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Volume 12, Number 9-September 2007

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Volume 12, Number 9-September 2007

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PARKING TODAYvolume 12 number 9

16 Automatic Garage in a Jewel in Paris

18 Turn Your New Garage into a Campus Center

20 Separate the Stalls, One Line or Two?

24 Photo Violation Makes Splash in Niagara Falls

30 NPA Slates 2007 Convention in Hollywood

32 The Low Cost of Parking Everywhere

36 Financing University Parking Structures

40 Extending Notification to Campus Parking Facilities

45 Huge Entrance Back Ups Cause Pain for Popular Zoo

46 Goodbye, Mr. President and Other Sorrrows

55 Intertraffic North America Slates Top-Flight Events

Regular Features

September 2007 Features

Automatic Garage . . .Page 16

PARKING TODAY is circulated free of charge to those who have aninterest in the parking industry. In order to facilitate delivery, read-ers outside North America are charged $60. Post Office receiptavailable upon request. Single copy price $15.

Manuscripts, articles, photographs, artwork, product releases andall contributed materials are welcomed by PARKING TODAY; how-ever submissions are subject to editing. Advertisers and advertis-ing agencies assume liability for all content (including text, repre-sentations and illustrations of advertisements printed and also anyand all claims made against the publisher. Publishers sole respon-

sibility for error in advertising content extends to correction in thesucceeding issue.

PARKING TODAY (ISSN: 10955062) is published monthly by Bricepac,Inc.,12228 Venice Boulevard, #541, Los Angeles, California 90066.Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and additional mailingoffices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PARKING TODAY, P.O.Box 66515, Los Angeles, CA 90066 In Canada to Station A, PO Box54, Windsor, ON N9A 6J5. Publications Agreement Number40826055. 2007, Bricepac, Inc.

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EDITOR & PUBLISHER

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jvh@parkingtoday.com

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ART DIRECTOR

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CIRCULATION

PAT RESTIVOextension 0

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CONFERENCE, CLASSIFIEDAND INTERNET SALES

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DIRECTOR OFOPERATIONS, BRICEPAC

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Parking Today is aBricepac company

Point of View ..................................................................................................6Industry Notes ................................................................................................8PT Blog ........................................................................................................35Death by Parking..........................................................................................42PT the Auditor ..............................................................................................48New Products ..............................................................................................52Advertisers Index ........................................................................................57Classified Advertising ..................................................................................58Dealers, Installers & Suppliers ....................................................................60Upcoming Events ........................................................................................62

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SEPTEMBER 2007 PARKING TODAY www.parkingtoday.com6

have to come to terms with the fact that parking fines were anenforcement tool and not another way of taxing the citizenry.

Monies generated from parking should be used for improve-ments in the area where the parking was located. New sidewalks,curbs, lighting, flowers, parks, etc., etc., etc. Maybe even morepolice patrols. It should not be a way for the city council to bal-ance the general fund.

Rather than be Parking Nazis, the enforcement staffwould become welcome members of the community. Theywould provide a service, and at the same time provide a publicrelations bonanza.

***OK, I admit it, I do answer my cellphone in public places,

but when I do, I whisper into it. The people on the other enddont even notice. but it ensures that I dont raise my voice 10 dBwhen I answer the call.

I was at breakfast the other morning and the fellow behindme was talking quietly to whomever was joining him for hismeal. About 10 minutes after I arrived, he answered a call on hiscellphone and his voice became booming. People were turningaround all over the place looking at him. He talked on his phonefor 15 minutes, by my watch, and then hung up. He returned tothe quiet voice he had used before the call.

What was I to do? I really didnt want to confront the guy,but frankly I was upset. Then I got an idea. When I got back tothe office, I printed up some business card-size notices that said:

CELLPHONE USER Im sure you dont realize it, but when you talk on

your cellphone, you raise your voice at least twice asloud as you do when you talk without the phone. It isvery intrusive to all the folks around you who reallydont want to intrude on your privacy.

Your cellphone is designed to work very well withsoft voices. You might give it a try. If your caller canthear you, they will let you know and you can adjust.

Thanks.

Im going to hand these cards to folks I hear using cell-phones in loud voices: in the supermarket, at the theater (sigh)and in restaurants.

OK, Im not stupid. Im going to hand the card to them andwalk away before they have a chance toread it.

Lets face it: Cellphones should beused for what they were intended topay for parking.

just love it when folks get what they want andthen it turns and bites them right on the rear.Heres to a shopping area in Brooklyn. They gottheir streets refurbished, their parking meters

removed and their business in the dumper. OK, they didnt ask for the meters to be removed. The city

did that as part of the refurbishment. I guess the meters probablywill be replaced, someday. In the meantime, the merchants arescreaming bloody murder. It seems you cant really enforce park-ing limits without meters. You know, a charge.

