What is Big Data, and How Do We Use It

Big Data is a term that can be very perplexing to those outside the tech community but has many meanings in the operational environment. The University of Wisconsin attempts to generalize this term as “the exponential increase and availability of data in our world.” However, Tech Target defines Big Data as “a combination of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data collected by organizations that can be mined for information and used in machine learning projects, predictive modeling, and other advanced analytics applications.” The coronavirus pandemic illuminated the importance of understanding Big Data as parking and transportation professionals increasingly relied on information to make data-driven operational decisions. As the industry recovered from the pandemic, the question arose about how parking professionals operationalize this data in real-time. This became a topic of interest at conferences over the past three years, where professionals held shop talks, webinars, and learning labs to produce the best data management practices. 

Digital Transformation of Parking Operations

This question has many unknowns, but this article will provide insight into the future of the parking industry and shed light on emerging data management trends. Since the pandemic, Big Data has been used to manage parking operations, from hiring to curb management. Plenty of data aggregators have entered the parking space closing the digital divide and bringing a sense of equality in access to Big Data. The change in data use by parking operations, fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to the inevitable digital transformation of the traditional parking operation. However, the ambiguity of the term “digital transformation” has led to its misapplication regarding the future of the parking industry. The Harvard Business Review defines “digital transformation” as using digital technologies to create new or improved business processes, products, or services. With this definition in mind, technologies such as license plate reader (LPR) systems, digital payment platforms, parking sensors, artificial intelligence camera systems (SaaS), and other technologies are used to streamline traditional parking operations.

The integration of these technologies is the catalyst for the transition of the parking industry from the traditional brick-and-mortar model to the digital era. For example, pre-COVID many parking operations still used physical cashiers, ticket booths, and manual car count systems, leaving room for human error. Although a small demographic of progressive parking agencies had begun to ascend into the digital era, the majority remained in this past time under the guise of providing clients with low overhead operational costs instead of pursuing innovation and technological advancement. This notion was not only premised on a cost analysis but also from the human capital perspective. Pre-COVID salaries had reminded stagnant for decades, and little was required from field operators in parking agencies; it was considered a “good-ole” blue-collar position that only required explicit knowledge and valued years of specific expertise. Fast forward to post-COVID-19, the challenges presented by the pandemic have forced parking operators to adopt new technology and embrace the importance of Big Data in decision-making. This change in business operations has spurred the question of how parking and transportation professionals can effectively manage and operationalize data sets in the new digital era created by the coronavirus pandemic.

Effectively Managing New Forms of Data 

Data management is not a term that is taken lightly by any organization inside or outside our beloved parking industry. This has been a topic of conversation for many professionals over the past decade, but only recently has it become a point of concern in the parking industry because of hiring shortages, consumer choice changes, and increased demand. These challenges have changed how firms do business, creating a higher reliance on Big Data. Data is now becoming a lifeline for making operational decisions, driving sales, and improving the customer experience. This has illuminated the importance of shifting the organizational culture from a traditional “hands-on approach” to one that supports the digitalization of processes and decision-making. There are numerous approaches to facilitate this change that firms have practiced in the public and private sectors. However, a commonality in all the approaches is that they are premised on what some call the “four major pillars of data management.” Orion Innovation lists these pillars as Strategy and Governance, Data Standards, Integration, and Quality. 

• Strategy and Governance are one of the most critical components of embracing a digital transformation. The crux of data-driven decision-making is creating a strategy that dictates how a firm collects, cleans, reconciles, and manages its data. The strategy also governs how the firm will convert the data into analytics that can be used to develop actionable insights. This process should be uniform and consistent across the organization to ensure aggregated results are measurable and repeatable. 
• Data Standards are used to describe data and document structures. More specifically, these standards indicate how data should be stored or exchanged across systems. This includes labeling data type, identifiers, format schema, or application programming interface (API). Producing data according to certain specifications increases accessibility and transparency in data collection. These standards allow for the reuse of data, reduced redundancy, and enhanced reliability of data sets at a lower cost. 
• Data Integration is another critical aspect of data management. Data integration is aggregating multiple data sources into a singular view of the data set. This can be accomplished using external third-party aggregators or internally using Microsoft BI, Tableau, or other off-the-shelf products. Data integration is vital to retaining a competitive advantage in the digital era. This holds especially true when managing big data that exhibits a large volume, velocity, and variety. This is an essential step in facilitating a digital transformation because it is the foundation of the interoperability between applications, businesses, and external organizations. 
• Data Quality is paramount to data management and the success of implementing a data management plan. Data quality is determined by the degree to which data meets a company’s accuracy, validity, completeness, and consistency expectations. Data quality is fundamental to business leaders making accurate and informed decisions. Designing systems and implementing procedures to maintain data accuracy increases its quality. These processes and controls are the baselines for digitalizing your operation and using data effectively. 

Emerging Trends in Technology and Data Utilization by Parking and Transportation Agencies 

Over the past three years, Big Data has become increasingly prevalent in the parking industry. Smart parking technologies are a growing market designed to automate monotonous tasks using applications such as payment management, valet parking management, occupancy sensor technology, camera-based sensor technology, and LPR systems. Furthermore, this technology enhances security, allowing operators to blacklist and whitelist certain vehicles, capture license plate information, and monitor vehicular traffic without needing a physical presence onsite. This has led to substantial growth in three main core areas of smart parking technology across different segments of the parking industry that provide practitioners access to large amounts of data. 

