PT's Parking Blog

Parking and Costco

I have just read a super summary of why parking requirements set by government is destroying the urban landscape. Check it out here. It's basically Shoup 101 as seen through the eyes of a consulting firm with the author living in New Zealand. Here's the synopsis from the Toronto Sun:

Cities forcing developers to provide parking seems innocuous. It's not. The rules stimulate urban sprawl, encourage excessive use of cars, create inequitable social outcomes, reduce housing affordability, and suppress economic development.

Wiping parking regulations from municipal planning codes across Canada is arguably the most urgent policy reform municipalities can make.

In the middle of the last century, transport engineers thought providing parking would ensure drivers looking for spaces did not create undue congestion and delay other road users.

Parking regulations are politically palatable because they improve driver convenience by including the cost of parking in the overall cost of development.

But parking is not free; the cost is merely hidden.

Today, 90% of private vehicle trips in North America end in a "free" parking space. But that valuable urban land the space uses isn't free.

Developers who build banquet halls in Richmond, B.C., for example, are required to provide up to four square metres of parking for every metre of rentable banquet space. So everyone pays more for banquet space. The cost of parking can be substantial. The Toronto Parking Authority estimated the cost of providing a single parking space could be up to $40,000. U.S. researchers estimated parking subsidies are several times the price of gas used by cars.

The most insidious characteristic is the way the rules mold the urban landscape into a gigantic parking lot. By taking up land, parking spots reduce density and make car travel more appealing, which leads to -- surprise, surprise -- greater demand for parking. Parking rules actually add to congestion.

The effect of minimum-parking regulations varies depending upon income. A low-income earner is likely to spend a larger portion of their money on basic goods and services that build in the cost of parking. Supermarkets, for example, recoup the cost of parking in their grocery prices. Low-income earners are more likely to carpool, use public transit, walk or cycle, so they are less likely to benefit from the parking they are forced to subsidize. The cost of higher density housing is inflated by parking regulations, too.

Because the cost of parking is built in to the cost of other goods, people are less likely to make use of alternatives to the drive-and-park lifestyle. Car pooling, public transit, telecommuting, car sharing and online shopping reduce the demand for parking, but consumers have no incentive to choose these options because the cost of parking is built in. One scholar called minimum-parking regulations a "disastrous substitute for millions of individual decisions ... about how much a parking space is worth."

The removal of minimum-parking regulations does not need to be sudden or disruptive. If parking rules changed today, Canada's urban areas would adapt slowly over years with new developments having only small impacts on the overall demand for parking. Cities would have to manage demand through the use of time-limits and ultimately prices.

If Canada's planners are committed to economic growth, sustainability and livable communities, they should first focus on making sure existing regulations do not surreptitiously undermine these urban objectives. It is time we realized parking is not free and instead implemented simple regulatory reforms that allow developers, businesses and consumers to manage their demand for parking in a more effective manner.

As I read through the original report one comment stood out. It mentioned that by having fewer parking spaces, even in smaller cities and towns, people would begin to change their habits and, for instance, make fewer trips to the store and stock up when they did go. This is sort of like leaving a pile of stuff at the bottom of the stairs and then carrying it up when you got a complete load rather than making numerous hikes up and down.

It occurred to me that Costco is a perfect laboratory to test this hypothesis. Out local Costco, in an area of Culver City near Venice and Marina Del Rey, is among the top ten grossing stores in the chain. It's always busy and if you don't get there when the store opens, its parking lot is always full. Although I find going to Costco is fun, just to look at all the "stuff" and revel at the quality of the meat and variety of wine, there is no way in hell I'm going to fight that parking lot simply to wander as I would at the mall.

Hence, R and I have a list and when we discover items we need that would be a good "Costco" buy rather than buying it at the "store" (toilet paper and vitamins for instance), we put them on the list. When the list is of a certain length. We get up early on Saturday, drive to the store, stake out a parking spot and get in line with the 300 or so others that are jockeying shopping carts waiting for the big red doors to roll up.

Our behavior has been altered by the lack of parking. Costco's sales aren't. This is a rocking store, among the top in the chain. They have limited parking, but it doesn't seem to hurt business. And we smart shoppers still buy the same amount we always would. However , dare we say it, the parking, or lack of it, has caused us to think more clearly about how we go about shopping.

Is this a horrific problem for our industry? Less parking means less need for parking services, right? I think not. Actually the need is in reverse. Costco doesn't have any controlled parking. It's chaos. They need a manager for parking. It would be great if there was a sign telling you how many spaces were available (technology). Some Costcos (in Mexico, for instance) charge for parking for non customers to prevent poaching. I have no clue how many spaces are poached but I bet its more than a few. How about parking reservations for peak times? I also know that at least 100 of those spaces are taken by employees, by design. Well, if they wanted they could find parking for their employees nearby and bus them in. All of these activities take management, technology – you know parking planning and services.

Fewer parking spaces means more work for the parking industry.

JVH

 

 

Happy Birthday

I worry sometimes that we see the history of America through our own prejudices. If we are white, and poor, perhaps through the light of the depression; if we are black, through the prism of Jim Crow. If we are gay through the light of perceived disenfranchisement, if we are a woman, we may see a glass ceiling. Hispanics may see opportunity but oppression, Asians see success through hard work, everyone sees groups of people who they are certain think ill of them because they are a "pick a minority." But we are all part of a minority.

Don't think so – here's a partial list and please note that all have been ridiculed because of simply being a member of the group -- :

Black, Asian, Hispanic, Jewish, Arab (pick a variety), Eastern European, Russian, Italian, Catholic, Mormon, Baptist, Rich, Poor, Middle Class, Boomers, young, old, Middle American, a resident of any city outside of (San Francisco, New York., Boston, The Beltway, LA West of the Freeway or South of the Boulevard). How about Indians (American and Asian), Gays, Straights, Southerners, people who like the arts, people who hate the arts, hippies, aging hippies, bikers, right wingers, gun owners, left wingers, the French, Brits, Irish, Greeks, Turks, people with beards, blonds, overweight, white males, women ,underweight, Protestants, Wiccans, people in the parking business, anyone working for an energy company, or who shops at Wal Mart, or reads the National Enquirer or is a vegan, or a meat eater, or a member of Peta, or not a member of Peta. You get the idea.

We see America through the eyes of our little group, and frankly if the damn country can't protect a Catholic, slightly overweight, white male of a certain age who eats meat, doesn't care if you own a gun, boomer, in the parking business then what the hell good is it.

But that's the point, isn't it. We are all minorities.

Societies evolve. Fifty years ago a black president would have been impossible. Fifty years before that, Jack Kennedy, an Irish Catholic, would have had no chance at the presidency. Sometimes the evolution is bathed in blood (can you say Civil War) and sometimes we don't even notice (I woke up one day and realized that my Westside LA neighborhood had blacks, old, young, gay straight, professors and electricians, liberals and conservatives, Armenians, Indians, Hispanics, Asians, Brits, blonds, nerds, Mormons, actors, artists, Irish, Jews, rich….. and that's within a block in each direction.) The aging, Lilly white, neighborhood I move in to 25 years ago had undergone a transformation. No riots, no star chamber meetings to approve new neighbors. It just happened. Sixty years ago a Jew or a black couldn't buy a house in the small farming community in which I grew up. The cemetery was segregated, for goodness sake.

What made the change? Was it all the "equal this" laws that were passed. Sure that took the codified nature of minority issues out of the government, but it was also the fact that our society matured. I grew up and went to school and found that my roommate and best friend was OK, and a Jew. My peers in college dated blacks and their parents found that the world didn't in fact come to an end. The Hatfields and the McCoys not only forget what the feud was about, they intermarried and made those holiday parties really interesting.

All this happened in an amazing, imperfect place called America. There were a lot of bumps along the way, some slight and some horrible. And there will be more, forever. It's the nature of society.

What a wonderful place to live.

Happy Birthday America

JVH

I’m a bit surprised at the response to this one - International Markets – Now is the time

We sent out the information below to virtually all parking equipment and system manufacturers in North America last week. I expected a lot of interest. We got very little.

