how word-of-mouth Read More »

  • Shining Stars

    By Larry Cohen, CAPP, and Gary Means, CAPP You’re about to meet a parking services officer with a characteristically friendly smile who is well-known for her high level of service; an excellent leader and respected supervisor who keeps his team motivated to do its best; a municipal authority whose independent Read More »

  • General Direction

    What could an Army general and former high-ranking government official have to say about parking? Turns out, plenty. General Colin L. Powell (Ret.) served as the U.S. National Security Adviser from 1987 to 1989, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993, and Secretary of State under 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 »

  • Papal Preparations

    By William Wasser In late September, Philadelphia was honored to host Pope Francis and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. From near and far (sometimes very far), they flocked to Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway to catch a glimpse of the pontiff as he celebrated Mass in front of the world-renowned Philadelphia 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 »

  • 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 »

  • A Win-Win on Two Wheels

    By Craig Cotton and Stacy Stockard The cycle always repeated. Every August, fresh-faced students showed up to the Texas Tech University campus to begin their collegiate journeys, shiny new bicycles in tow. And at the end of every May, hundreds of bicycles littered the campus. Every bike rack had a Read More »

  • Bicycles Bicycles Bicycles

    By Doug Holmes, CAPP There are thousands of bicycles on the Penn State University Park campus and thousands more in the adjacent Borough of State College. In fact, walksite.com recently ranked the Centre Region (State College area) as the ninth most bicycle-friendly location in the country, with a score of Read More »

  • The Best Fixes

    By John M. Porter, PE, and Nathan D. Boutin, PE Parking structures are an integral element in our daily lives that create an interchange between our homes, our destinations, and our built environment. These structures are often incorporated into buildings, integrated into the surrounding landscape, or serve as stand-alone architectural 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 »

  • Parking a la Pavarotti

    By Chip Chism Freshman orientation is an exciting time for any college community. The campus is full of both eager students and anxious parents trying to learn as much as possible about the school that will become a home away from home for the student. During the two days of 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 »

  • Caitlyn Jenner and the Parking Workplace

    By Leonard T. Bier, JD, CAPP The rights of same-sex partners have been legislated and tested in the courts on a state-by-state basis. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, definitively decided the issue of same-sex marriage for all of America, ruling that same-sex 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 »

  • Solutions To Disabled Parking Placard Usage

    By Mark Wright The 100-foot walk from a parked car to a building entrance is nothing for most people, but it is a slow slog for someone gripping a walker or crutches and shuffling forward a few inches at a time. The trip is not especially fun in a wheelchair, Read More »

  • Video Surveillance: The Rise of the Machine

    By Leonard T. Bier, JD, CAPP What is the connection between video surveillance, police brutality, and the parking industry? To begin with, many off-street parking facilities use closed-circuit television (CCTV) to monitor vehicle entry and exit lanes, capture license plate information, and record video of persons entering and leaving. This Read More »

  • Mentoring the Next Generation of Parking Professionals

    By Deara M. Person, CAPP It only takes a moment to look back at the history of the parking industry to see numerous reasons why it is important to keep reaching, teaching, and developing young adults to take over the business of parking. John Crosby wrote, “Mentoring is a brain Read More »

  • Constant Change

    By Colleen M. Niese Never before has the parking industry had readily available big data to exploit its parking revenues and space utilization. With the help of a number of emerging tech partners, we can now analyze our parking customers in a number of different ways and cater to their Read More »

  • Viva Las Vegas!

