Board Perspective

As society looks at the pandemic in the rearview mirror, the parking and mobility industry did not escape the disruptive impacts. Our industry saw garages nearly emptied, suspension of meter enforcement, quiet quitting, difficulties in retaining and hiring all positions, whether union or non-union, and all transactions going contactless. Vital curb space was being utilized for extended seating capacity for local businesses, and most urban centers saw a major move to remote working. In some severe cases, a mandate ordering residents to shelter at home and a complete shutdown of air travel.

It would have been easy to accept this phenomenon as outside our control and just hold the line. Instead, the parking and mobility industry decided to go on the offensive and be proactive to help define our outcome.

IPMI took the lead by ensuring its membership stayed connected. They offered free webinars, shop talks, the online Forum community group, and the daily blog.

I believe that a crisis does not define us but can make us stronger as an industry if we work together to determine and reshape our future. This is the case as the parking and mobility industry joined forces; they ensured that our industry would return stronger and better than ever.

Municipalities, universities, and airports heard from their customers and then collaborated with vendors to address the concerns of our industry’s end users. The vendors heard from us and our end users: the answer is technology. While technology was always in the distance for our industry, the pandemic expedited the rollout by years.

The first change in our industry that enabled us to stay connected was using Zoom and Teams meetings. In Pittsburgh, we satisfied our customers’ major concerns by working with our vendors to install contactless transactions at our garage facilities and manned lots. We added additional phone apps to give our customers other payment options. We created a new website that provided portals for residential parking permits (RPP) and monthly leases, eliminating the need for in-person transactions. We expanded the use of handheld and mobile LPR enforcement to reduce our interactions with the public. We also added still cameras to our off-street surface lots for enforcement.

The big game-changer will come with the implementation of tickets by mail—a process well ahead of its time before the pandemic. This innovative technology will make Pittsburgh more efficient with fewer resources. The Authority will cover approximately 50% more zones per day with the rollout of tickets by mail.

As a result of the last three years of challenges, Pittsburgh is a much better place thanks to the implementation of technology that may have otherwise taken us years to roll out. We strongly believe that we will be defined by our actions and not by outside distractions if we confront them head-on.

While we have advanced the use of technology, we still have a long road ahead, but Pittsburgh’s future, and the future of parking and mobility as an industry, is looking bright as we continue to enhance our end users’ parking experience.

Thank you to all that have assisted us in our recent journey. ◆