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Shoutout to bestinottawa.com for listing WhereiPark as one of the Best Parking Places In Ottawa! For more secure, affordable parking options (that aren’t monthly parking spots), check out their list here!
The Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Big Data promise to revolutionize city living through the creation of connected “Smart Cities.” And while some of those promised improvements are pretty wide-reaching, it’s pretty amazing to look into how many of the changes are designed at getting traffic off the streets and eliminating the gridlock that chokes so much of our urban infrastructure currently.
And much of that change comes from reinventing parking in the city.
City parking today largely relies on street spaces - both metered and free - and privately owned lots and garages to house the huge volume of commuter vehicles. This system, while profitable for the city and the garage owners, does next to nothing to reduce traffic congestion, and even less to optimize the usage of available space. In fact, a significant amount of city traffic comes from drivers circling blocks looking for free (or at least more affordable) parking options. And that’s exactly why revamping parking is high on the priority list of any Smart City’s plans.
At a high level, a Smart Parking solution for a Smart City will work by leveraging the many parking spaces already available within the city. It’s a simple formula that looks something like this: every morning, all your suburban commuters drive into the city for work. At the same time, all your city residents who work in the suburbs hop in their cars and leave their parking spaces behind - and many of those spaces sit in private lots where they remain empty until that same driver returns later that night. Smart Parking gives building owners a way to offer up those spaces to commuters, creating an additional revenue stream while helping to find convenient parking solutions for the city’s many drivers.
Now the obvious problem here is “what happens if the commuter is still in the private parking spot when the city resident returns?” And the answer is simple: that won’t happen, because the Smart Parking system will associate each space with a specific commuter leasee, and it will track their arrival and departure times. If the commuter is still in the space as it’s getting close to time for the resident owner to return, the parking software makes it easy to contact the day commuter and have them vacate the space.
And that’s just one low-hanging fruit in the Smart Parking catalog. There’s a whole separate industry of approaches related to the total reinvention of the parking garage. Well, reinvention isn’t the right word, as many of these space-saving ultra-efficient parking garages already exist in Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world where urban real estate space is at a premium. These designs use all sorts of innovative ideas to pack more cars into fewer cubic feet than you ever thought was possible
As automobile traffic decreases, pedestrian traffic can increase. The more foot traffic a city has, in general, the better for shops, restaurants, and other businesses. Fewer circling cars also means less air pollution, and there’s reason to believe that the overall reduction of traffic in cities throughout the world could make a meaningful impact on global CO2 emissions.
In other words, Smart Parking makes a whole lot of sense. In an age of Big Data, it also gives Smart Cities a number of important metrics to work with. Sensors tied to Smart Parking and Smart Traffic Lights will help city planners have a clear idea of traffic patterns in the city, with detailed breakdowns for different times of day and year. This feeds into future improvements in making the city more streamlined and commuter friendly.
Kind of crazy to think it all starts with parking, but it does.
During the pandemic, one of the few positives about urban living was the sudden boom in outdoor dining brought about by local governments relaxing restrictions so restaurants could continue doing business despite social distancing restrictions. Many times, streets would be closed off to make blocks pedestrian-only, so that tables could spill out onto the streets and give patrons (and restaurant staff) more room to operate.
If you had the chance to experience such a scenario, you probably found yourself thinking something along the lines of “the city should let us take over the streets more often.” And you wouldn’t be alone! The good news? Many city planners and politicians apparently felt the same way.
A number of cities in the US and Canada have an “open streets” program, where downtown areas are closed to all but pedestrian traffic for a certain period of time. The results have been astounding, with people gathering to enjoy the shops, restaurants, and other amenities readily offered by urban living.
These open streets programs are a teaser of what the Smart City initiatives promise - a more pedestrian-friendly urban experience that makes use of the city’s ample outdoor space to provide a higher quality of life. However, as you may have noticed, turning the streets over to the people instead of their cars requires a lot of planning when it comes to parking.
It’s this reason that so many Smart City planners list parking as one of their primary concerns in coming up with their visions for the future. But it’s also a great example of just what sort of collateral gains are made possible by improving the overall parking situation in a city. Because the truth is, easier parking means less traffic. Less traffic means more room for pedestrians. And more room for pedestrians means more opportunities for outside dining and the other perks that come from open streets. When you think about it, it all starts with finding smarter places to put their empty cars.