    By Kim Fernandez Viva parking! The world’s largest gathering of parking professionals will be held next month, and if you haven’t made your reservations for the 2015 IPI Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, it’s time to claim your space, reserve your hotel room, book your tickets, and block off Read More »

  • An Image Turnaround

    By Marc Denson It was a beautiful morning when I reported to work years ago, but within a few hours the real picture began to unfold: a parking unit in chaos with only one employee remaining after an internal affairs investigation; 70 percent of meters were more than 30 years Read More »

  • Locking Down

    By Bill Smith During the past decade, data breaches have become increasingly common. Retail and healthcare leaders such as Home Depot, Target, TJX, and Anthem, Inc., have been the targets of sophisticated attacks through which millions of customers’ information was compromised. In this electronic age when our personal and financial Read More »

  • When The Customer Hears…

    By V. Ann Paulins, PhD, and Teresa Trussell, CAPP As parking administrators know, developing a workforce of customer service providers who are committed to building a valuable parking brand for the organization can be a big challenge. Our employees have an enormous responsibility in building a positive image for parking Read More »

  • Simple Fixes

    By Ron Steedly, CAPP, MEd, LCI Let’s face it: Bicycle transportation on a college campus is essential. No matter if the campus is 5,200 acres like Texas A&M University (10th in the nation in overall acres) with nearly 56,000 students or 14 acres like Thomas More College of Liberal Arts Read More »

  • Invaluable Resource

    By Douglas Holmes, CAPP Long before we all embraced Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Skype, LinkedIn, Instagram, Flickr, the World Wide Web, or even Google, there was CPARK-L, a parking-specific email list. CPARK-L was created out of my selfish desire to obtain information to help me do my job but also to 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 »

  • Being Prepared

    By Bruce Barclay, CAPP This exercise was the culmination of a 10-month process that included a planning team of 35 people from 20 different organizations. In the months prior to the exercise, the planning team worked diligently to solidify objectives and expected actions, confirm extent of play from participating agencies, 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 »

  • 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 »

  • 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 »

  • 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

    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 »

  • 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 »

  • 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 »

  • 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 »

  • 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 »

  • Closing the Gap

    By David Hill, CAPP The parking industry is not new—it’s been around for 80 years, ever since that first parking meter hit the streets in Oklahoma City in 1935. The meter was invented for a specific purpose, too. To citizens’ minds, it required depression-weary Okies to pay a nickel to Read More »

  • What Parking can Learn from Red Light Camera Enforcement

    By Leonard T. Bier, JD, CAPP What can on-street municipal parking enforcement learn from red light camera traffic violation enforcement? Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have approved some form of red light camera enforcement that captures the license plate numbers of vehicles that drive through amber lights and 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 »

  • Very Important Parking

    By Rudor “Dori” Teich In 1926, 18 years after Henry Ford invented the Model T, American merchants said downtown traffic was their most serious problem; poor parking habits and hazardous conditions were the most predominant causes of their challenges. Enter the new millennium. Tens of millions of vehicles travel our Read More »

  • Be a DimWatt!

    By Jeff Pinyot You can probably imagine how many times a garage lighting specialist is asked about motion sensors in parking structures. They come up at every trade show and meeting we attend. Some people are passionate about wanting them, and others don’t understand the need. Because it is, at Read More »

  • Are We Prepared

    By Dan Barion If someone had asked me on Sept. 10, 2001, what I thought I would be doing in 2014, at the very bottom of my list of responses would have been serving as chief of public safety for the City of Tampa Parking Division. Back then, I was Read More »

  • Paying the Freight

    By Duke Hanson Whether you live in, work in, or just visit dense urban centers, it is likely that you’ve had to run the on-street gauntlet of double-parked delivery vehicles. Certainly, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has noticed, as that agency attributes a significant amount of city gridlock to restrictions Read More »

  • Warm and Fuzzy Parking

    By Jeff Petry Can a municipal parking program be thought of as warm and fuzzy and still deliver necessary parking services? In Eugene, Ore., we have been on a five-year journey to create a municipal parking service that reflects our community’s values. Our progress toward this goal was recently noted Read More »

  • Metadata and Parking

    By Leonard T. Bier, JD, CAPP The defection by Edward Snowden from the U.S. to Russia spotlighted the metadata intelligence gathering of the U.S. National Security Agency’s (NSA) Prism Program. The general practice of collecting and analyzing telephone metadata by the NSA and the federal government significantly intensified after Sept. Read More »