I would have thought that now would be the perfect time for US manufacturers to look to new markets.

First of all, parking in the rest of the world is absolutely rocking. There are on street and off street issues in virtually every major city on the planet. They need help and need it in a big way.

Second, with the economy flat, new markets are one way to grab market share, keep the cash flowing, and keep the factories running. When the recession turns around, you will be sitting in the proverbial catbird seat.

Third, the dollar is down. Things made in Europe costs more and things made in the US costs less. Take advantage of the weak dollar and sell your products overseas, You are more competitive than you have ever been.

This is an inexpensive way to test the water, find out for yourself what an area is all about, meet local distributors, and get the process rolling. If you find it isn't for you, your investment has been less than that of a vacation.

Oh well, we gave it a shot. If you have any interest, drop me a line.

JVH

Philly Tries a Shoup Approach, and Succeeds

In January Philadelphia doubled the parking fees. The vacancy rate went from 2% to 17%. Read about it here.

For the four of you who haven't heard of Professor Shoup's approach to parking, here's an overview.

Let the market set the rates. Charge an amount that allows that there be about 15% of the onstreet spaces open at all times. This makes convenient parking available for those who want it, forces long term parkers (mostly local employees) off street into cheaper parking lots and structures, and greatly reduces congestion as people are motivated to quickly decide to either pay more and park on street or move to less expensive off street spaces.

There's more to his theories, the book is 1000 pages, after all. What should the city do with the revenue to make this approach more palatable to locals (plow it back into the neighborhoods.) The problem in Philly, and the rest of the universe, is that once city hall has its fingers on the money, there is little hope that the local neighborhoods that need the money will ever see it. But that's another story.

Philadelphia yesterday elected not to increase the parking rates again, as was planned last year, since the first increase did the deed. It made on street parking available, reduced congestion, and made for a lot of happy merchants and visitors in the city's central core.

Note the last line of the article. If the number of long term parkers goes up on street, the rates will be increased to maintain the 15% vacancy rate.

I might note that Don Shoup sees his pricing structure slightly more complicated than the one used in the City of Brotherly Love. He sees the rates changing hourly with the occupancy. For instance the may go down after hours when occupancy is lower (but go up in areas where there are restaurants and clubs and are crowded after hours.) Weekends could be less, except during events around a sports or entertainment venue.

The new meters that the city is installing this summer will give them the option to change rates quickly and easily, even hourly, as occupancy demands. Installing on street vehicle detectors would give the city even more information and enable it to set rates more exactly as it would have the data necessary to adjust rates on the fly, so to speak.

Congrats to Philly and its Parking Authority. Good job.

JVH

“Slump” Opens up spaces at Commuter Stations

Here's a story that I'm sure the editors at the New York Times rubbed their hands over before printing. Its truly Pulitzer material.

The Park and Ride lots at commuter stations serving the New York City transportation system are noticeably less full than in years past. The reason? People who have been laid off aren't taking the train into the city to work. DUH

This does not, however, mean that the three to five year waiting list for parking spaces is becoming shorter. After waiting for five years for a space, the laid off commuters aren't giving up their permits. Like rent controlled apartments they are being passed on to future generations.

Its another excellent example of the main stream media reporting the obvious.

JVH

Garage Collapse – Revenue Control System at Fault?

A portion of a garage collapsed in Atlanta yesterday. This happens extremely seldom. John Clancy wrote to me that he wondered about whether the installation of loop detectors for a revenue control or counting system may have nicked a post tension cable. Who knows? Lack of facts never stopped me, soI will comment.

In a past life I was involved in installing loop detectors in post tension garages. The urban legend was that if the cable was nicked by the saw cutting the loop the cable would break, leap out of the floor like an angry cobra and cut anything in its path in two (cars, people, whatever). I never saw this happen but know people who swear they have.

I understand that in the past decade or so they have encased the post tension cables in a plastic sleeve so if they do break, they will contract in the sleeve and not come ripping up out of the floor. Perhaps one of the tech weenies out there could confirm or deny.

When we installed loops for either gates or counting in post tension garages, we had to locate the cables so we wouldn't cut them with the saw. There were numerous devices out there to do so, but often we had to call in the experts who used magnetic imaging to find the cables and tell us where we could cut.

Take a look here at the pictures of the collapse. I can't tell for sure, but this doesn't look like a post tension garage to me. Any experts out there?

JVH

Soylent,,,,er,,,,Green?

Sainsbury's Supermarket in Glouchester in the UK has installed a peizo electric system in its parking garage so cars driving over the equpment actually generate enough electricity to run the store's checkout counters. If you are interested in the technology, read about it here. They have drawings and everything.

I think this is great. The store is also using cold air from the freezers to cool the store and is designed so huge windows light the place during the day and they can cut back on light. Plus they are capturing rainwater and heating it with solar panels for warming the building.

One wag commented that with all the eco friendly equipment in the store, they might try offering "Soylent" in the deli section. We understand that the "Green" variety is most popular.

(For those of you under 45 the movie Soylent Green starred Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Conners, Joseph Cotton, Brock Peters, Paula Kelly and Edward G. Robinson. Oh, yes, Dick Van Patten is in it as an usher. Go rent it and watch while eating some pistachio ice cream or lime jello. Ymmmmm. Then you will understand the reference.)

As Current as Today’s Headlines

This story follows on the heels of the post below. It's not about a security problem with a system, it's about how a system is designed to work.

In this case it's a case of "batch" versus a true "on line" system. With a batch system, credit card numbers are checked by the bank once a day, say in the evening after the meters are off duty. The parker has already been given his receipt, used the parking, and is on his way. If a card is rejected, the money is lost. In a true on line system, the cards are checked every time they are inserted. Of course that means that the meters must be either on line all the time or contact the central system whenever a card is inserted (and this might take a few moments to complete the transaction.)

So how much could be lost if a few cards are rejected? According to an auditor in Toronto, the city lost about 5% of its $53,000,000 in revenue because of bad cards. There was no failing of the system, it worked as advertised. The problem is that because they didn't reject the cards when they were inserted, $2.7 million in revenue was lost.

On line systems aren't inexpensive. The infrastructure might not exist in some places. A smart buyer has to weight the risk versus the cost. At 5% a year in lost revenue, how long would it take to recover the additional cost of the online equipment?

JVH

Oh Oh, Enter “Dark Reading:” Parking Meters: The Next Big Hack?

I've never heard of it, but it's real. There is a web site and a trade show devoted solely to hacking into computer systems and finding ways to prevent it. The site is called "Dark Reading." The trade show is the "Black Hat USA" conference.

These groups are looking into the security of and hacking into on street parking equipment. You can read all about it here.

I love the headline: Parking Meters: The Next Big Hack?

I quote from the article and Security Researcher Joe Grand:

"Why parking meters? It's a combination of everything, software, hardware, network connectivity and it's a physical real application used all over the world. They're taken for granted. It's just a big metal box in the ground where you shove your money into it, get your parking and you walk away." Grand added that most parking meter users don't think about the financial risks and the social implications of the parking meters if there was to be security breach against them.

In 2003, San Francisco replaced 23,000 mechanical meters with new smart parking meters at a cost of $35 million. Grand noted that other major cities in the US and around the world have also adopted a new generation of smart parking meters. These meters provide smart card capabilities, can take credit cards in some cases, have display screens and are usually networked.

From a security point of view, there are multiple angles to examine on a parking meter. With smart card meters where there are cards that are loaded with dollar values, those cards could potentially be reset or reloaded. Some meters also take credit cards and that information might be stored on the meter where an attacker could potentially grab the information.

In some cities, the meters are connected by wireless networks while in other cases they can be accessed by way of an infrared wireless device. Grand noted that meters could potentially be reset to give free parking – or on the other side to expire parking for a valid spot. Smart meters also often have LCD screens which Grand commented could hypothetically be used by a hacker to transmit messages.

So you wonder. Do our manufacturers have all this in mind when they write the software that runs the parking systems?