Their business is down, most likely because when themeters were removed, all their employees started parking on thestreet in front of their shops, taking the spaces that would be usedby customers. The customers, not finding space to park space,by the way, that they had been and were more than willing to payfor went to places where parking was plentiful, and probablycostly.

All the stories along these lines simply underscore the needfor charging market rates for on-street parking to maintain theresource and to make sure that the people who want to park havea place to park. Simple? Yep.

***If we in parking are going to fix the poor reputation we have

with the community, we need to do it on the front lines. Parkingenforcement officers must have some flexibility so that when ahusband is dropping off his critically ill wife in a no-parkingzone, he can get a pass. But it should go further than that.

I believe enforcement officers should be able to change aticket to a warning at any point in the process, even after its writ-ten. If a person walks up just as the officer is placing the ticketon the car, the officer should be able to convert that ticket to awarning.

The major argument against this is that it could be fraughtwith graft. That is, if a ticket is worth $40, the driver could givethe officer $20 to fix it on the spot. Also, sometimes a littlecleavage or a well-turned ankle could do the same.

Simple statistics could handle the officers who were takingbackhanders. Although I dont see why there would be a back-hander. If a person walked up when the ticket was being written,it would be voided. No bribe needed. If the ticket was voided halfan hour after it was written, then thats another matter and couldbe dealt with administratively.

With proper publicity and signage, the plan could work.Scofflaws would get their tickets; honest citizens would getwarnings and would do better next time. And that great resourceknown as parking would have tenders enforcement officers whose job it was to make parking safe, and plentiful.

Of course, there is a stumbling block. There would be adecrease in revenue generated by parking fines. The city would

Point of View

I

Parking Rangers,Brooklyn, and CellphonesBY JOHN VAN HORN

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WHATS TRACKING YOUR PARKING REVENUE?If your tenant leases include monthly parking, you need PARIS, (The ParkerAccounts Receivable Information System). PARIS is the premier billing andreceivables system built specifically for monthly parking.

With PARIS, you can easily:

Ensure compliance with lease terms, including future rate escalations,minimum billings (must takes) , and parker limits

Ensure that all active garage access cards are being billed

Automatically calculate prorations for new and terminating parkers

Collect monthly payments through recurringcredit card charges and bank drafts

Manage the waiting list for monthly parking

PARIS offers simplicity of use while delivering detailed, professional reports andcomplete audit trails.

GENEVA: IntegraParks Geneva application uses data from your revenuecontrol system to track and analyze your operations, then posts the

financial results to your General Ledger system. Geneva is anenterprise-wide revenue management system, built specifically forthe parking industry. Geneva provides bank account reconciliation,calculates revenue budgets and rate projections, enables instantanalysis for upper management and clients, and eliminates tediousspreadsheet reporting and duplicate data entry.

For a demo please email us at: ruth.beaman@integrapark.comor call 281.481.6101

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SEPTEMBER 2007 PARKING TODAY www.parkingtoday.com8

Industry NotesSouth Korea-based MISCO has been awarded the Dong-

namkwon Project parking system in Seoul. The system willincorporate parking locators that confirm the exact locationfor the driver and a fully automatic pay-on-foot system. Theproject will have 112 automatic pay stations, 7 entries and 32exits, 6,764 parking spaces making this one of the largestcontracts of its kind anywhere in the world today, the compa-ny says.

It also has launched MISCO International to handle allcompany projects outside the Far East. Based in the UK, ithas Installed a number of projects in England and Irelandover the last few months. MISCO also has been part of proj-ects in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia; in San Cristoforo,Italy; in Beijing, China; and in San Francisco.

The city of Boston has selected Network Parking Co.facility operator for its Winthrop Square garage. In May2007, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, acting on thecitys behalf, issued an RFP for parking management servicesof the garage. Seven companies responded. According to cityofficials, Network Parking submitted the most competitivebid and articulated the best plan to maximize revenue for thecity while maintaining a safe and efficient parking facilityuntil the site is ready for development. Additionally, the com-pany agreed to undertake several key improvements to thegarage, including improved signage at the garages mainentrance; adding new lighting and controlled access forimproved safety; installing a new revenue control system; andwashing and painting of the interior.