If you’re a fan of the open streets idea, we highly recommend tapping into your city’s local open streets program. Oftentimes, these street-closing events are the result of sustained efforts by groups of private citizens. And, like any community initiative, these groups could always use more help. Volunteer to pitch in with such a program, and suddenly you’re helping to usher in a positive change in your city. Plus, since you read this blog you’ll most likely have an immediate role as the “parking expert” on any committee.
There’s something unique about the pedestrian-only city experience. It’s at once a glimpse into the future and to the far past, before countless automobiles clogged up streets designed for foot traffic and the occasional horse. Without the constant noise of engines and horns, you can hear the way human voices echo off the buildings in conversation. Without the stink of exhaust, you can actually catch the aromas coming out of that corner bakery.
And to think that it all starts with finding a smarter way for people to park.
Subject: How you can increase the value of your property via parking!
Property owners and managers are always looking for affordable ways to increase the value of their property. Often, a simple paint job or a minor cosmetic renovation is what property owners/managers opt for. However, what if we told you that there’s another sure-fire way to create value.
Parking. Yes, parking spaces.
Parking spaces are a highly underutilized asset that can be converted into a steady ancillary revenue stream for property owners.
WhereiPark offers a simple solution for property owners looking to do this. List your space on WhereiPark’s platform and we do the rest. Property owners don’t have to pay to list it on the site, nor do they have to deal with any administrative tasks, payment processing, or managing of deposits – WhereiPark does it all on the owner’s behalf. In addition, WhereiPark also conducts background checks on prospective parkers to give property owners a peace of mind before letting just anyone onto their property.
Take a look at this multifamily apartment example or this hotel example, the numbers speak for themselves! Below is the multifamily example:
Let’s break this case down. WhereiPark was able to rent out 52 spaces and generate monthly NOI of $7,020 for the property (this based on the rates as the time this case study was created and is after removing WhereiPark's performance based commission). Multiply the monthly NOI of $7,020 by 12 months which brings us to the New Annualized NOI of $84,820. Based on a cap rate of 4.5% and with an annualized NOI of $84,820, the INCREASE in asset value is $84,820 divided by 4.5%, which is increase of $1.87 million
The Smart Parking Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2021-2026" report predicts a 14 percent compound annual growth rate in the smart parking market over the next five years. This is great news for the industry, which includes technology to optimize parking space usage through guidance systems, automated access control systems, ticketing systems, and more.
The report details advances in smart parking technology, including automatic license plate readers that allow for remote vehicle tracking and payments, and innovative mechanical arrangements for transporting cars from one parking space to another in order to optimize vehicle storage. And that’s really the name of the game — all of these advancements are about eliminating wasted parking space through the use of technology as a swelling population, a trend of larger cars throughout North America and many other parts of the world, and other factors stress the importance of maximizing potential parking spaces.
We’ll be interested to see how this trend plays out in North America, where space-eating parking lots are far more common than efficient parking garages — and certainly more so than smart parking-enabled spaces. But the efficiency of smart parking spaces can’t be ignored, and their ability to save time for commuters while decreasing management costs for lot owners and operators is undeniable. Furthermore, as the “smart city” continues to take root it’s easy to see how technology-laden parking options will figure into municipal plans to make the dream city of tomorrow a reality for today.
Along with smart city initiatives, eco-friendly technology should help drive the growth of the smart parking market. Smart parking spaces help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by reducing the amount of time drivers spend circling around in search of a place to park. Some take this even further by moving cars on conveyor systems or with electricity-driven robots. Smart parking garages also eliminate paper waste by replacing cash payments and receipts with digital options. And replacing parking lots with greenspace is great for the environment as well (when you can do so without losing out on available parking). All of this adds up to make a significant environmental impact compared to traditional parking options, which is exactly what many state and local governments are looking for in the face of climate change.
For the consumer, smart parking offers a level of convenience that’s tough to beat. Nobody enjoys circling for parking, or having to walk a few blocks just to feed a meter before it expires. As smart parking makes it more common to find a spot right away, to pay for spaces from anywhere via your phone, and to generally make parking into the least frustrating part of the overall driving experience, it’s a safe bet that there will be a growing demand for the adoption of this important technology.
It’s great to see the forecasted market growth reflect the many benefits of smart parking systems. But it will be even better to see the social and environmental impacts of smart parking taking off in popularity around the world. Maybe we’ll even start to see sprawling North American parking lots getting transformed into something more beautiful — whether that’s a futuristic smart parking facility or a flower-filled green space.