Think about it – Someone who hacked into a parking system could change the rates, make parking free at all times, copy the numbers off credit cards, put their own messages on the displays, add money to debit cards, or cause all types of mischief. These security hackers try to break into systems and then, I assume, sell their knowledge to the manufacturers to show them how to prevent it from happening.

I used to work in that part of the industry. My old boss always told me that security in computers was illusionary. "The minute you think you have something that is completely secure," he would say, "Is the moment you think you are smarter than everyone else. And of course that's never true."

JVH

 

A Lot of Spam

Spam, the bane of email. Automatically sent, clogging in boxes and spam filters interglactically. It's horrible; it's devastating: it's worse than bad personal hygiene. OK, we hate it. But, why do we hate it so much that we are willing to miss important messages, some personal, just to rid ourselves of the blight?

I don't get it. When we receive advertising in the mail we don't drop to the post office floor and start beating our fists on the tile. We simply take the items we don't want and dump them in the trash. Why can't we do that with spam?

I guess I understand that if you are a private individual and want to "protect' yourself from spammers, you can set up something akin to the great wall of China that one has to navigate to get your message delivered. Fine, that's your business.

However, if you are a company wanting to sell your product or service to others, why would you want to make that more difficult? It makes no sense whatsoever.

I got a message this AM from someone who wanted me to send them some information. I did so. Two seconds later I got a message from them subtly accusing me of being a spammer and "if I wasn't" I should follow the instructions. Now in this case they weren't too difficult, but frankly I was put out having to do it at all.

Sometimes you have to decipher weird letters that often are not possible to understand and fill in blanks with these characters. They often you have to wait days for the message to find its way through, in this case Earthlink's maze, to the person you are trying to reach.

I have a system here at PT that works pretty well. My server (Verizon FIOS) filters out about 250 spam messages a day. I can, if I want, go on line and look at the messages it has removed. To this date I have not found one that was improperly removed.

My second line of defense is Outlook. It checks each message and if it thinks it is spam, it puts it in my "junk mail" file. I get about 30 of these a day, and of those, about 5 are messages I want. I can then tell Outlook not to catch messages from that person again. It takes about 15 seconds to scan the "junk mail" file each day and then permanently remove them.

My correspondents don't get the third degree, I get my messages and all is right with the world.

(I will note that Verizon gets a bit aggressive and sometimes returns messages that are obviously valid. I can then contact Verizon (by email) and tell them to ratchet it back a bit.)

For those private individuals who require me to "do something human" to get my message through to them, I say "so be it." Most likely you won't receive anything from me, even if you have requested it from me. For those of you in business who have made it difficult for me to contact you, I suggest you rethink your email program. Whenever you make it more difficult for someone to contact you, you are losing business. Think about it.

JVH

Does Philly cash the Check?

Lynn commented on my Parking Wars post below and it's important enough that I thought it should be posted "in the open."

But, showing people paying their tickets in an orderly fashion would not be good reality TV! Of course, the producers of Parking Wars will show all the 'ugliness' of parking enforcement. As someone wise once told me - 'parking is a grudge cost'. It's difficult to make this industry into a bed of roses when customers pay us because they HAVE to!

So, what isn't mentioned in your post is how much the City of Philadelphia is being paid to be on Parking Wars? If the Mayor does not watch, I bet he still cashes the checks from the Parking Wars production company. Food for thought. :-)

Anyone know how much "Parking Wars" pays Philly?

JVH

Parking Meters – Stationary tax collectors

The Moultrie (GA) Observer is commenting on bringing back parking meters in the downtown area:

Bottom line, Parking meters are only stationary tax collectors. We would be taking a giant leap backwards with their return. Read more public opinion in Saturday's Moultrie Observer.

Ah HA – Someone (beside moi) actually said it. On street parking charges are a tax. Yes, correctomundo. The charging for onstreet parking is a use tax, just as taxes charged for gasoline is a use tax for roads, and property tax is there to pay for police and fire and the rest.

So I ask the Observer writer: Why shouldn't drivers be charged a tax to park on the streets to cover the costs of providing the parking on the streets?

I'll check out Saturday's edition and perhaps we will find the answer.

JVH

Whoops….He Took $5 million a year

I received this from four different correspondents. I print it without comment.

Outside the Bristol Zoo, in England , there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 coaches, or buses.   It was manned by a very pleasant attendant with a ticket machine charging cars £1 (about $1.40) and coaches £5 (about $7). This parking attendant worked there solid for all of 25 years.

Then, one day, he just didn't turn up for work.

"Oh well", said Bristol Zoo Management - "we'd better phone up the City Council and get them to send a new parking attendant..."

"Err ... no", said the Council, "that parking lot is your responsibility."

"Err ... no", said Bristol Zoo Management, "the attendant was employed by the City Council, wasn't he?"

"Err ... NO!" insisted the Council.

Sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of  Spain , is a bloke who had been taking the parking lot fees, estimated at £400 (about $560) per day at Bristol Zoo for the last 25 years. Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over £3.6 million ($5 million)!  / [FYI - that works out to $200,000/year -- all bottom line income, with no taxes or costs-of-goods-sold (except for his chair, umbrella and ticket machine)

And no one even knows his name.

JVH

 

 

Parking Wars – Not showing Philly’s best side

According to the New York Times the folks who are responsible for Philadelphia's image don't like A and E's "Parking Wars." Read all about it here.

I've seen the show only once and commented at the time that it is a most boring program. It shows the same thing, over and over and over. People get a ticket. People complain about the ticket, People eventually pay their ticket. The people are usually folks who are scofflaws, who have many (sometimes hundreds) of unpaid tickets, and feel that they are put upon. Of course, these folks usually live in the how should we say"less than nice" parts of town, and may have some reason to feel that the "man" is focusing on them.

Of course, all this yelling, and citing and drama is done on a background of the dirtier and poorer parts of the city, and don't really put the parking officers in the best of light, although in my opinion at least for the show I watched, they all seem to be doing a good job.

So Philly is upset since people are writing letters that they aren't going to visit the City of Brotherly Love due to the image that's reflected in the show.

I can sort of understand that. A friend of mine who lives in Shanghai refused to bring his family to LA because he thought the city streets were like those he saw in movies and on TV. It took me three years to convince him that his family would be safe in Beverly Hills or Santa Monica. But I digress.

Someone must be watching the show; it's been reupped for a new season. But my guess is that its renewal is as much due to the fact that it is inexpensive to produce as its popularity.

The local press has asked the Mayor and Governor to step in and have the show cancelled. Of course they can't do that, something about that pesky First Amendment (the Inquirer didn't know about freedom of speech, oh well). However the Governor's office did have a comment. "Do what the Governor does, don't watch it."

Seems about right.

JVH

Midwesterners are slow – NOT!!!

I wrote this in a blog entry below:

Good points, Trish. However I personally know of a number of cases (OK, they are in New York and LA, not in the heartland, and I consider Florida part of the heartland, except Miami and Orlando, where people do think a bit for themselves) where ticket after ticket was written and the car was just left there.

Some take it that I was saying that Midwesterners are slow. Nope, that the opposite of what I meant. If I were an editor I would have had it rewritten like this:

Good Points, Trish. However I personally know of a number of cases (they were in New York and LA, not in the heartland where people do think a bit for themselves), where ticket after ticket was written and the car was just left there.

Avid readers of this blog know that I have great respect for "flyover country" and believe in the 50 mile rule. That is, people who live within 50 miles of an ocean (like me) have a skewed view of morality and life in general. – Lay off New Yorkers and Angelenos. You know exactly what I mean.

JVH

Parken

"Parken" is the German equivalent of the IPI show. This year it was held in Wiesbaden and was attended by hundreds of German parking professionals. I was fortunate enough to be in attendance last week and met a number of old friends and made some new ones.

The Germans focus on the exhibition, with over 100 exhibitors with a great European looking exhibit hall, each exhibitor having a "shell scheme" build by the organizers. The usual suspects were in attendance (Scheidt and Bachmann, Skidata, Parkeon, Designa, Zeag) as well as many smaller specialized German parking suppliers.