Jim Eversmann has retired after serving 16 years as headof the Wilmington (DE) Parking Authority. During his tenure,Eversmann led the organization through numerous garageconstruction projects and technology advances. He is a mem-ber of the International Parking Institute and served on itsBoard of Advisors.

McMahon Associates has added Christopher G. Seaman,P.E., as Senior Project Engineer in its design department. Hehas been involved in structural and design engineering formore than eight years. In addition, the firm announced that ithad received the prestigious Community Award given by thePartnership Transportation Management Association(PTMA) for its outstanding work on the Forty Foot Road Pro-ject in Towamencin Township, Montgomery County, PA.

The city of Baltimore has selected the AutoVu Mobilelicense plate recognition solution by Genetec to track downscofflaws with three or more 30-day-overdue parking tickets.In the past, parking enforcement officers had to manuallyenter each license plate number individually. Now, they canpatrol city streets and identify violators instantly withoutleaving their AutoVu-equipped vehicles. Ken Strong, SafetyDivision Chief of the Baltimore Department of Transporta-tion, said: Before buying the AutoVu Mobile solution, wewould find approximately 250 violators in two weeks. Now,with AutoVu, we are identifying more than 350 violators overthe same time period. Over the course of a year, this repre-sents about $1.4 million in additional revenue for the city.

Integrated Parking Solutions, a company focusing on thedesign, development and implementation of wireless parkingtechnology, has signed a mutual teaming agreement with SanDiego-based NetLogix (www.netlogix.com). We are pleasedto partner with IPS as one of our key municipal wirelessapplications partners, said Eric DaVersa, NetLogix Vice

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Industry Notes

President of Business Development. Offering our municipalclients an amenity that enhances their digital community infra-structure through improved efficiencies is critical to our servicesmodel.

Central Parking Corp. has announced that its partnership hasassumed management of parking operations at San FranciscoInternational Airport. SFO is one of the largest airports in theUnited States, serving more than 33 million passengers last year.New South Parking, a partnership between Central Parking Sys-tem and Global Parking Systems, was awarded the contract,which has an initial term of three years, with two one-yearrenewal options. The partnership assumed operations on July 1.

Brenndan Torres, P.E., has joined Carl Walker Inc. as aRestoration Project Manager in its Denver office. He will beresponsible for the evaluation, restoration and preservation ofexisting parking structures, plazas and buildingenclosures/facades. Torres, who has more than 10 years experi-ence in the restoration industry, also will be involved in the eval-uation of structural, waterproofing and life-safety components ofa facility; the preparation of repair documents; and constructionadministration.

Jeffrey McAleer has been named Vice President of Sales atDigital Monitoring Products. McAleer brings a broad range ofoperations, customer service, and sales experience in electronicsecurity, physical security, fire protection services, and centralstation management.

Digital Payment Technologies has announced that the cityof Milwaukee has selected its Luke pay station to replace agingsingle-space parking meters. More than 100 Luke pay stationswill be rolled out in downtown Milwaukee in order to provideparkers with a greater range of payment options and conveniencewhile allowing the city to leverage the data collected by the unitsfor the deployment of new applications.

The city also intends to develop several new applications in-house using Digitals Web Services Application that enables areal-time exchange of data between EMS and third-party tech-nologies. This data exchange is designed to assist in areas suchas enforcement and maintenance. Web Services represents anexciting new direction for DPT, said CEO Andrew Scott. In atime where access to data represents a new competitive advan-tage, we are providing our customers with a gold mine of infor-mation.

Standard Parking has been awarded a multi-year contract toprovide employee shuttle bus services at Dallas/Fort Worth Inter-national Airport. This large-scale, fixed-route service will trans-port more than 2.5 million passengers per year with a fleet ofmore than 30 alternative-fuel buses. Standards Vice President ofTransportation, Daniel Murray, stated: We are excited by theopportunity to provide this very important service to the airportsemployees. The years of experience we have acquired at DFWthrough our operation of the airports rental car shuttle bus serv-ice, coupled with our extensive knowledge of the airport roadwaysystem, will enable us to provide an excellent level of service.

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The City of New Haven works hard at keeping its downtown vital.They believe that having a unifying city card that lets consumers pay for parking, shopping and dining makes for a better downtown experience and thereby helps stimulate downtown economic development.

Thats why they turned to Parcxmart Technologies and Heartland Payment Systems.The Parcxmart Card and patent-pending payment solution is Americas first fully functional parking and local merchant smart card payment system. The platform uses smart card technology that offers a convenient one-card alternative to coins and cash for on-street and off-street parking transactions as well as retail purchases at participating merchants.

