Becoming a Smart City. Why cities choose Smart Parking solutions from Streetline

Becoming a Smart City Why cities choose Smart Parking solutions from Streetline

Contents Parking: One of the Great Unsolved City Problems... 3 And, it s Not Getting Better Any Time Soon... 3 Cities Want to Make Smarter Decisions... 4 Information Can Help... 6 There s an Opportunity to Innovate... 6 Streetline: Providing New and Better Services to the Citizen... 6 A Reduction in Congestion Means Economic Growth... 7 Using Parking Management to Revitalize Cities... 7 Streetline: the Leader in Smart Parking... 8 Bibliography... 9 2

The global gridlock crisis will stifle economic growth and our ability to deliver food and healthcare [and] our quality of life will be significantly compromised. 1 Bill Ford Executive Chairman, Ford Motor Company Parking: One of the Great Unsolved City Problems There is no such thing as free parking. According to Mark Delucchi of the University of California at Davis, Americans spend as much to subsidize off-street parking as we do on Medicare or national defense 2. It s estimated that 99% of parking in the United States is free, while the true costs of parking (i.e. construction, maintenance, etc.) are passed along to consumers, employees and taxpayers via increased higher prices for goods and services, reduced wages and higher taxes. 3 Moreover, the additional driving encouraged by free parking increases traffic congestion, air pollution and accidents. To fuel this extra driving, we import more oil, and pay for it with borrowed money. In most cities, the demand for curbside parking far exceeds the supply. In cities like New York, this is especially the case with curbside parking that is free or priced 10 to 15 times less than garage rates 4. As a result of this mismatch, bargain-seeking drivers waste an average of 3 14 minutes looking for parking. Once they find these coveted spaces, they do their best to stay put. The saturation of cheap or free curbside parking causes traffic congestion, wasted gas and increased carbon emissions. Cheap street parking encourages people to drive solo rather than carpool, walk, bike, or take public transportation which means more people on the roads and more traffic looking for parking. These issues impact not only our environment, but also a city s economy and quality of life for its residents. And, it s Not Getting Better Any Time Soon As the global population continues to grow at a steady pace, more and more people are moving to cities at an even faster pace. As a result, the number of cars on the road is expected to grow exponentially. 2 Ostrow, Adam, CNN. March 3, 2011. How we ll beat traffic and find parking spots in the future http://www.cnn.com/2011/tech/ innovation/03/03/parking.future.mashable/index.html 2 CMAP 2040. Impacts of Parking Strategies. http://www.cmap.illinois. gov/strategy-papers/parking/impacts-of-parking-strategies 3 Donald Shoup, The High Cost of Free Parking. APA Planners Press, 2005 4 2008. Driven to Excess: What Under-priced Curbside Parking Costs the Upper West Side. New York: Transportation Alternatives. Available at www.transalt.org/files/newsroom/reports/driven_to_excess.pdf Global Population Passenger Cars City Dwellers Today Future 6 billion 9 billion (2044) 800 million 2 3 billion (2050) 50% of population (3 billion) 60% of population (5 billion in 2030) Today, cities consume over three-quarters of the world s energy and produce about 80% of the world s carbon emissions. 5 According to a 2011 report by Harvard Business School (HBS), Research has shown that reducing transportation congestion and improving the availability of water contribute to economic growth and improved competitiveness. Despite these facts, city managers recognize that the demand for services is increasing at a faster rate than services can be delivered. Unless changes are made, the quality of life in cities will decline. 6 Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman Bill Ford agrees. Ford believes the answer to this crisis is not to build more roads, but to build a smarter transportation system that makes use of real-time data and connected cars. Ford predicts that the global gridlock crisis will stifle economic growth and our ability to deliver food and healthcare [and] our quality of life will be significantly compromised. Some argue that additional parking will result in more traffic because more vehicles will travel into the city. However, many transportation experts believe that the issue is not the availability of parking that causes gridlock, but the availability of free or underpriced parking that is the problem. If drivers know there s a chance they ll find that ever-elusive cheap metered space, versus a much more expensive space in the garage, they ll keep circling until they find it. Effective managed parking encourages transit use, carpooling, walking and cycling and thus improved traffic flow. 7 5 Harvard Business School. Investing in Cities of the 21 st Century: Urbanization, Infrastructure and Resources. 6 HBS, ibid. 7 Tri State Transportation Campaign. Parking Management Report. http://www.tstc.org/reports/parking.pdf 3

