INTRODUCTION: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN PARKING: THE ART OF TAMING BIG DATA

Every time a car enters a parking facility, it leaves a trail. A data trail that is. A gate goes up to let a car in, a payment is made, a gate goes up again to let it exit, time and date the car entered and exited, how much the driver paid, the method of payment, and so forth were measured.

When the parking serves a huge flow of traffic, as is the case for an airport or a hospital parking lot, this data trail becomes big. How big? As big as “Big Data”, the relatively new term that refers to the gathering and storing of large amounts of information for analysis.

Of the business leaders polled, 85% said they believed big data will dramatically change the way they do business. The statistics support their perception – data volumes are expected to double every 1.2 years. Another fact, businesses using data analytics are five times more likely to make faster decisionsⁱ.

Big data can produce big returns for businesses. Nowadays, Big Data is a “big” deal, the “new oil” of the digital economy. But big data is a challenge, because of the amount and complexity of data being mined, the high speed and complexities of data flows which can be unpredictable, and the fact that data comes from multiple sources, which makes it difficult to link, match, and transform across systems.

Data, on its own, is worthless. Many organizations are hitting stumbling blocks trying to tame it: part of the problem is the fact that the majority of companies spend 80% of their time manually collecting data for analysis, which leads to inaccuracies. Poor data or ‘lack of understanding the data’ are cited as the primary reasons for over budget projects and could cost…

By Bill Smith

We live in a time of great change when it comes to parking. The industry has been revolutionized in recent years by the development of many new technologies that are designed to make parking more customer-friendly, while at the same time benefitting owners and operators by making operations more manageable. These technological advances have transformed the ways owners and operators manage their parking assets, and they’ve even changed the ways drivers approach parking.

Today, we are on the cusp of another technological revolution that will carry extraordinary implications for the parking industry. The age of connected and self-driving vehicles will soon be in full bloom and each will present a host of challenges and opportunities. While these future vehicles may seem like the stuff of science fiction, it won’t be long before each plays an important role in our transportation system.

Getting Connected

The connected vehicle is already well on its way to becoming a reality. In just a few years all new cars will have vehicle infrastructure communications and will be connected to the grid. Our vehicles will be able to communicate with traffic technology and recommend which routes to take to avoid congestion and reach our destinations more quickly. They will also take us right to available parking spaces and automatically pay for the exact amount of time we need to park.

According to Nigel Bullers, CEO of EasyPark in Vancouver, the primary challenge for operators and municipal parking managers is forecasting what future connected cars will be able to do. He says that, ultimately, there will need to be a meeting of the minds between what auto manufacturers think their smart cars should do and what consumers actually want.

“It’s not as easy as it may seem to predict what features will be present and how operators and municipalities…

By Renee Smith

Data breaches are a constant worry for any business that accepts credit card payments. Over the past decade breaches have become increasingly common, and some of the world’s best known companies, including Home Depot, Target, and TJX, have been the targets of sophisticated attacks through which millions of customers have had their personal and credit data compromised. The sad reality of modern life is that any type of personal or financial data that is obtained electronically and transmitted or stored online is potentially at risk. 

The parking industry is not immune to this risk. In fact, now that credit card payment is the dominant and preferred form of payment at most parking facilities, parking owners and operators—both public and private—must be particularly vigilant about protecting customers’ financial data.

The credit card industry, through the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), established a framework to help merchants (including parking owners and operators) protect data. The Council has established the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which is a set of requirements designed to assure that all companies that process, store, or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.

On April 28, 2016 PCI SSC released PCI DSS version 3.2, which replaces version 3.1, to address a growing number of threats to customer payment information. This version becomes effective on February 1, 2018. On May 27, 2016, PCI SSC released PA DSS version 3.2, which becomes effective on June 1, 2016. Until their respective effective dates, parking owners and operators should look to these standards as best practices that can help protect their organizations and their patrons.

What do the newest details of PCI DSS v 3.2 adherence entail? Organizations are subject to two significant new requirements. First, they will need to implement a change control process. Second,…

By Bill Smith

The parking industry is in the midst of what may be its most exciting era. We have seen a lot of change over the past fifty-plus years, including major advances in parking design, planning, and management. These innovations have transformed our communities and improved the quality of life immeasurably. But no period in the parking industry’s history has seen so much exciting change.

What’s so exciting? The technology age that is so important to our everyday lives is transforming parking. New technologies are constantly being introduced to the marketplace, from pay-by-phone technology to online reservation services to innovative facility management packages, just to name a few. Each offers to make parking more customer-friendly, efficient, manageable, or profitable.

But perhaps the most important technologies revolve around parking guidance. Parking guidance tools use sensors to record whether a particular space is occupied. This information is then transmitted to LED signs that guide drivers directly to available spaces. Sensor-based systems also typically have the ability to compile occupancy data to allow parking owners and operators to manage their parking assets more efficiently and profitably.

Clear Benefits

“Guidance systems move motorists into parking spaces quickly and reduce congestion throughout a facility,” according to Shareena Sandbrook, managing director from FrogParking Ltd. “This has benefits for customers in different ways. For example shopping mall operators need to maximize the time customers are in retail areas to boost revenues. While for airports, the goal is to make parking easy and efficient for people hurrying to catch flights. A guidance system shows them quickly, at a glance, where parking spots are available.”

And that’s also the appeal to parkers. Parking guidance systems eliminate the need for drivers to circle parking decks looking for an open space. As soon as a driver approaches a parking structure with a guidance program, exterior signage…

Integrating digital technologies into dynamic parking management

By Indigo

Introduction: THE NEW MOBILITY

As a symbol of freedom, mobility, and autonomy, the automobile has changed the shape of our cities and suburbs, yet in the past century, it has evolved beyond our expectations.