  • Resetting Public Opinion

    By Frank Ching Santa Monica, Calif., is more than a quintessential Southern California city—its status as home to the world-famous Santa Monica Pier and a vibrant downtown area make it among the most celebrated beach cities in the world. Each year, more than 20 million vehicles transcend on 8.5 square Read More »

  • Being Prepared

    By Scott Kangas, CAPP Every business—and parking is a business—should have a business continuation or emergency action plan (EAP). This is a plan of action should something (weather, hazardous chemical, fire, vandalism, etc.) occur that affects normal operations. The plan needs to address local, regional, and even national circumstances and Read More »

  • Guns In the Lot

    By Kim Fernandez Joshua Stone stopped his car in a College Station, Texas, parking garage exit lane in early February, apparently to rummage for something in the vehicle. Drivers behind him grew impatient, as they often do, and honked their horns to get him to move along. Stone didn’t take 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 »

  • Automated Facilities Sustainable Problem or Solution

    By Vicki Pero, SPHR Believe it or not, the first automated parking facility, in which the customer leaves his or her vehicle at the entrance for facility equipment to park, was built in Paris in 1905. These structures have become very popular in Europe and Japan in more recent years Read More »

  • Beyond Just Parking

    By Gloria Gallo, CAPP, and Patricia Rumi, CAPP For many years, the four-square-mile Borough of Fort Lee, N.J., has made clever use of its parking authority. To keep taxes down and offer residents increased services, the municipal government has called upon the department from time to time to assume responsibility 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 »

  • NEW Technology Will Drive Airport Parking In 2014

    By Dan Kupferman, CAPP Flying can be stressful. It’s really not the flying that creates tension, but getting to the gate on time that stresses us out. Driving to the airport, finding a parking space, getting through security—if you have an early morning flight, you may be tempted to leave 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 »

  • Urban Parking as Economic Solution

    By Andrew R. Long The past generations have been ominous for many cities as urban sprawl, prompted by easier transportation and cheaper land outside of cities, has caused an increased population migration from urban to suburban areas. In the past decade, however, cities have seen a divergence from this trend. Read More »

  • Along the Curb

    By Clement Gibson, CAPP, and Doreen Szymanski The city of Charlotte is reorganizing curb lane use in its uptown area and erecting newly- designed signage that communicates the changes to motorists. Through an integrated approach for all of Charlotte’s uptown streets, curb lane users will discover a more uniform use 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 »

  • Overnight Options

    By Mike Estey It’s not often that those of us who manage on-street parking for city governments do something that results in near-universal praise. But it happened here in Seattle! Seattle has an active nightlife. While grunge may have put our music scene on the map a couple of decades Read More »

  • Media Masters

    By Gary A. Means, CAPP T wenty-five years ago, I was studying to receive my bachelor’s degree in broadcasting from Eastern Kentucky University, and all I thought about was producing music videos. That was back in the ’80s, when MTV was in its heyday; I also had a lot more Read More »

  • Cracking Down

    By Kim Fernandez Monitor news about parking and you’ll get an alert just about every day that has to do with the abuse of spaces reserved for those using disabled driver permits. It’s no wonder: experts say that the dawn of affordable professional-quality home printing and scanning mean it’s easier Read More »

  • Evaluating Parking Programs

    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 »

  • Defending the Enforcement Officer

    By Colleen M. Niese But I was only going to be gone five minutes.” “Your meter doesn’t accept cash.” “I don’t have to pay for parking—I’m on staff.” Parking enforcement officers can be subjected to listening and resolving the proverbial “dog ate my homework” excuses from customers trying to extract 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 »

  • 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 »

  • Campus Garages Change Perceptions

    By Ian Nestler, AIA, LEED AP BD+C With growing scarcities of both capital funding and vacant land, colleges and universities have begun tucking additional uses into campus parking garages, either by expanding footprints or adding floors. The benefits are as diverse as the potential uses. Adding a street-level retail component Read More »