I spend a wonderful hour with Klaus Gindl who was hanging out with his daughter at the Skidata booth. Klaus who at one time was the German distributor for Scheidt and Bachmann and then went to work with the company running their overseas operations, is partnered with his son on a number of ventures, some dealing with parking and representing Skidata in various countries.

Klaus told me that his success was never to burn a bridge and to have good relationships with his competitors. He proved it by taking me to the Designa booth and introducing Dr Thomas Waibel, the MD of the company. Thomas is a charming gentleman and very aware of the industry and his company's place in it.

Americans should be impressed by how seamlessly Europeans move from the native language and back again. I was talking to Thomas and Klaus in English, then they converted to German when I move to talk to Designa's marketing manager, but then returned to English when my focus was back on them. Most polite and impressive.

Next year, if you want a bit of something different, take in Parken in Germany.

JVH

As Incredible as it seems, a reader disagrees…

I railed on and on about the parking officers who wrote ticket after ticket on a vehicle in New York City and didn't notice that there was a dead body inside. The post is a few down on the list below. Got some push back from Trish from Gainesville Fl.:

I think you are making some irrational generalizations as there are many facets to look at here. Not all agencies have immediate DMV record availability (Public Works Departments as examples), most agencies use some kind of guideline of when to make the DMV check (ie 3 or more citations as an example) and/or have rules for booting/towing and I think most personnel are sharp! They have no control over illegal tint or rules that are not in their realm so don't blame them (entirely). I am not familiar with any parking training that does not teach being aware of your surroundings if for no other reason personal safety.

Good points, Trish. However I personally know of a number of cases (OK, they are in New York and LA, not in the heartland, and I consider Florida part of the heartland, except Miami and Orlando, where people do think a bit for themselves) where ticket after ticket was written and the car was just left there.

It seems to me that things should escalate when the second ticket is written. Booting and Towing should be just the beginning. Think of it. Someone has parked their car illegally so long that two officers actually wrote tickets for the car. You know that I believe that 90% of the violations are never written up, so that means that this car attracted a lot of attention. I think that if we towed or booted on the second ticket, we would see a great reduction in parking scofflaws. People break the rules because they think they can get by with it.

Also, I understand that DMV records or stolen car records may not be available, but then why not? Suddenly the police have hundreds of more eyes and ears. Parking officers don't have to put themselves at risk, just make the call. They all carry radios, don't they? Let the guys and gals in the bulletproof vests do the rest.

I respectively disagree that they have no control over illegal tint or rules that are not in their realm. I report a car abandoned on my street, or a car with expired registration. I can see no reason why people who are paid by the city to look at cars all day long shouldn't do more than concern themselves with how it's parked.

Last week we had a webinar about insurance risk. Kathy Phillips told us that training must be done over and over and over. She said that you can't train too much. In the Army I learned that you "tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and tell then what you told them."

Somehow I can't believe that the folks in New York City "got it" when they were told to be aware of their surroundings. Remember, the call came in when the smell got so bad that people in the neighborhood couldn't handle it any more.

JVH

$90 per game, and that’s to park

I was musing in the June PT (Point of View) about parking and pricing for parking and parking at the Getty Museum. Brad Conner with Associated Time in Dallas sent me this comment:

Read your article in the June issue of PT.  Here in Dallas in the land of no mass transit or very little public transportation, the rates are somewhat higher then LA.  Ballpark in Arlington (Texas Rangers), $12.00 (some games are $5.00), American Airlines Center (Mavs and Stars), $20.00, The Boss Hogg Bowl, currently referred to as Cowboys Stadium (until Jerry can find someone to pay naming rights that he thinks they are worth), $90.00 per game, up $40.00 from old run down Texas Stadium. 

And this one I really like, DART (Dallas area rapid transit), our little metro system - which is expanding inch by inch and should be complete in about 100 years - the parking at the lots is free, yes free, DART is afraid if they charge no one will ride the trains, so the lots are filling up, and now they (DART) thinks it is a good idea to charge folks that have to drive from other cities to park at a station a fee and those that live in the city where the station is located would continue to park for free. 

Hey you can't make this stuff up.  I know, I see your face crunched up with the question, "how in the hell will they figure that out", well they have an answer, you will have a toll tag and the tag will be tied to your home address, so if you live out of the jurisdiction, you get charged $15.00 per day, if not you are free.  I told you, impossible to make this stuff up.

Have a great day!

$90 per game My goodness – you have to be kidding. I didn't believe it so I tried to find the parking costs on the Cowboy's Stadium web site. I'm sure its $90, because they don't tell you how much for parking. It has to be high. I found one reference to cash parking ($30) but I think you had to park in Fort Worth and come in by chopper. Every thing is BIG in Texas, even parking charges.

 

JVH

June PT Delivered, Error found…

WOW! It didn't take long. Rex Link just called me a pointed out that there is an error in my article on Disabled parking in Los Angeles. I noted that handicapped parking is "Free" for those with handicapped tags both on and off street.

Of course this is incorrect. The free parking is required for only those parked "on street." Off street lots and structures must provide handicapped spaces, but can charge for them.

This error, however, does not change the point of the article, that the "free" on street requirement will affect the value of leases when the City of Los Angeles goes out to lease it's on street parking operation. Obviously, since the lessee can't know how many 'free' spaces will be taken up at any given point in time, it is difficult to gauge income levels, and that of course will affect the overall bids.

Sorry bout that

JVH

SUV More “Green” than the Subway?

I know that I have hinted at one time or another here on the blog about the inconsistencies the green movement has as it relates to cars and their "Carbon Footprint." A new study is out. Read about it here.

It boils down to this: Taking into account everything that goes into mass transit (rail, air, etc) and comparing them to a car, depending on the load levels, the amount of carbon spewed into the atmosphere per passenger mile might just be more in a partially loaded light rail line (like San Francisco's BART or Boston's MTA) than in a fully loaded SUV.

The study took into account the building of the light rail or airport infrastructure, the manufacturing of the rail cars or airplanes, ongoing maintenance, the way the electricity used to power the trains was generated, and the load levels.

It then compared those figures to an SUV, sedan, and pickup truck.

The findings don't surprise me at all. If a politically motivated groups says something, the chances are that exactly the opposite is true. In this case, the results aren't as straightforward as we have been led to believe. It works like this:

If the trains or planes are fully loaded, then the carbon footprint per passenger mile is a winner for the greens, however if they are less than half full, then the fully loaded SUV takes the prize. Hmmmmm.

If you use a tad of common sense, you can figure this out for yourself. Researchers at UC Davis, not known as a hotbed of anti environmental groups, released the report.

I can see it now. There will be a law passed that says an airplane can't take off unless it's full, and a train can't leave the station without every seat filled.

Don't shutter your garages and parking lots just yet. The automobile may survive to park another day.

Makes about as much sense as what we have seen the government do related to "global warming" nonsense.

JVH

By the way – it snowed in this week in North Dakota (first time in 60 years) Green Bay broke a cold record set in 1943.

 

Jacksonville again

Jacksonville has been mentioned on these pages before, downtown making parking mistake after parking mistake. Here is an interview with a merchant that appears to need parking in front of her store, and is upset that there isn't enough and claims its hurting her business. Mark summarizes as follows

Here we go again.  For me I think the entire article can be summed up in this one sentence;

For Cade's client base - women she describes as "old school classy" - walking a few blocks with a new hairdo that could get rained upon, or freshly done nails that could get ruined by blowing sand or debris, wasn't the best option.

If your business is dependent on front door parking then making a decision to locate in an URBAN environment may not be best  move.  In the past she benefited from the fact that there were numerous empty lots and empty meters surrounding her business.  It isn't the fact that parking "went away", it's that new infill development "came in" and created more density and synergy in the area (more people and more potential customers).  Also, if the "walking a few blocks" really is THE issue for her there are currently dozens of empty retail spaces located on the ground floor of several downtown garages with rents starting as low as $8/ft. 