Cars now come equipped with advanced hardware that can avoid collisions, they can be self-driving, and yet the great paradox is that a typical car spends most of its time immobile. A car is parked on average 95% of the time, when it is not stuck in a traffic jam.

The digital revolution, a major upheaval caused by technological advances, primarily computers and the Internet, has placed us in an era of accelerating change.

In industrialized countries, this change has shaken several sectors of the economy. While cars become sophisticated enough to be self-driving, and as automakers become mobility providers, cities become smarter by using and integrating new technologies to meet the challenges of the modern city: transportation, governance, and citizen services, to name a few.

Traffic congestion ranks high on the list of evils that afflict urban areas. It increases greenhouse gas emissions and is largely responsible for the smog in big cities. The search for available parking is, in part, largely responsible for congestion – 90% of city motorists lose up to 20 minutes a day looking for a parking space, by slowly circulating, or by immobilizing traffic to parallel park.

With the emergence of “smart” parking, solutions such as nested technologies in the roadway and parking areas, and connections to new mobile tools are being put in place.

The technological solutions to make parking more fluid, by eliminating traffic obstacles, and customizing and facilitating the driver’s experience exist.

But the growing digital revolution has seen the emergence of a large number of contenders for the next “unicorn”, technological start-ups that disrupt sectors of the…

By David Poole

In a program involving 13 hospital parkades in Calgary and Red Deer, Alberta Health Services (AHS) upgraded old HID lighting to LED technology, creating an annual cost savings of almost $250,000, while bringing light levels to current standards, and improving the overall quality of illumination.

Illumination in many covered or underground hospital parking lots in Alberta is provided by a mixture of HID (High Intensity Discharge – typically metal halide or high pressure sodium) and fluorescent T8 lighting. Lighting levels varied greatly, from very dim in some cases, to illuminated well beyond current standards for parkade lighting in others. In a retrofit and redesign program, funded by AHS Parking Services department, thirteen parkades were selected for a change-over to LED lighting technology. It should be noted that AHS Parking Services is an ancillary operation and is committed to providing an operation that is sustainable, effective and efficient. With this in mind, the project included a redesign of the lighting, and the use of motion and ambient daylight sensors in order to provide adequate light at all times and further reduce energy consumption and costs.

Project Details

Alberta Health Services engaged a lighting consultant to provide tender documents for the upgraded lighting system and provide pre and post electrical measurements in order to verify the savings. The consultant utilized the current Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) recommendations to redesign the parkade lighting. The lighting consultant and AHS worked together to evaluate a number of LED lighting products in order to provide an acceptable number of approved products based on a number of factors including performance, quality, warranty, history, etc.

A total of 4895 fixtures were affected by this project. The simplest upgrade consisted of replacing existing fluorescent T8 tubes with LED tubes of equal length but reduced wattage, using the…

By Ruth Beaman

Technology is transforming parking. New equipment is constantly being introduced: access and revenue control equipment, apps for mobile devices, wayfinding technologies – the list goes on and on. However, as important as technology has come to be, one of the most important aspects of parking management is still stuck in the dark ages. Most owners and operators still haven’t automated their accounting and auditing functions.

In the beginning, parking was a relatively informal and low-tech industry, at least when it came to how it was managed. There’s a common caricature of the early parking operator: cigar in mouth, collecting parking fees and storing them in a cigar box until it was time to go to the bank. As quaint as this image may seem, it’s actually pretty accurate. The problem is, it’s not all that far off today. No, parking operators don’t still keep their money in cigar boxes, at least most don’t. But when it comes to accounting and auditing, most are still living in the past: collecting their receipts, entering parking and revenue data by hand, and hoping reconciliation finds that they’ve ended up with all the money they should. (more…)

By Ariane Sabourin and Brian J. Hall

In the context of environmental impact, the choice of construction products and building systems is significant, and is continuing to grow in importance. In 2013, the building and transportation sectors combined for an estimated 256 Mt or 35% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. Emission intensive industries accounted for an estimated 76Mt, or 11% (Globe and Mail, January 23, 2016).  Selecting a product, brand, or building system will determine the resources used, pollution created, carbon dioxide emitted and waste generated – preference impacts more than just style, function, performance and cost. (more…)

By Ellise Gasner

Times are positively evolving and the focus on sustainability is being embraced by various industries worldwide.

The Parking industry is fortunate that sustainable parking surface alternatives are readily available, easy to incorporate and affordable. Permeable parking has been the norm for our European neighbours for well over two decades and is now becoming widely incorporated throughout North America. (more…)

Parking lots are assets that serve as entrances to city areas and businesses, from commercial stores and plazas to industrial and government buildings. There are two general classes of parking lots, secondary and primary. Secondary being those lots which serve as an access point to a primary business, such as a store or plaza, and primary being those lots which are not attached to any specific business and function solely as a standalone parking garage, such as in a downtown core. However all classes of parking lot serve the same customer, human beings, and the parking lots success depends on a model developed with the human customer in mind. People prefer clean parking lots that feel safe, one that is well maintained physically and structurally, looks appealing in general, and overall is a secure facility in which to leave their car and valuables. There are many ways that new technologies can aid in parking lots, not just to please their human customers, but to also reduce costs, increase revenues, lower liabilities, and improve overall efficiency. Autonomous vehicles, robotics, and artificial intelligence will play an important role in the future of the parking industry.

A well maintained, secure, and safe parking lot is very important to the success of the lot itself as well as the main business it serves. If the lot is classified as a primary parking lot, then it will keep customers coming back and not going to the competition. In the case of secondary parking lots, it is the first impression a customer gets of the business they have ventured to, and the lot is basically an extension of that business. In either case, a happy customer is more likely to spend money and keep coming back, which of course will generate more revenue for the business…