  • Find It Fix It Then Raise the Bar

    By Wanda Brown Is your parking operation riddled with staff excuses? Can’t get your employees to produce excellence? Feeling frustrated and sometimes defeated? Every parking manager has had to deal with less-than-favorable performance from frontline and administrative staff. Whether poor performance is due to motivational or training issues, it is Read More »

  • In the Blink of an Eye

    By Kim Fernandez Gina Fiandaca completed the 2013 Boston Marathon run at about 2:42 p.m. on Monday, April 15 and started making her way through the congested finish-line stations. It was, she noted later, the first year in 14 that she didn’t have family members waiting for her behind the Read More »

  • Do You See What I See

    By Julius E. Rhodes, SPHR Quick, take a look around. What do you see? If you are in your office, you probably see the usual office stuff: phone, computer, files and papers, desks, chairs, and people scurrying around. At home, you see the comforting surrounding you have created and grown Read More »

  • Mensa Meters

    By Jon Martens and Steffen Turoff, AICP Shoppers, business owners, visitors, and even residents in cities and towns across the U.S., all face the same persistent, driving-related problem: finding an available parking spot. Recent surveys from around the country have shown that regardless of a municipality’s location, some of the 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 »

  • On Abolishing Parking Citations

    By Anam Ardeshiri and Mansoureh Jeihani Parking management is an essential part of transportation studies. The provision of sufficient parking spaces is vital to sustaining urban activities; parking shortages affect streets’ level of service and reduce mobility and safety. As parking professionals know, a noticeable percentage of cars need to Read More »

  • EVs EVERYWHERE

    By David Sandalow and Levi Tillemann, Ph.D. For the U.S. parking industry, the question of electric vehicles (EVs) is not if they’ll come, but how soon? The answer is now. The U.S. is already the world’s leading market for electric vehicles. In fact, EV sales in the U.S. tripled in Read More »

  • Safer Places

    By G. Robert Harkins, Ed.D. As owners, operators, and users of parking facilities, we all have in our minds several lingering questions: Is my parking facility safe? What can I do to protect myself and my customers while in my parking facility? There’s a lot of advice out there on Read More »

  • Plow Planning

    By Phill Sexton If you are a parking facility manager in a region that gets any amount of snow and ice, you probably already know that your risk and liability increase during the winter. While February may seem an odd time of year to begin the planning and qualification process Read More »

  • The Power of Observation

    By David Cummins and Ellen Isaacs Breakthroughs are often born in the lab or boardroom, but they live or die in the real world where people determine their value through real use. Xerox has employed ethnography for many years to gain a better understanding of human behavior in naturalistic settings, 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 »

  • Smile

    By Jim Bass Smile! You’re in landside. That phrase came to me one night as I lay in bed thinking about customer service and what we could do at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, Little Rock (BHCNA), to improve or better understand what appears on the surface to Read More »

  • Service Blueprinting

    By Melinda Alonzo-Helton, CAPP, Theresa Fletcher-Brown, and Nancy Stephens Why should you care about your customers’ experiences? Because that is one of the few places you can win in the service business. It can be a basis of distinguishing you from competitors. This is especially true for private and municipal Read More »

  • Parkapalooza

    By Debbie Hoffmann What is the key to successfully managing large events on a college campus? Planning, planning, and planning. Texas A&M University was rated in the 2011 preseason edition of Sports Illustrated as the top college football game day environment, with Fox Sports chiming in by listing the school’s Read More »

  • Walking the Line

    By Hal King, CAPP On-street parking might seem to work against the principles of Transportation Demand Management (TDM). To most observers, it promotes single vehicle trips and undermines mass transit. So how does on-street parking fit into TDM? How do we use it to reduce increasing congestion in urban centers 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 »

  • Answers and Questions

    By Brad Johnson, CPA, MS Perhaps you read the thoughts of former U.S. Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell about the parking industry in the August issue of The Parking Professional. One of his themes was that useful knowledge about a business comes from visiting and talking with the people 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 »