     As has been stated very eloquently in the past by Mr Allegretti on this subject;  "We don't have a parking problem, we have a walking problem."

Although I usually agree with Mark, I think the onstreet parking issue would be resolved if they simply raised the parking onstreet rates. There would be plenty of available parking, and if the merchant wanted to do so, she could pay for the parking for her customers. They would find a spot right in front of her store and all would be right with the world.

I do agree, however, that we have a walking problem. My story about the reporter who said she couldn't find a parking space in a tony shopping area. I commented that I knew the area and there were tons of parking lots just off the street. She came back with two issues. First they weren't convenient (half a block away) and second they cost too much.

I then restated her problem. She couldn't find a convenient FREE space. Ahhhhhh. Now we understand.

JVH

For God’s Sake, Open your Eyes…

I find it difficult to comprehend. Traffic officers, parking officers, enforcers of the law, can time after time write a ticket on a car, and not notice that a dead body is inside. Read about it here

Aren't they trained to look around them? Aren't they trained to "take in" the scene? If a car is ticketed for parking, don't they check whether it has other violations (license paid, for instance). Don't they see if it's stolen, particularly after the second ticket, or abandoned.

What are these people paid to do? Has our government reached the point where they train people to be automatons and do absolutely nothing except precisely what they see as their "Job."

I guess if a parking enforcement officer in Manhattan saw a murder taking place, they would continue on their beat, doing nothing. After all, "It's not my job, man."

What happened to initiative, to thinking for one 's self? Are we so afraid of being "involved" that we simply ignore the world around us?

The city of Houston trains its parking officers to be aware of their surroundings. They carry radios. They report problems, they help people who are lost, they, I think, even know CPR. Would they jump in front of a bullet? Probably not, but they would have the presence of mind and training to dial 911. I guess their counterparts in NYC can't say the same.

And about the tickets. The body was found by the tow truck driver. Why multiple tickets? It would seem to me that by the second ticket it was time to tow? If not, why not.

Just Sayin

JVH

After it opened, it opened

Doug Holmes at Penn State has a great story about using permeable asphalt surface lots:

I would strongly suggest some investigation before putting in such a surface. Several years ago, we went through considerable expense to pave a couple hundred space parking lot with permeable asphalt. Apparently, either the engineers did not do all their homework, or someone did not properly prepare the surface or apply the asphalt. I am not sure where the finger pointing stopped on that one.

    In any event, a few months after it opened, it opened. I mean, we developed a sinkhole about 75 feet across and about 40 to 50 feet deep in a matter of hours. Luckily it happened at an oddball time and there were no pedestrians or vehicles on the affected area. It swallowed up a couple islands and two lamp posts before we got it plugged.

It appears that the permeable surface funneled all the water through one channel which ate through a relatively thin layer of limestone and, voila, instant Acme hole. Old Wile would have been proud.

For more great stories and a lot of good parking info, sign up for Doug's CParkL List Server…

 

JVH

 

 

Rogue Valets II

Speaking of rogue valet companies, I was in a parking company office the other day and the owner was talking about this very subject. Parking (valet) companies that operate outside the law, don't properly employ their attendants, pay no tax, and undercut legitimate companies and get a lot of business, particularly from the smaller, single restaurants.

Once again, I'm sure that fairness isn't on anyone's plate these days, but if the city would be consistent, apply the laws equally, and check for licenses, workers comp insurance, and hold them to some standard, then the companies that play by the rules would have a level playing field.

I'm told that many companies are getting out of the valet business because they just can't compete. You can say all you want, but the rent paid by these shysters can't be met by those that train, insure, and make a payroll.

There you go

JVH

Rogue Valets

Exposed. Yes, that's the title of the piece done locally here in LA. They "expose" by going "undercover" and find that valets are parking cars on street. OMG They actually take you car when you go to a restaurant and go around the corner and park it in a perfectly legitimate parking space half a block away. When you come out they, shudder, go get your car and bring it back. They also once (shown once in a six month research piece) have an accident. There is even a lady complaining about them parking in her neighborhood.

OK, I'm being snarky. Of course they caught these idiots using fake no parking signs so they could cover up parking meters, and using paper clips to make the meter "fail" (I didn't know you could do that), and stealing legitimate no parking signs and moving them to where they needed. They were caught lying on tape. It's a hoot.

These low end valet 'companies' give parking a bad name. they need to clean up their act, the city needs to enforce the laws, and ticket cars, make the companies toe the line.

The city could, if it wanted, actually license on street valet companies, make them comply with some rules, and charge them to use on street spaces and make money in the process. Of course that might be more than the local council can handle, they would rather whine and complain (listen to the LA city Councilman duck and weave.

JVH

Chicago Inspector General Blasts PPP Meter Lease

The Inspector General of the city of Chicago has released a particularly damning report on the meter lease process and result that took place late last year. The entire report is available here.

 

It's very detailed and I suggest you take a few minutes to read it. Here's a press release that summarizes the report:

 

 

REPORT DETAILS UNINFORMED PROCESS, LACK OF TRANSPARENCY,

INADEQUATE FINANCIAL CONSIDERATION, AND VIABLE ALTERNATIVES

TO LONG-TERM PARKING METER LEASE; RECOMMENDS SWEEPING CHANGES

 

CHICAGO – A report released by the City of Chicago Inspector General's Office ("IGO"), shows, in detail, how the City's 75-year lease of its parking meters was the culmination of uninformed financial considerations, a secretive planning process, and a failure to explore viable alternatives that would have achieved the same budgetary goals.

The City leased the Chicago Metered Parking System for $974 million less than its value to the City, the independent review shows. What's more, the City did not properly estimate the meter system's value in the first place; a vital detail in determining whether such a deal was in the City's best financial interests.

While the Inspector General's Office does not question the seriousness of the City's budget problem that was presented in Fall 2008 because of the recession, the hasty, "crisis" nature of the decision-making process meant that the short-term budget problems and the large upfront payment the City would receive overshadowed all other legitimate, long-term, public-interest issues. The report shows, in addition, that even if the only way the City could close this budget gap was to secure a large one-time payment by leasing its parking-meter system to a private company, there were alternative terms under which it could have done so. For example, the City could have executed a shorter lease with a revenue-sharing provision, which would have plugged the budget gap without having the City suffer a large long-term loss.

However, the ability to consider any alternatives whatsoever was effectively eliminated, when, without any details regarding the lease, the anticipated revenue from the sale was included in the 2009 City Budget.

"The lease terms were negotiated, bids were accepted, and a vendor was chosen well before the Council had the chance to review any of it," said Inspector General David Hoffman.

Even if members of the Council had more time to review the deal, as presented, it still boiled down to a "yes or no" proposition. With a longer review period, such as the 15-days mandated by a proposal the City Council Finance Committee passed Monday, the result would not necessarily have been a more deliberative process.

"Another two weeks to review the results of months of closed-door negotiations would have been negligible," added Hoffman.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The report underscores how the lack of transparency throughout the process led to a dubious financial deal for the City and includes a series of recommendations for substantive reform. Among them, the IGO recommends:

1. The City Council should be given 60-days to review the terms of a lease agreement such as this. However, this time for consideration should be prior to the City's accepting bids from vendors, not after a winning bidder has been selected. Given that the administration first issued a Request for Qualifications ("RFQ") to find suitable vendors in February 2008, then negotiated lease terms from April to October, such a review would have been entirely plausible and would have allowed the Council to consider the lease terms themselves.
2. The City Council should commission a public policy think tank, an academic, or an independent office of City government to conduct an impartial analysis of any lease agreement and release this analysis publicly before the terms of an agreement are voted upon by the City Council.
3. Public hearings and comment on potential lease agreements;
4. Without the opportunity for the City Council to thoroughly review, debate, and vote on the terms of the lease a public asset, City Ordinance should bar the proceeds of any such deal from being included as projected revenue in a budget proposal.

    

   The press release is kind. Read the entire report. It is damning. Any city preparing to do a PPP should read it.

    

   JVH

    

Overnight Parking Ban…

 

Many cities have an overnight on street parking ban. No parking between 3 and 5AM. I have some random thoughts on this procedure.

