Page 54 - Traffic Infra Tech Magazine

PARKING

Three Emerging Technologies

in Parking – and One That’s Not

Blake Laufer,
Founder, MiStall

Insight talks about
the fast-moving
Parking Technology

t was in the last century that I had Data have become a key output of and sell them on your behalf; and
my first parking start-up company. modern parking operations. (3) Data-oriented companies are
Founded in 1992 and sold in 1999, Parking managers must deliver data gathering availability data to push
it was an exciting time to be in just as much as they deliver revenue and parkers to your lots — or to your
Ithe tech business: the wonderful equitable access to space. competitors’ lots.
invention of the internet, the dreaded What’s interesting about all these
Y2K bug, and the hot-ticket of owning “Interoperability” – the fancy word intermediaries is that are heavy-on-
a “dot-com” company (at least until the that means making two systems talk to software and light-on-infrastructure.
bubble burst). each other – has become the norm for For some comparison, think about
technology software. Data sharing is a
Fast forward to today, some 25 years requirement for vendors to provide in how Uber is the largest transportation
later as I write this. I recently launched all their products; no system can be a company in the world and doesn’t
another parking start-up company, and data “island.” Parking operators want own any cars; Airbnb is the largest
I’m immersed in all the newest modern a best-of-breed solution, which means lodging company and doesn’t own
technology available. Oh, how things cherry-picking different technologies any beds. These companies leverage
have changed! Here, are some of the for meters, or PARCS, or counts, technology to efficiently bring together
emerging technology trends that I’m and ensuring these systems share supply and demand.
seeing across our industry:
data through an API (application Who will leverage technology to
Trend 1: programming interface). become the biggest provider of parking,
Data are the new treasure Furthermore, with interoperability yet not own any parking spaces?
Remember the good old days when comes another big word: “intermediation.” Trend 2: Who needs hardware
a parking manager’s expert opinion These are the third-parties between your when there’s an app for that?
was all that was needed to sway the parking operation and your parking According to the website AppAnnie.
mayor, or a board of directors, or other consumers. A new breed of intermediary com, in mid-2017, the average
parking stakeholders? Parking policy companies is helping you sell your parking American smartphone had 93 installed
was created on intuition. Those days are and collect your revenues. apps (including those that come with
gone. Conjecture is insufficient. Three examples: (1) Pay-by- the phone), of which 36 get used every
Today’s parking manager must be cell providers offer value to your month, and about 10 are used daily.
armed with reams of data to influence any parking consumer in exchange for a And, on average, Americans spend 2
decision or change of direction, ready to convenience fee; (2) Space reservations hours and 15 minutes on their phone
pull out charts and graphs in any meeting. companies will take your parking spaces every day. “Consumers have spoken: By

54 April - May ’18 / TrafficInfraTech www.trafficinfratech-com-500653.hostingersite.com