  • Parking and Idling

    By Richard B. Easley, CAPP When most people think of parking, they think of empty vehicles with their engines turned off. Let’s look specifically at diesel engine idling, which primarily involves commercial buses and trucks. This happens so often that environmentally-savvy communities are trying to eliminate or minimize this practice. Read More »

  • Between the Lines

    By Leonard T. Bier, JD, CAPP Conventional wisdom says the first rule of parking in an off-street parking facility is: park your car within the lines of the marked parking stall. However this was recently found not to necessarily be true. In Gilmore vs. Maryland, the Maryland Court of Appeals 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 »

  • Its Not My Fault

    Spend any time in parking enforcement and it’s not long before you’ll hear an excuse for a violation that’ll make you shake your head (or burst out laughing). It’s kind of like the dog eating the homework, only for grown-ups who are caught in the act of parking illegally. You Read More »

  • Parking Garage Fires

    By Mark Wright When Katie Stanciel answered her home phone early in the morning of Sunday, May 1, 2005, she knew her day would not go as planned. Stanciel, aviation parking manager at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, was alerted to a multiple-vehicle fire burning on the third level of the 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 »

  • 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 »

  • Ten Hut Present Vehicles

    By Don Walter When was the last time your parking department was cheered? Last fall, hundreds of grateful University of Georgia (UGA) students lined up to have their vehicles inspected to help them get home safely for the Thanksgiving holiday. When interviewed, many of these happily smiling students actually screamed Read More »

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    Eyes Wide Open

    By Kim Fernandez Mishka Chorny, senior parking specialist, Boise State University, says that a few months ago, the guy putting a camera in a tree on campus might have caused anything from a quick “What are you doing” yelled over the fence to a full sweep of the football stadium Read More »

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    More Than Conventional Wisdom

    By Norman D. Bates, Esq. A woman went to an urban hospital to visit an ill friend. While walking to her car in the nearby parking garage, she was stabbed and robbed by an unknown assailant. A year later, the garage manager finds himself sitting in a deposition that is Read More »

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    Sustainability and Valet Operations

    By Isaiah Mouw, CAPP, LEED Green Associate Modern valet parking in the United States began as early as the 1930s. As parking demand in urban areas increased, available parking adjacent to a driver’s specific destination grew smaller and smaller. Drivers became willing to pay to have someone else park and Read More »

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    Mythbusters

    By Kim Fernandez What do you do if you’re in an historic district that’s popular for its shopping, dining, offices, and waterfront scenery, but people say has a lack of parking? If you’re Alexandria, Va., you get to work differentiating perception from reality and finding solutions. “The city has, for Read More »

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    Airport Parking Takes Off

    By Todd Pierce We don’t go to an airport to park. We go to fly! So parking need not be the adventure. The anxiety of arriving to the airport on time to catch our flight is often heightened as we approach the airport and begin thinking about parking. Do I Read More »

  • Press Release, 6/4/14, IPI Announces Top Parking Professionals of 2014

    International Parking Institute Announces Top Parking Professionals of 2014 Josh Kavanagh, CAPP, of University of Washington is Parking Professional of the Year Joseph Wlostowski, Binghamton University, is Parking Supervisor of the Year Wendy Glenn, University of Georgia, Athens, is Parking Staff Member of the Year (DALLAS, TX) – JUNE 4, Read More »

  • Press Release, 9/17/13, IPI Launches New Online Training Courses

    International Parking Institute Launches New Online Training Courses to Help Staff Excel Self-paced courses cover technological trends, customer service, conflict resolution, and other subjects key to industry professionalism and success (FREDERICKSBURG, VA – September 17, 2013) Parking facility owners and managers have a new tool for educating new employees and Read More »

  • 2013-05-20 IPI Announces 2013 Parking Professional Recognition Awards

    International Parking Institute Announces 2013 Parking Professional Recognition Awards (FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – May 20, 2013) – The International Parking Institute (IPI) has announced the 2013 recipients of its Professional Recognition Program, created to honor parking industry professionals who exemplify excellence in the industry and who are changing the perception Read More »

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