• The purpose seems to be to stop the 'storage' of vehicles on street, and force people to put their cars in their driveways, garages, and parking lots. Fair Enough
• But what if you don't have one of the above?
• The ban might make the streets "look" better, but what about people who have issues – broken cars, a tad too much to drink, visitors unaware of the ban.
• Is it really a revenue generator?
• If so, why not charge people who park between 3-5 AM. Instead of a $30 ticket, why not a $10 parking fee. Same procedure.
• Of my best solution, charge everyone for parking onstreet. Sell permits to residents. They can buy extras at a discounted rate for limited use. The revenue would be good for the city, who would use it for repaving streets and the like (right), and would motivate people to NOT park on the streets if they had an alternative.
• The $10 on the spot fee would be collected just like parking citation fees, but would make more sense and be more palatable and fair.
• We force people who may be inebriated to drive to not get a ticket, when they would be much better off taking a cab of even sleeping it off in their car.

 

JVH

 

Mea Culpa…

I commented a couple of weeks ago about unintended consequences and used the "banning" of DDT as an example. As much as you believe that I am never wrong, in this case I may have overstated the case. Or maybe not.

 

It has been pointed out that first of all, DDT wasn't actually "banned" in many countries and has been used to keep mosquitoes at bay. However overuse may have led to DDT resistant mosquitoes, thus causing other issues.

 

In researching the "facts" about DDT, I find that its not quite as simple as I led you to believe. If you like, you can do some quick research here and here and here

 

As you can see, there is a lot of differing information, and it's not easy to sort out.

 

JVH

 

 

I Shake my Head…..

 

The City of Cincinnati is allowing all electric cars to park for free in city owned lots and on street. It is to prove the city's commitment to being a "green" municipality.

 

There is just one problem. There are only eight all electric cars in the Cincinnati area.

 

Questions to ask the local city dads and moms could be something like:

• Why do this if it will make no difference (less than one percent of the cars in the US are all electric?
• Isn't it unenforceable? In off street locations, couldn't an attendant simply ring up an electric car when there was none, and pocket the money? On street, if an enforcement officer wanted to give a car a "pass" couldn't they just ring them up as "electric?"
• When the populace stops laughing at giving free parking to eight cars, won't they begin to wonder at the sanity of the people who thought this all up?
• Is it not the case that the carbon footprint, counting the manufacturing and disposal of the batteries and the charging required including the infrastructure, actually greater than a small gas powered vehicle?

You get the idea.

JVH

 

It’s a tangled web they weave….

When they demand "Free" Parking.

Macclesfield, in England, is considering "free" parking on Saturday. The local Merchants are demanding it as part of "Recession Mitigation." The local authority is balking a bit since it would cost about $50,000 in decreased revenue each year. From the City's point of view, that's a bad thing.

The merchants are saying that their customers complain about parking costs and that free parking would bring in more business.

I wonder if the merchants have considered the fact that free parking would also bring in folks who aren't customers, but just want a place to park for free. Employees, sightseers, those visiting friends, and the like. What will they do if instead of people complaining of paying for parking, they complain of no available parking?

I have not heard of a place where "free" parking was instituted that business increased. IN virtually every case, increased business was related to better stores, prices, more reasons for people to come downtown.

If the merchants are so worried, why not have a pile of pound coins and give them to people who complain. Problem solved.

OK, that wouldn't work since I would simply walk up the street complaining at every store. However certainly a "validation" type of program would work, and I'm sure the P and D supplier could help with a "two part ticket," one for the car and one for validations. You give your ticket to the merchant get a pound or whatever. Problem really solved.

JVH

Alternative Fuel Vehicles Get “Free” Parking?

Well, they are thinking about it in Estes Park, CO, which is somewhere near Boulder.

The proposal is to select a few spaces and reserve them for "alternative fuel" vehicles. There is some discussion that would allow drivers of these cars to park there all day long, while those driving Belchfire 12s will have normal parking times.

Will it never end?

OK, we allow high mileage vehicles to park all day for free, thus taking them off the road, but the low mileage SUV's, of which there are many in this area, have to move on and spew their poison into the air.

Also, what is an alternative fuel vehicle? Is it a hybrid? There are Lexus hybrids that don't get 30 MPG. What about pedal power? CNG, LNG, Body fat, Electric. I wonder whether the idea shouldn't be based on MPG, not the type of fuel. There are gas powered vehicles that get 50 MPG. Why shouldn't they qualify?

Of course, the officer on the beat will have to make the decision, OR they will have to check a list, that would be updated regularly. Of course whether or not a car is properly tuned would be important.

But then, this is a regressive policy. Only people with big bucks can afford the extra cost of a hybrid vehicle. So then upper class folks get a pass on their parking charges and the poor driving hand me down Chevy's get screwed.

I say that if you are going to charge different prices for different vehicles, charge by square footage. A 1970 Cadillac or a 2008 Navigator should pay more than a Mini or a Sunbeam Alpine. Then the officer would have to carry a tape measure, and meters would have to have "Small, medium, large, and gigantic" buttons so the drivers could select the "proper" vehicle size.

Or, we could just charge everyone the same and get on with it.

JVH

Ticketing in the Rain

The Columbia, MO, enforcement folks are taking a bit of backwater concerning problems with writing parking tickets in the rain. Seems their automatic ticket writing equipment gets wet and doesn't perform when the heavens open. Read all about it.

I am in agreement with folks who say that this is an operational problem, not an enforcement problem. I have travelled all over the world and seen citations in every type of weather, wet and dry, cold and hot. They are placed in little sealed baggies and put on the windshields and that is that.

If weather is inclement, the officers drive cars or put their printers under their raincoats. These folks need to learn something from the USPS – Neither rain nor snow…

JVH

Floating Garage

There seems to be some discussion about a "floating" garage proposal in Pensacola, FL. A local boat designer has made the recommendation. It was panned by the local press, and he has responded. Here's the Link and another one

Correspondent Mark has these comments:

Call me crazy, but I can't see the sense in this.  Where do you put the ingress/egress lanes to the garage?  If you build it along the lines of a ferry dock you eliminate the flexibility of placement that he argues about.  His argument about hurricanes doesn't make sense to me.  Once a storm is in the Gulf exactly how do you "move" the thing to get it out of the way.  Today's article talks about using it as a ferry of sorts, can you imagine how long that crossing would take?  I don't know, it sounds absurd to me. Of course, the very fact that I'm writing this means the concept is at least provoking some thought on the issues they have in Pensacola.

Mark and I are of a different opinion on this one. I think it's an idea that should be explored. Parking garages come in all shapes and sizes, why not one that floats. We have casinos, office buildings, hotels, and why not a garage.

I'm sure there are issues, but their always are.

JVH

Educational Program at the IPI

The Conventional Wisdom at the IPI show was that the educational programs were the best ever. There were a large number of them and from what I heard both at the Temecula Group and on the floor, the quality was very good.

That being said, one comment permeated the discussions. There were a LOT of educational sessions, some conflicted with others, many people would go to one, discover they didn't think it fit what they needed or picked up literature and then left and went to another. Some though the schedule was very confusing, not unusual when there is such a large number of events.

My recommendation == reduce the number of sessions and make them very high power. If you want to keep the large number, find a way to stagger them, or configure the schedule so they are easy to find.

I'm not the guy who would do it, but there are people who do know how to do this.

Remember – most people in our industry are novices, whether they are heads of parking or line managers.

When we did boot camp at PIE a few years ago, we had more senior people in the room than entry staff.

JVH

PS: Be sure that when you have moderators for "round table" or "Power talk" sessions, you train them well. A good moderator can "make" the session, a bad one can ruin it. Moderators need to do just that, moderate, not talk for the sake of talking.

Attendance and the IPI

We discussed the attendance at the IPI show at the Temecula Group Breakfast and agreed that they did very well considering the economy and all. 1700 plus attendees and exhibitors is not a bad number and most exhibitors told me that the quality of attendee was very high.