To make this work, downtown merchants need service and support, which is where Heartland Payment Systems comes in. Heartland delivers credit/ debit/prepaid card processing, payroll and payment solutions to more than 150,000 small and mid-sized businesses na-tionwide. Parcxmart has an exclusive partnership with Heartland to offer Parcxmarts payment system to merchants nationally.

Making Parking Easier and More Profitable for New HavenThe City of New Haven wanted to raise its meter parking to $1.25 an hour. They could not have done this easily without the New Haven Parcxmart Card. The increased collection of coins would have cut into their revenues. Furthermore, consumer complaints about needing too many coins were avoided.

Parcxmarts sophisticated patent-pending solution makes it easy for cities to raise their parking rates to reflect the true value of on-street parking. Also, with more people using cards to pay for parking, coin collection can be less frequent thus, decreasing operating costs.

Fully auditable, Parcxmarts financial transaction-processing engine provides a cryptographically secure and accurate way of collecting, processing and receiving revenues from on-street and off-street parking locations. The possibility of fraud is decreased, and the reasons for vandalism are diminished.

Involving the MerchantsInvolving the merchants is key to any economic development plan. Merchants like two things about the Parcxmart card its

accessible to anyone (not just the credit-worthy), and its backed up by real customer service. When a merchant offers Parcxmart, they get the service and support from Heartlands large national sales force.

Does this work? In less than a year, New Haven is seeing a 30% - 40% usage of the New Haven Parcxmart Card in meters that are located close to the stores and restaurants that offer Parcxmart cards.

The Multi-Purpose CardThere are many different ways you can use a Parcxmart Card program for your city.

New Haven now offers a municipal services ID card which enables all residents to enjoy many city services for free. The Parcxmart smart card chip is on each card so people can store money and use it for purchases and parking.

New Haven Parcxmart cards are interoperable. Consumers can use them in any city that offers Parcxmart for parking, shopping and dining. Thats great news for those who work in one city and live in another.

Contact Us TodayFind out how your citys unique Parcxmart card can take coins out of your meters, provide convenience to your parking public, and bring new revenue for your local stores and restaurants.

Call us at: 1-877-929-3050,email us at: info@parcxmart.comor visit our website, found at: www.parcxmart.com.

PARKING MERCHANTSMART CARD

up by real customer service When a merchant offers Parcxmart

Technologies Inc

DOWNTOWN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

++ =

New Haven Turned to Parcxmart and Heartland

to Help Stimulate its

Downtown Economic Development

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Industry Notes

Standard also was recently awardedthe contract to operate comprehensiveshuttle bus services at Portland Interna-tional Airport. The operation, which willserve public long-term parking, employ-ee parking and airside international trans-fers, is expected to transport more than2.6 million passengers per year, and willutilize a fleet of 30 transit-style alterna-

tive-fuel buses. In addition, the airporthas approved a contract for the companyto provide premium valet parking servic-es. The Executive Vice President of itsAirport Division, Jack Ricchiuto,explained: As a leader in the industry,Standard Parking is delivering to itsclients a broad range of landside servicesaligned under one operator. Thisapproach allows us to create consisten-cies in the quality and delivery of service

provided in a cost-efficient manner.In another company announcement,

the Rhode Island Airport Corp. hasauthorized the T.F. Green State Airport toenter into a contract with Standard Park-ing for operation of public parking facili-ties at the airport. The operation encom-passes more than 7,000 public parkingspaces in two multi-level garages and twosurface lots. We look forward to work-ing with the airport staff to enhance allaspects of the parking operation so that

we may offer its patrons world-classcustomer service, said PamelaBrown, Standards Vice President ofBusiness Development.

McCarthy Building Cos., one ofthe nations largest general contract-ing firms, recently broke ground for afive-level, 295,000-square-foot park-ing structure for Sharp Healthcare atits 37-acre campus in the KearnyMesa area of San Diego.

The Board of Directors of Indus-trial Scientific Corp. has announcedthat Colin Arlott has been elected asPresident of ISC Oldham. He will bebased at the companys Europe/Mid-dle East/Africa (EMEA) headquartersin Arras, France. Arlott will beresponsible for all ISC operations,including sales, service, engineeringand manufacturing within EMEA. Healso will serve as President of WinterGmbH, based in Dortmund, Germany.

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Parking MeterCoins for Sale

According to the AssociatedPress, New York City is selling 500pounds of foreign coins that peoplehave used in its parking meters.

The coins are from all over theworld. The most common are Greekdrachmas, which arent even used any-more in Greece since they werereplaced five years ago by the euro.