Cities Want to Make Smarter Decisions Studies Show There have been several studies that reveal environmental and economic costs of inefficient parking policies. 1) According to a study by UCLA Professor Donald Shoup, who synthesized 70 years of research on the subject, between 8 and 74% of traffic in congested downtown areas is caused by people searching for parking. 2) A recent study of New York traffic estimates that 28% of drivers in Manhattan and 45% in Brooklyn were cruising for parking. 3) Studies in major cities (including San Francisco, Sydney, New York and London) estimate that drivers spend 3.5 to 14 minutes searching for a space each time they park. 4) In Los Angeles, a study of a 15-block area estimates that drivers circling for parking cause 950,000 excess vehicle miles per year. This translates to 47,000 gallons in wasted gas and 730 tons of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas. 2 5) In New York, a similar study monitoring a 15 block area in Manhattan found that drivers cruise an average seven blocks (.37 miles) for 15 minutes to find a metered parking space. During peak periods, before lunch and from 6pm to 8pm, they ll cruise an average of 14 blocks (.7 miles) before finding a parking spot. As a result, lack of available parking causes about 366,000 excess vehicle miles of travel, 325 tons of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas, $129,561 in fuel and 50,000 hours of wasted time annually. A Siemens-commissioned study of more than 500 city managers, municipal employees and private company executives around the world found that transportation was rated the highest priority for investment, ahead of environmental protection and even education. From a parking perspective, there s a great deal of opportunity for improvement. Several urban planning experts argue that cities that need to set a price for curbside parking so that about 15 percent of spaces are vacant. Curbside parking that is free or priced far below garage rates results in gridlock, reduced sales for merchants, and lost revenue for the city. If curbside parking is priced effectively, people will consider alternative means of transportation or alternative times and thus there will be less of a need for drivers to cruise for parking. 8 Moreover, many cities need to be more efficient with their enforcement of parking violations. For example, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency had estimated that fewer than 5% of parking violations in the city were actually cited. Moreover, a Streetline study of 200 parking meters in San Francisco showed that 45% of the meters were unpaid. As a result, in many cities, metered-space saturation can be 90% to nearly 100%, which results in a great deal of congestion, driver frustration and lost sales for merchants. By improving compliance, parking enforcement productivity, and providing new payment options not only can cities increase revenue and reduce enforcement costs, they can also reduce gridlock by ensuring sufficient space turnover so that parking is available. 2 Donald Shoup, The High Cost of Free Parking. APA Planners Press, 2005 8 Donald Shoup, The High Cost of Free Parking. APA Planners Press, 2005 4

Smart Parking Ecosystem Smart Parking Ecosystem Consumers & Motorists Private Parking Providers System Integrators NEW SOURCES OF DATA City & Department of Transportation Merchants NEW INSIGHT FOR ACTION Sensors & Apps Meters & Smart Parking Revenue Management & Parking Operations The Smart Parking Ecosystem that connects the parking providers, merchants, motorists, and technology will enable Smart Cities to speak to us by sensing and detecting parking activity in real time. Smart Cities close the information gap that prevents us from measuring activities and making informed decisions to improve operations. They connect residents and visitors to the information they need to make their lives easier and more enjoyable. The systems in a Smart City from transportation to utilities speak to one another, and most importantly to the people who live and work there. They allow city managers, workers, and citizens the opportunity to work collectively to improve urban life. 5

