Circling for parking creates congestion and frustrates both drivers and parking and mobility professionals. What step or steps do you think can be taken to reduce the phenomenon and help people find parking without the circles?
Keith Hutchings
Director, Municipal Parking Department
City of Detroit
The City of Detroit redeployed its “ParkDetroit” application in December 2021 to provide the consumer with awareness of public and private parking availability and pricing. The service promotes the ability to purchase or reserve parking sessions with a single platform. Mobility options will be added in early 2022. The application is scaled to expand inclusion of multiple municipalities in the metropolitan Detroit region, including the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
Tiffany Peebles
Director
Parking Authority of River City, Ky.
Technology is our best friend to navigate the challenges of finding parking. Developing websites, apps, or partnerships with wayfinding solutions can assist parkers in improving their chances of locating available spaces as they arrive to their destinations.
Ben Wesley, CAPP
Market President, Nashville
Premium Parking
Simple solutions are most often the best solutions. Circling decreases when the public are given a venue and event webpage that shows the closest parking locations and occupancy, which syncs with a native payment app, which gives directions and real-time occupancy/availability, measured by sensor and/or crowdsourced feedback. Street-level signage for additional transparency into occupancy/availability aids in guiding the car to rest in the stall and getting the parker on their way to enjoy the real reason for their trip.
Larry J. Cohen, CAPP
Executive Director
Lancaster Parking Authority
Operations and technology will continue to play a critical role in reducing vehicles circling the block looking for space. For operations, follow best practices and try to maintain 20 percent availability per block at all times. This can be done through effective on- and off-street pricing strategies. Mobile apps, sensors, navigation platforms, and in-car guidance systems are moving toward not only providing available garage space but on-street space based in real time.
Casey Jones, CAPP, PMP
Director, Customer Success
FLASH
Cities are getting smarter—consumers are tech savvy but parking is still too often an afterthought. Mobile parking reservations, for example, will go a long way in improving the predictability parkers want while reducing endless searching for parking that needlessly exacerbates congestion.
Roamy R. Valera, CAPP
CEO, North America
PayByPhone
Visibility to accurate data is key to addressing and managing traffic congestion caused by the search of a parking space. When there is clear visibility to parking environments, users will manage to find their way, transact with less friction, and ultimately get to their destination.
Katherine Beaty
VP Implementation
TEZ Technology
In the future I think this will be solved by having our vehicles linked into parking so that when you arrive to a particular destination, your vehicle will ask you if you want parking and then direct you to where the open space(s) are located and inform you of the rate and pay for it all within your vehicle. The vehicle will be the next “smartphone”.
Erik Nelson, PCIP
Director of Operations and Technology Consulting
Walker Consultants
Communication is the key to parking happiness and reducing circling. Since parking does not self-generate demand, the entities that do generate that parking demand should be communicating parking availability. Technology and sound operating practices can help with the rest by measuring and reporting on parking availability in a way that is easily interpreted by users of the parking. Additionally, TDM policies can help to reduce single-occupant vehicle usage.
Scott C. Bauman, CAPP
Manager of Parking & Mobility Services
City of Aurora, Colo.
Unnecessary circling can be minimized if cities can successfully leverage emerging technologies to manage and optimize the supply and demand of parking in real time. Employing on-demand solutions to eliminate the critical information gap of knowing where and when a parking space is available is essential. In addition, removing the economic incentive to circle by pricing the on-street stalls noticeably higher than the off-street offerings can create a meaningful impact on congestion and overall parking availability.
James Anderson
Market Development Manager, Building Solutions Teams
MBCC Group
On-street meter pricing strategies coupled with wayfinding apps and parking location signage are means of directing the driving public to safe and convenient parking.
The circling for parking space phenomenon can also be minimized by efficient design and identification of street drop-off and pick-up locations for TNC ride sharing services.
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The opinions and thoughts expressed by the contributors do not necessarily reflect the opinions and viewpoints of the International Parking & Mobility Institute or the official policies of IPMI.