Each year for the last 10 years,New Yorks Department of Trans-portation has been selling the foreigncoins it collects to the highest bidderbecause its impractical to exchangethem for U.S. currency. In previousyears, selling the coins has netted thedepartment between $2 and $4 apound.

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BusinessImprovementDistricts

Since the early 1970s, downtownsacross North America have been usingBusiness Improvement Districts as amechanism for revitalization. TheDowntown Research and Develop-ment Center has recently published thesecond edition of Business Improve-ment Districts.

This powerful tool allows for anassessment on property within adefined area. Revenues from thisassessment are then directed back tothe area to finance a wide range ofservices, including security, mainte-nance, marketing, economic develop-ment, parking and special events.

A practical working manual, thebook covers best practices for plan-ning, organizing and financing BIDs,the services they provide, and howthey are operated and managed. Itincludes samples of enabling legisla-tion, examples of different types ofassessments and assessment rates,sample budgets, and real-world datafrom more than 100 BIDs.

For more information, log on towww.downtowndevelopment.com.

Concrete PricesUnchanged

Concrete prices in June againremained nearly unchanged, with aslight 0.1 percent gain, according tothe Bureau of Labor StatisticsProduc-er Price Index.

Lumber prices increased for thefirst time in two months, growing by0.9 percent.

Steel prices increased a slight 0.4percent, while asphalt saw the same0.1 percent gain as concrete. Overall,steel prices increased 10.6 percent in2006, and asphalt prices rose 7.7 per-cent.

Concrete prices have changed at aslower rate, with a 4.5 percent increasefrom June 2006 price levels. Lumberprices to date have declined, with a 7.9percent negative change from 2006.

Labor Department information isprovided by the Portland CementAssociation to aid in the promotion ofconcrete and cement-based products.

New Haven Features Smart CardChip for Small $ Transactions

The Elm City Resident Card, the recently launched municipal services card for thecity of New Haven, CT, includes the Parcxmart Technologies smart card chip, whichcan store up to $150 of value. It is the same smart card chip that is used in the NewHaven Parcxmart card. New Haven began offering the Elm City multi-purpose munici-pal identification card to all city residents, regardless of age or immigration status, onJuly 24.

We are pleased to have the support and partnership of our friends at Parcxmart aswe make city services and the great businesses in our downtown more accessible to allcity residents, said Mayor John DeStefano Jr. Parcxmarts debit feature helps to bringresidents from across the city together with participating merchants and makes life easi-er for them when they park at our metered spaces in downtown.

Parcxmart Technologies, an electronic payment company, manages the Parcxmartcard and patent-pending payment solution. The platform uses smart card technology thatoffers a convenient one-card alternative to coins and cash for small-dollar transactions.

Skidata Celebrates 30th AnniversaryMore than 450 guests converged on Skidatas home city of Salzburg, Germany to cel-

ebrate the revenue control manufacturers three decades in business. Centered on a galadinner, the event also was attended by a number of distinguished guests, including four ofthe men who built and guided Skidata through its formative years. The highlight of theevent was when the original team of Skidata founder Guenther Walcher, first ticket suppli-er Frank Dorner, first manufacturer Richard Auer and first technical director Kurt Wallen-storfer, shared personal memories and anecdotes about the companys early years.

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The system uses robots to move the cars, not pallets. The robotsrollers wrap around the vehicles wheels, lifting it slightly off the floor,then moves it to its final parking space where they open and the vehicleis set down and the robot returns for the next vehicle. Here, the robot isabout to deposit the vehicle on the turntable where it will be reversedand ready for exit when it arrives on the surface.

Five stories under the Cartier building is the automated garage, holding116 vehicles. These cars are sitting on robots which move horizontally toelevators which take them to the surface.

Automatic Garage in a Jewel in Paris

The entrance to the garage. These wire mesh cubicles contain the elevators thattake the vehicles down into the garage. The parker uses their access card to openthe entrance door and drives into the cube. Sensors ensure the car is parkedproperly and the driver has left the vehicle. Upon return, the driver presents hiscard and the system automatically retrieves the appropriate car from the garageand brings it to the surface.

artiers World Headquarters, shown in the pic-ture at the bottom. The Jewelers ultra modernbuilding is hidden behind the glass wall at thesidewalk. Vehicles enter about two thirds of the

way down the block. The underground garage is designedfor the companys VIPs. Without the automated system,there would be no room for parking on the site.The system currently in use at Cartier was provided by Sky Parks ProjectsLimited of Edinburgh. The company also has offices in Swindon, UK, Dublin,Ireland, and Dubai, UAE. Their web site is www.skyparks.com

C

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