But we also agreed that there should be 2000 or 3000 attendees (not including exhibitor personnel) or more at the show. (There were just over 700 attendees at the show this year).

The TPG doesn't just blather about problems, but also come up with some possible solutions. We felt that the IPI could analyze the attendance and would probably find that 500 or so attendees would come no matter what. The rest are "first timers" and the like.

Why not concentrate on the newbies – give them a "first timer" much MUCH lower rate. Charge exhibitors a bit more and allow anyone who wants to come to the show for free. (sell tickets for food/drink). Hold the event in locations where there are a ton of parking folks within driving distance (LA, Chicago, NYC Area, Dallas/Houston}, Really promote in the local area. Get people who can drive in for the day, or overnight. Sell the show, as well as the educational and "party" parts of the program.

You could allow folks to come to the show for free and PAY for the other services offered at the show (educational, recreational events etc). Make it attractive.

I know that a number of years ago the IPI did a survey and found that the exhibition itself was the number one reason people came to the Conference. Most networking and the like was done on the exhibition floor.

Just a bunch sitting around getting charged up on caffeine and offering ideas. They are probably worth what they cost

JVH

 

Amano McGann – Men (and Woman) In Black

Our booth at the IPI was right across from Amano McGann. As you know they won "best in show" for their Parking as Art display but I digress.

On opening day, before the show started, most of the major companies had meetings in their booths to organize the team and the like. Amano McGann was no exception. There were at least 15 salespersons gathered around and someone was talking about this feature or that.

What I found intriguing was that they all were wearing black suits. I asked if they were required to wear a certain 'uniform' for the show and was told that there was no instruction that went out.

They couldn't have been copying the boss, Terry McGann was wearing a great gray (dark green?) suit with his signature bow tie.

Just a coincidence, I guess.

JVH

Boy –

Did I get the wrong number, at least as far as Transcore is concerned. Frank Dittoe waylayed me as I was heading out at the end of the show and told me that they have a ton of locations where toll road tags are being used to activate parking garage gates. I was surprised because I thought it was Frank that told me that they had only a few, but that was probably five years ago and I haven't kept up.

I accused him of hiding his lamp under a bushel and he said that corporate would be coming out with a news release on this type of activity soon.

I must not spend enough time with certain technologies. Apologies to Transcore and any other group that has AVI based clearing house style operations associated with parking garages and toll roads.

I'm sure Frank and Co will get me the straight information soon and I will pass it along.

JVH

Jim Hunnicutt at the IPI

Had to stop the last entry to talk to Jim Hunnicutt who drop by to say hello. He accused me of being famous. I told him that he was the famous one, I was just notorious.

He is one of the original founders of the IPI. He said that when they had their first show, there were four companies who put their wares on card tables. They have come a long way, baby..He told me he had eleven operations last year. He said that, like Minnie Pearl, he was just glad to be here.

Jim laughed and said that technology has moved so far along that he's not sure what a lot of the things in this room do. A wonderful, charming man, Jim Hunnicutt.

JVH

Wow, Boomerang Systems

OK, I thought it was just another automated parking system, boy was I wrong. These guys make a system that is truly different, I think –

The garage is a standard concrete garage but with no ramps. There are little robots that scurry around under the cars following wires buried in the floor. They pick up and move cars as necessary.

Color me impressed.

Drop by their booth 1020 or look em up at www.boomerangsystems.com

JVH

The Show is Open

I'm blogging from the floor and listening to Carl Zabel in the next booth tell me about loop detectors. Interesting stuff. EDI is a Phoenix based company . Marcy and Joyce just walked back into the booth after having lunch, Barbara just took a picture of me live blogging.

So what's new? So far not a lot that I can see – There are a number of European companies here that I haven't seen much of before…they mostly sell revenue control systems. Someone said that its all about staying power – if they can make it a few years, maybe someone will buy their stuff.

ACS has an oxygen bar. All the hung over drunks are there trying to feel better.

I had a long conversation with someone who is a hanger on at Federal APD. (Not an employee but seems to always be about.

He was concerned that there aren't many, if any, US companies that are in the payment processing business. He felt that the parking business should be leading the pack in automated processing using AVI or the like. Only in a couple of cases are the tags used on toll roads accepted at parking garages but there are millions of tags out there, and it should be a relatively easy interface.

I noted that the problem usually isn't technical, but political. Toll roads control billions of dollars. They really don't want other companies in their back offices. Oh well, time will tell.

I'm going out to look around again and I'll get back to you with more. Lunch was good –make it yourself sandwiches.

JVH

Rumor control – All the way from the UK

I have it from a contact in the UK that Heathrow Airport will most likely award all of the parking services to one vendor (APCOA?) rather than break it into two competing contracts as it is now.

The Mile High Mixer and Attendance

Ok, Its Sunday AM – The mixer was last night. The IPI did a good job with this one. A lot of people in a small area, great for networking, gossip, and just chatting. The beer and wine didn't hurt either.

Shawn Conrad, the new IPI Executive Director made an appearance. He was gracious and took my groups ribbing with style.

The general discussion at this event, particularly among the vendors, was attendance. Everyone knows it will be down, the question is by how much. The economy has put a lot of pressure on the IPIs main source of attendees, municipalities and higher ed. However some that said they weren't coming did get approval at the last minute. We shall see. I'll ask Shawn when I see him today. He told the board that there were 1700 registered. I will confirm, and see if I can get a breakdown. The exhibitors as a group are nervous but they always are. Unfortunately this is out of the IPI's control. When the president of the US tells people they shouldn't "waste" money attending events like this, a lot of people listen.

Folks at the mixer were also talking about the show, the opening today, and as the evening progressed, the discussions got a tad more raucous. I left a bit before closing and spend a good hour and a half in the hotel bar discussing "demand management" and the lack of a piano player. The rest of PT's crew was missing in action until this morning. We are all moving with some care. A nice greasy breakfast will help

JVH

And on the Street

And on the Street

Walking back to the hotel I literally ran in to a very dear friend in the business, Thomas Braunwalder, head man at Magnetic in Germany. I then remembered what I liked so much about Thomas. It is his ability to talk on almost any subject, and actually know what he is talking about. He noted that Magnetic was really getting out of the systems business in parking. "We don't want to compete with our customers." He notes that many major manufacturers use their gates or components.

Magnetic did well last year and he expects to do better this year, even in the face of the economic issues. My experience is that if Thomas says it, it will be so.

As we were chatting, Larry Donoghue walked by with his lovely wife. He stopped for a moment and said "hello." Denver is definitely Parking Central

JVH

Where the Talk is at the IPI

It's not in the meeting rooms, it's in the bars, around the booths and even on the street. My afternoon was filled with parking, everywhere I went.

I walked through lobby of the Hyatt Regency, the main hotel for the conference, and ran in to half the Federal APD sales team, they were heading out for a sales conference. Jack Provencher of Federal was talking to Ruth Beaman of Integpark. Jack ran off to a meeting after Joe Wilson and Mark McNicholas hurried through spilling tidbits about 13 under being the winning number in the golf tourney and that Mark had won the "longest drive" trophy.

Ruth, her partner Kyle Cashion went into the bar for a soda, yes a soda, and were joined at one point or another by Robert Milner from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Rick Decker from Minneapolis St Paul Intl Airport, and Frank Del Monico, this year from Laz Parking. Everywhere you turned it was parking, parking, parking.

Robert , Frank, and Rick all had Blackberries and they went off with email simultaneously. It was Andy emailing them to be sure and check this blog and to check for the Show Daily news, that will be up tomorrow Morning. Now that's good press, guys.

Back at the set up, it was coming down to the wire. I found a "LUKE" P and D machine by Digital sitting in an aisle three away from their booth. It was heavy and I wondered how it got there. No one seemed to know, except that it was bound for Streetsmart where they have some sort of business relationship. Nineteen folks from the union showed up and it was moved. Now that's good work.

Someone noted that a couple of the booths were empty. I said not to worry, someone always shows up half an hour before opening and can't understand why people are yelling at them.