• Smart meters and digital payment platforms are essential components of the parking ecosystems in the urban core of large metropolitans. Smart meters (i.e., pay-by-plate systems) are multifunctional hardware enabling parking operators to track real-time occupancy by integrating payment machines, sensor technology, and mobile applications. Smart meter technology represented 40% of the market in 2022. Their integration with mobile payment platforms makes them a robust payment solution because it expands their ability to capture and provide vast amounts of data to parking operators in real-time. Integrated payment solutions are becoming more common in the parking industry, replacing traditional singular dimension coin parking meters across the country at airports and on-street in metered spaces. These technologies have multiple benefits, which have aided in a rise in use, such as enhanced customer experience, reduced wait times at exit, and higher revenue capture rates or compliance. 
• Camera and LPR technologies have emerged as a leading Software as a Service (SaaS), providing frictionless parking experience in gated and non-gated parking facilities. Each of these solutions offers a distinct benefit for practitioners that have become increasingly important since the digital transition of parking operations in the post-COVID-19 era. With the evolution of AI models, camera detection systems have become a popular solution for monitoring lot occupancy. In addition to occupancy data, the system is dynamic and can act in the capacity of a security function. Variations of camera systems have been piloted across the parking industry to understand the best method to collect and analyze data remotely. However, challenges persist in identifying viable power sources for the many cameras needed to provide accurate and robust data. License plate recognition systems have been used to bridge this gap because they require a single location and shared power source for each entrance and exit in the parking facility. LPR systems have the flexibility to act in fixed or mobile capacity increasing enforcement accuracy and providing large volumes of data to practitioners. This technology turns real-time insights into data visualizations and reporting used to make strategic decisions on pricing and enforcement activities. Furthermore, it provides a seamless customer experience at your facility and reduces overhead costs eliminating the need for onsite personnel, tickets, etc.  
• Parking Guidance and Analytics solutions have also made their way into the digitization movement providing insights into facility occupancy. Parking guidance systems continue to gain traction because of their dual-purpose use in reducing traffic congestion by directing vehicles to available spaces and providing invaluable occupancy data with 90- 98% accuracy. The appeal of this software is the relatively low installation cost and its ability to transmit real-time data to the end user via mobile applications, digital signs, analytic solutions, etc. The different systems produce high volumes of data that can be turned into valuable insights using third parking aggregators. Strategically using this data to make decisions is a proven tool that has been used to maximize parking revenue streams and increases site staffing efficiency. Additionally, data analytics programs have grown substantially in the parking industry because of the need to pilot new technologies to solve problems such as curb management, dynamic pricing, targeted enforcement, etc., that currently plague parking organizations. 

Future of the Parking Industry

The future direction of the parking industry is ambiguous at best. Since the pandemic, parking and transportation professionals have been continuously tasked with developing best practices and piloting new technologies to solve industry problems. This has led to an influx of new technologies being deployed quickly to mitigate the changes in the industry. This has sparked a paradigm shift in the future of the parking industry, leading to in-depth discussions on the changes in the required human capital skillset for front-line employees, strategic application of technology in field operations, and the importance of creating a culture that cultivates data-driven decision-making.

The following section aims to close the gap by presenting a robust set of recommendations to address each point:

• Over the past three years, human capital skill sets have become a focal point of conversations between parking and transportation specialists. Human capital refers to the economic value of an employee’s skills and education. This includes assets like education, training, intelligence, skills, health, and other things employers value, such as loyalty and punctuality. Front-line personnel must have the skills to operate complex technology and draw accurate insights to foster better decision-making. The digital transformation of traditional parking operations continues to reveal the importance of closing the digital divide in the workforce. The role of the front-line worker has evolved, and data has become increasingly important when making decisions regarding parking rates, staffing, occupancy, etc., that impact the efficiency of the operation. Employers should expand employee development programs and re-evaluate position requirements to ensure the workforce is keeping pace with the new trend in technology use by parking organizations.
• A workforce with the appropriate skill set is the fulcrum of the strategic application of technologies in field operations. The strategic application of technology is how businesses integrate and use technology to meet business goals. Investing in LPR, parking guidance systems, camera technologies, etc., provides parking organizations with a competitive advantage in the new business environment. As organizations increasingly focus on efficiency, price optimization, and revenue maximization, technology has become a long-awaited savior providing parking professionals the information necessary to make strategic decisions in real-time from remote locations. This is a far cry from the traditional model that depended on physical employees to relay information to leadership and wait for decisions to come down the chain of command to implement. The strategic application of technology has become the lifeline as the industry continues to recover from the immense impact of the pandemic. To stimulate the growth of the digital transformation of parking operations, practitioners should continue to pilot and implement new technology to solve problems. Advanced technology is the foundation of collecting pertinent data vital to changing our decisions in the operational environment.
• Collecting and analyzing data is fundamental to a firm’s digital transformation. It unlocks the parking professional’s ability to make real-time data-driven decisions. Developing internal platforms or using third-party aggregators is the key to successfully utilizing data to achieve a competitive advantage in the market. Big Data is highly complex data sets described partly by its sheer volume, velocity, and variety. Parking professionals should identify and implement platforms to transform the data gathered by different technologies into valuable insights that support informed decision-making. Further, practitioners should develop a company culture that cultivates including data in decision-making. This can be accomplished by providing specialized training, developing robust analytics packages, articulating the importance of using analytics, making data readily available, and developing meaningful metrics. 

In Conclusion, the expansion in technology use and data availability have shed light on the value of data in the operational environment. The sheer size and magnitude of data available should be considered in discussions on the implications of data and technology on the future of the parking industry. As parking and transportation professionals, we must remember how our company manages data, our current human capital capacity, how and when we apply technology, impact the digital transition of our company, and how our employees embrace big data.