Page 50 - College Planning & Management, July/August 2017

PARKING GOES HI-TECH
Parking Guidance
Parking guidance systems (PGS) rep- resent another technology that’s gaining popularity on American campuses. In recent years, systems have been installed in campuses across the U.S., including
at Texas A&M, the University of Okla- homa and Colorado State University. PGS utilizes sensors to monitor whether a parking space is occupied or free, and the status of each space is indicated through a series of highly visible lights. If the light is green the space is available, if it’s red it’s occupied. Other lights can be used to indicate handicapped, short-term or other types of parking. In garages, the sensors are typically installed on the facility’s ceiling; in parking lots and on garage rooftops surface-mounted sensors are uti- lized. Guidance systems feature signage at major decision points, such as facility entrances and on each floor, indicating how many spaces are available.
“Parking guidance systems allow uni- versities to provide a much more customer- friendly experience,” says Dale Fowler, director of INDECT USA, a provider of parking guidance systems. “By guiding
drivers directly to available spaces, they eliminate the need for drivers to search for a parking space, which makes parking much more convenient and safer.”
Fowler points out that parking guid- ance systems are particularly useful for major universities that host large special occasions like sporting events or concerts. Texas A&M’s Cain Garage, for instance, serves more than 60,000 students, staff and faculty and provides premier parking for fans attending football games at Kyle Field, the fourth largest stadium in the U.S. The garage’s parking guidance systems has sig- nificantly reduced congestion in the garage since it was installed last year.
The Cain Garage project is character- istic in that it combines both above-space and in-ground sensors. That’s because most campuses have a combination of lots and garages.
“That’s pretty typical,” says Gorm Tuxen, president of IPsens, a parking technology company and the provider of ground-based sensors for the Texas A&M project. “When universities install parking guidance they typically need a system, or at least a parking technology team, that can provide both mounted and in-ground parking guidance tools.”
As important as customer service is, it’s not the only reason universities turn to parking guidance. Colorado State Univer- sity (CSU) installed a system to support
its commitment to sustainability. CSU was named America’s Greenest University by BestColleges.com, and university planners installed parking guidance as part of a campus-wide green parking initiative.
“CSU is committed to sustainability and our parking guidance sensor program makes a vital contribution to our efforts to make our campus greener,” says Doug Mayhew, associate director of Parking and Transportation for the university. “By guiding parkers directly to open spaces, the parking guidance system minimizes the amount of time spent searching for parking. The program also dramatically decreases the amount of vehicle exhaust emitted in the structure and reduces the amount of unnecessary fuel wastage.”
PGS systems also provide important administrative benefits. For instance, they collect utilization data that can be used
by campus planners to make informed parking management decisions. They also maximize utilization of available spaces by reducing the risk that parkers will give up looking for a space, thus missing open parking spaces. This increased utilization can even help universities avoid mak-
ing unnecessary capital investments to increase parking capacity.
Managing Free Parking
Parking guidance isn’t the only role that sensors can play. Sensor technology can
50 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / JULY/AUGUST 2017
WEBCPM.COM
FROM THE GROUND UP. An available option in parking sensor technology is a space monitoring system for outdoor parking areas and garages. These sensors can be installed in the pavement or ground. These in-ground sensors function with magnetic field technology that detects cars by measuring the changes they cause to the Earth’s magnetic field statically (presence detection) and dynamically (entry/exit detection). The system includes software that can record the length of time a vehicle remains in the space, and can generate an “overstay” list to alert to vehicles that overstay their allotted time.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF IPSENS