Information Can Help At a recent Harvard Business School conference, experts concurred smart, connected communities are one way to obtain efficiency gains and to improve the standard of living. In many communities, the energy, transportation, and safety systems operate within silos with no connectivity. When systems become interconnected in real time, however, efficiency gains are possible. Many cities are creating a meshed fabric of services related to traffic, employment, and police services. 9 At a March 2011 TED conference, Bill Ford shared his vision of a future where all cars are connected and speak to each other. He pictures a future where people can reserve a parking spot at their destination and be automatically directed to the quickest route based on real-time data being sent by the cars driving in front of them. The solution will not be more cars, more roads or a new rail system. It will be found in a global network of interconnected solutions. I know we can develop the technology that will make this work. But we have to be willing to go out there and find the solutions. At Streetline, we share that vision, beginning with parking. We are helping to build a Smart Parking Ecosystem that integrates all the key players in the system: from motorists to parking lots and meters to the merchants and cities even universities, airports, and shopping centers managing the true supply and demand of parking will enable cities and motorists to make smart transportation decisions. There s an Opportunity to Innovate Parking is a $25 billion industry that s seen little innovation in the last 75 years. While there has been a great deal of investment in creating energy-efficient hybrid and electric vehicles, this still doesn t solve the problem of global gridlock. A car is a car even if electric it still causes the same burden on urban gridlock that gas-powered cars do and, the need to park still exists. 9 HBS, Ibid Sensing technology is more advanced than ever before and when used as part of an ultra-low power wireless mesh network give us the ability to connect citizens and cities with the information to make people s lives easier and more efficient. How do we make a city talk to us? And how do we leverage that information to make our cities more efficient? Building and sustaining Smart Cities depends on two vital components: 1) the ability to sense vehicle occupancy and driver activities; and 2) software that collects this data and reports back to mobile devices and websites so that motorists can more easily find parking and city managers can make quicker, better informed decisions. Streetline: Providing New and Better Services to the Citizen Streetline provides cities real-time status of every parking space at curbside, in lots and in garages allowing cities to optimize revenue, spend less time and money managing resources, improve productivity, and reduce congestion and emissions. Streetline helps remotely manage a city s parking assets in real-time and greatly improves the efficiency of operations for the benefit of residents, visitors, parking enforcers, merchants and management. Streetline can help you on your way to becoming a Smart City in three fundamental ways. 1) Mobile Motorist Guidance Parker Streetline s Parker app saves drivers the frustration of circling the block by guiding them directly to available parking even in congested neighborhoods and tourist destinations. The app will show how many spaces are available on nearby blocks and direct them to the most likely block to find parking. Motorists can look at Parker even before they leave the house and based on availability decide what method to take to their destination car, walk, public transport. 6

Parker is currently available for select smart phones and compatible tablets, and in the future via in-car navigation systems. Streetline does not promote accessing any smart phone or its features or any other device while a vehicle is in motion and recommends the use of a hands-free dashboard cradle for all devices. In addition to alerting drivers to available parking, Parker also allows users to: Pay directly from your phone in 84 U.S. cities today with more added all the time Use convenient reminders set a timer that alerts you when your meter is about to expire Find your car drop Google Maps pins, take pictures & add comments Save parking history for easy access later 2) Dynamic Parking Pricing & Parking Analytics Many parking experts talk about the Goldilocks model of parking pricing management: it shouldn t be so inexpensive that too few spaces are available or too expensive that too many spaces are left open. With Streetline s parking sensing technology, you can monitor and analyze your city s neighborhood parking patterns to better support the varying populations consumers and merchants, residents and visitors while improving congestion and convenience. By analyzing this information, you can make more informed decisions about what parking should cost at specific times during the day and have the tools to enforce it. 3) Guided Parking Enforcement Streetline s Enforcement Suite helps cities better understand the trends in parking violations with real-time information and includes applications for those in city operations, as well as mobile apps for those in the field, This allows cities and parking personnel to spend their time far more efficiently and in some cases increase productivity and efficiency as much as 150 percent. Streetline Enforcement Suite includes two applications: Streetline ME, a mobile application for Officers in the field, and Streetline Enforcement Supervisor, a web-based application for managing the enforcement operation. A Reduction in Congestion Means Economic Growth In congested cities, shops and restaurants lose out on a multitude of sales opportunities due to the lack of available parking. Their customer base is limited to mostly local residents who can walk to their location for people from outside the neighborhood don t want to deal with the hassle of looking for parking. As a result, urban merchants (many of whom are independent small businesses) lose business to large box stores in the suburbs who offer ample parking. By increasing the available parking for visitors, local merchants can see a dramatic increase in their customer base. Instead of being just a neighborhood business, they can become a destination shop or restaurant and realize dramatic growth. Streetline can help merchants make it easier for patrons to find parking with the help of our Parker app by showing available parking information on their websites. They can also receive daily or weekly web-based reports on parking turnover and occupancy. By optimizing curbside parking prices, cities can help local merchants be more successful and see increased revenue for the city. Not only will cities realize higher parking revenue, they will also enjoy more sales tax revenue thanks to the increased economic development. With Streetline s Enforcement Suite, cities can achieve this without increasing the number of officers. With these additional revenues, cities can invest back in the neighborhoods by repairing roads and sidewalks, planting trees, removing graffiti, and more. Using Parking Management to Revitalize Cities Cities understand that they are going to have to solve the parking problem if they want to see economic growth. An example of one city on the forefront of used parking management to revitalize their downtown is Old Pasadena in Southern California back in 1993. 10 Working with local merchants, the city added parking meters to a depressed area and used the revenues to purchase street furniture and trees, more police patrols, better lighting, more street 10 Douglas Kolozsvari & Donald Shoup. Access. Fall 2003. Turning Small Change Into Big Changes http://www.walkablestreets.com/meter.htm 7