JVH

Golf Golf Golf

It's the national sport of Parking and the IPI is no exception. About 100 folks, many of whom are vendors, ventured to the local links to get in a fast 18 this morning before the show opened. It was a shotgun start with a scramble format. If you don't know what that means, you probably aren't interested in this anyway. Suffice it to say that everyone gets to start and finish about the same time and that it makes it more fair and fun for the best and worst of the players.

I spoke to a lot of friends there, I wasn't able to play cuz I'm back here doing this, but I did get some good conversations and promises for drinks assuming I'm at the right bar at the right time.

John Millet over at Austin Mohawk was telling me that business is good. I asked how he could sell on the west coast when he build his booths in New York. He said that it is strange but not unusual for BIG to install a booth near his office in New York and for him to install one in Southern California near BIG. He also said that a lot of the business is going to homeland security. It's not unusual for a booth to sell for over 100K. Of course he added, it had a lot of toys in it.

Tim Morris from WPS was standing there and looked at me when the 100K number came up – Heh, can you imagine putting in a bid with a booth that cost one hundred thousand. WOW

Frank DelMonico was there from Laz Parking and we were commiserating about the problems with the meter system in Chicago. He laughed and said that someone had a since of humor. They got the contract on Friday the 13^th and had to have a rate increase on April Fool's Day. He said that they had taken over only four hours when the city started to complain. I'm glad someone in that group kept their sense of humor.

All the regulars were there like Joe Wilson and Mike McNicholas from Federal, Tom Wunk from S and B, Derek Kiley from WPS, Peter Young from Digital Printing, and the normal cast of 1000s that play golf, have fun, and then tell lies about their game for the next year. I didn't play this year but in years past I have been fortunate to be in a foursome that won an award, that's of "Most Honest".

Sigh

JVH

First person we saw – and a great big bear

The first person Andy and I saw at the show was Bonnie Watts. She is the new IPI VP of Marketing which I hope means more money for her, she deserves it. She is the power behind this show and is doing a fantastic job. She was standing outside the front door to the exhibit hall leaning on that big blue bear the folks here in Colorado have standing next to the front windows.

She looked fine, as usual, and told us she needed a bit of a break and some air. I can understand that. Andy tells me that when the show is on (when he is running PIE), he would give anything for just a minute or two to take a breath and turn off his cell phone, and relax. I think Bonnie was taking that break.

The bear is wonderful. It's a grizzly, about 40 feet tall and in proportion. It's standing on its hind legs and has its front paws on the glass, looking curiously into the main entry arcade of the center.

Check out all the pre show pictures in the Exhibition Show Daily which will be up at our web site, www.parkingtoday.com beginning tomorrow (Sunday) morning about 5 AM. I just finished most of the first edition and we have some good stuff about the crazy IPI roadrunners up here (Andy is a member), the golf tourney, pix of the setup, and stories about the exhibitor and gossip about what's happening. Oh, and there a good summary of the keynote speech.

JVH

And I mean senior people are involved

I just spoke to Tom Wunk and Jeff Sparrow at S and B, Dave Witts at Metric, Chris Fuchs at Magnetic, Wolfgang Stanek at Hectronic, and they were all up to their necks in setup. Of courses Derek Kiley at WPS wasn't there, but Tim Morris told me this was the first time he had EVER set up a booth. He WAS a dealer, now a direct employee of WPS. Well, there you go. Ollie Haas is moving crates at Secom, Ted is still on the plane.

Its hard to tell the players without a name tag. Those will go on tomorrow when the show opens. I need those tags – My memory for names is horrible.

JVH

IPI Blogging – Show Set up Underway

Its chaos in the exhibit hall – 180 companies, some with a simple table and a couple of brochures, but others with 1000 square foot booths (Scheidt and Bachmann) with ultra modern signage and ways to display their wares.

Right now, as of noon Saturday, things are still pretty rough – I would say its about 50% set up, with technicians and salespersons in work clothes lifting that barge and toting the bale. There are fork lifts roaring up and down the aisles, but the drivers are good – no one has been hit yet.

You can smell the exhaust, its not the same as a car, as these guys run on LNG. I think that means that the exhaust won't kill you. But I'm not sure.

Our booth is a stack of tables and chairs – we are waiting for our matriarch, Pat to arrive. She will position everything and we will be on the air. We have high speed internet in the booth so we will be live blogging from the floor beginning when the show opens tomorrow.

JVH

Live Blogging at the IPI

We are off tomorrow to Denver and Parking's Big Event, the IPI show. The vendors are all ready, with new products, news releases, and plenty of gossip for me. We understand that the economy may have affected attendance a bit, but not to worry, if you aren't going, you can follow all the action right here.

First of all, I will be live blogging from the floor, and later from the hotel with my impressions. So you may want to check here a couple of times a day to keep up to date.

PLUS…we will be producing our "IPI Daily Exhibition News." It's a virtual magazine published three times during the show (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday). We will have real time articles, news releases, ads, and information about what's happening at the IPI show. Andy will be sending you a reminder each day that it is "up" on our web site. You can read it just like you can read the virtual PT. Want to practice – check this out

Parking Today (and JVH) takes you to Denver. Check out our coverage beginning Sunday at www.parkingtoday.com

JVH

Helicopter Landing Pads…

 I know you're tired of talking about parking. I am too!  So let's talk about helicopter landing pads. You own a helicopter, right?

There are a lot of different costs associated with helicopter landing pads; cost to the individual, cost to the places providing landing pads, and cost to society as a whole.  Let's pretend you're a university professor that's lucky enough to own a helicopter.

You decide to fly your helicopter to work, and you're up there circling around looking for a helicopter landing pad. You have to keep circling, because you can't find one.  But, hey, you can afford the gas.  So you circle and circle, and finally give up and fly back home and take the
bus to work.  You then spend the rest of the day posting angry emails about the lack of helicopter landing pads, and how angry you are that you had to waste your time riding a bus.

The next day to go to fill up your helicopter, and find out that the rising demand for fuel has driven the cost up. Not enough to keep you from flying, but certainly up enough to keep some of your co-workers from flying into work. 

Frustrated with you're inability to find a landing pad on campus, you pay a local farmer to allow you to land in his field.  Problem solved right?

The next day, you go to the market and find that the price of food is up, because the supply of food is down.  It's up so high you can't afford food, rent on your landing space, and helicopter fuel. Something's got to give, so you cut back on fuel cost by forming a helicopter pool.  Geez, what a pain in the behind!  Calling all you friends, and even people you only know by name, trying to arrange and coordinate a helicopter pool. 

So you get into work and you find out that the university is caving in to your protest. They are going to provide you with free access to a helicopter landing pad.  Whoo Hoo! A free benefit from the university!  The university uses eminent domain to take the farmers land and builds a landing pad.

Now you can fly your helicopter to work anytime you want!  Of course, only the people rich enough to afford a helicopter and fuel get to enjoy this benefit.  If they can't afford a helicopter, they get nothing.  Sorry, but that's just the way it is.

The next day, you fly your helicopter to work and land on the pad.  Boy that sure saved you a lot of time!  You check your email and find that, due to increased capitol cost, the university is cutting salaries.  Not just the salaries of the people that fly helicopters, but the salaries of
everyone.

No big deal to you, you can still make you helicopter payments. So you fly into work the next day and start writing about how evil the university is for cutting the salaries of people that can't even afford a helicopter!

Then you notice that your health insurance premiums are going up.  It seems that there has been an increase in the number of people seeking treatment for asthma.   Health officials think it's linked to increased air pollution.

So you spend the day complaining about how evil the university is for increasing premiums on people that can't even afford a helicopter!  Then you fly your helicopter home.

So, fuel costs are up, food cost are up, salaries are down, and there's a thick layer of smog over the campus, and some of the lower paid employees of the university can't afford to pay their bills. But look at the bright side.

At least you don't have to waste your time riding a bus or putting together a helicopter pool.  And you get to use the helicopter landing pad for free!

-Kevin Werner, WKU, with a Special thanks to Donald Shoup, via the CPark-L List server