and sidewalk cleaning, pedestrian improvements, and marketing (including maps to show local attractions and parking facilities). 11 As a result, the area was transformed from skid row to a premier shopping destination where local merchants saw a dramatic increase in safety and their business. Today, several other cities are turning to the next generation of parking technology to achieve similar goals. Los Angeles is one of the first major cities looking to increase the availability of public parking spaces and decreasing traffic congestion and pollution through smart parking solutions. According to Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti sometimes it feels like more movie stars have been discovered in Hollywood than parking spaces, and the City is now turning to Streetline to help address this issue. After initial success with Streetline in the Hollywood area, the LA Department of Transportation is now making this service available to residents and visitors to Studio City and other parts of Los Angeles over the coming months. 12 Other cities large and small are turning to Streetline solutions to help alleviate traffic, increase city revenue, and improve the livability of the city from sensors to analytics to motorist guidance. Streetline: the Leader in Smart Parking Streetline collects and organizes live data from the real world to support sustainable development and transform the way people live and work. With installations in select areas across California, District of Columbia, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah, we have the experience and expertise to help cities use Smart Parking and become a smarter city. To make Smart Parking a reality, we bring together all aspects of parking management technology in one integrated system from street-level sensors to mobile apps, analytics and system management software so that you can truly understand and manage your city s parking to make changes for the better. We are the industry leader in parking analytics, consumer guidance and mobile enforcement that will benefit residents, visitors, local merchants and cities alike. Our solutions offer a substantial return-on-investment, using the additional revenue to fund essential city programs and services residents care most about. To learn more about Streetline, please visit www.streetlinenetworks.com or contact us at solutions@streetlinenetworks.com to arrange for an account manager to call you. 11 CMAP, Ibid. 12 USA Today, 2/23,2011 Streetline s Parker iphone app finds parking spots 8

Bibliography CMAP 2040. Impacts of Parking Strategies. http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/strategy-papers/parking/impacts-of-parkingstrategies Ford, Bill. A Future Beyond Traffic Gridlock. 2011. Ted Talks. http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_ford_a_future_beyond_ traffic_gridlock.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-06-21 Harvard Business School. March 3-4, 2011. Business and Environment Initiative: Investing in Cities of the 21 st Century: Urbanization, Infrastructure and Resources. http://www.hbs.edu/environment/docs/hbs-investing-in-cities-of-the- 21st-Century.pdf Kolozsvari, Douglas & Donald Shoup. Access. Fall 2003. Turning Small Change Into Big Changes http://www. walkablestreets.com/meter.htm Litman Todd. 2006. Parking Management: Strategies, Evaluation and Planning. Summary of Parking Management Best Practices. Chicago: APA Planners Press. Online: http://www.vtpi.org/park_man.pdf Litman, Todd. 2008. Parking Pricing: Direct Charges for Using Parking Facilities. TDM Encylcopedia, Victoria Transport Policy Institute. http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm26.htm, Accessed: 09/09/09. New York Transportation Alternatives. 2007. No Vacancy: Park Slope s Parking Problem and How to Fix It. New York: Transportation Alternatives. Available at www.transalt.org/files/newsroom/reports/novacancy.pdf. New York: Transportation Alternatives. 2008. Driven to Excess: What Under-priced Curbside Parking Costs the Upper West Side. www.transalt.org/files/newsroom/reports/driven_to_excess.pdf Ostrow, Adam, CNN. March 3, 2011. How we ll beat traffic and find parking spots in the future http://www.cnn. com/2011/tech/innovation/03/03/parking.future.mashable/index.html Schaller, Bruce. 2006. Curbing Cars: Shopping, Parking and Pedestrian Space in SoHo. New York: Transportation Alternatives. Available at www.transalt.org/files/newsroom/reports/soho_curbing_cars.pdf. Sfpark.org Shoup, Donald. 2005. The High Cost of Free Parking http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-06-03/opinion/17379286_1_ parking-spaces-off-street-parking-free-parking Shoup, Donald. The High Cost of Free Parking. APA Planners Press, 2005 Tri State Transportation Campaign. Parking Management Report. http://www.tstc.org/reports/parking.pdf USA Today, 2/23,2011 Streetline s Parker iphone app finds parking spots 9