The standard American parking lot is a vast expanse of blacktop hashed with white lines. Sometimes, particularly in urban areas, these lots are stacked on top of one another and connected by ramps to create a parking garage, but the basic premise remains the same. The parking lot is the sort of thing people take for granted in this country, but it’s very existence is a reflection of the abundant land resources of North America. When physical space is at no premium, it’s easy to build out and not up, as seen in America’s sprawling suburbs and land-hungry developments.
This approach doesn’t work in countries like Japan or much of the EU, where available land is limited and most cities existed long before the automobile was even dreamed of. Because of this, the American-style big footprint parking lot simply doesn’t exist in the same way, or at least not with the same ubiquity. What we see in these nations instead are innovative, space-saving solutions that could be portents of the future of parking in America. After all, the more land is developed the less land that’s left to develop, and as urban planning trends are shaped by a growing environmental awareness there is a growing call to leave green spaces as green. All of which points to the American adoption of space-saving parking innovations from abroad.
In Japan, for example, many parking garages use automated technology to store cars in sophisticated multilevel structures. And while this might seem futuristic to an American audience, such automated parking facilities have seen mainstream use in Japan since the 1960s. While they’ve certainly evolved since then, the idea remains the same - using a combination of elevators and conveyor systems to safely store vehicles in the most efficient way.
And it gets even more impressive, as today many of these parking garages are fully automated. There are no attendants, instead, drivers simply park their vehicles in the intake system and use a self-service computer kiosk to do the rest. So not only are these parking garages more efficient from a space-saving standpoint; they’re more efficiently run as well.
Imagine the convenience of a fully automated parking lot with the convenience and space-saving urban footprint of a valet parking garage. It’s a combination that’s hard to beat.
Interestingly, this sort of high-tech parking garage is gaining in familiarity in the US thanks to the internet-based car sales site Carvana. Their “car vending machine” model may be a quirky marketing ploy, but it’s also a demonstration of the highly efficient automated parking solutions that already exist. There are currently 28 of the structures in the US, including one 12-story machine in Atlanta, Georgia, and the company features them heavily in their television and online ads. Every time they do, it helps make American citizens a little more familiar with the sort of parking technology that much of the rest of the world already sees as commonplace.
The future is always uncertain, but it’s a safe bet that the next trends we’ll see in parking at home will come from trends and influences abroad. The automated, space-saving garage has proven its merits the world over, and someday it might be a more common sight in the States than the old, familiar parking lot.
With WhereiPark’s recent acquisition of San Francisco-based MonkeyParking, all of MonkeyParking’s assets are now part of the WhereiPark network and will be rebranded in the coming months.
WhereiPark would like to take the time to welcome MonkeyParking’s current parkers and buildings to the WhereiPark community! Our team is always available to help any parkers or buildings throughout this transition.
While the demand for monthly parking softened in certain market segments throughout the past year, WhereiPark is expecting substantial growth in the industry as people return to offices and are hesitant to use public transit. “There is a once in a generation opportunity to provide a great parking solution for millions of people who are looking for a monthly space for the first time,” said Alex Enchin, Co-Founder of WhereiPark.
WhereiPark cares deeply about the planet and creating a business that gives back to nature. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce that we’re partnering with One Tree Planted!
One Tree Planted is a 501(c)(3) non-profit on a mission to make it simple for anyone to help the environment. Their projects span across the globe and partner with local communities and experts to create a positive impact for nature, people, and wildlife.
This partnership is designed to support the cause and make it easy for WhereiPark customers to get involved in global reforestation. For EVERY parking space booked via WhereiPark, we’ll give to One Tree Planted so they can plant one tree. The trees are planted by local partner organizations and community volunteers in areas where there has been deforestation.
What are the Objectives of the Partnership?
Through this partnership, WhereiPark hopes to:
Support global reforestation efforts
Empower consumers with sustainable actions
Raise awareness about the importance of ecosystem restoration
Create social impact by providing jobs
Why Plant Trees?
Across 10 of the largest US cities, INRIX Research found that, on average, drivers who opt for street or hourly parking (as opposed to monthly parking) spend 64 hours per year looking for parking at a cost of $1,338.90 per driver in wasted time, fuel, and emissions. Not only is this a strain on the pockets of drivers but the negative externalities it has on the environment are tremendous.
Planting trees is one of the best ways to make a positive impact on the environment and communities. Trees help clean the air we breathe, filter the water we drink, and provide habitat to over 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. Trees also provide tremendous social impact by providing jobs to over 1.6 billion people, empowering women in underdeveloped nations, and supporting communities devastated by environmental damage.
We hope that by planting trees we are able to make a positive impact on the environment, reduce our ecological footprint, and make a social impact
Founders’ Note
“Sustainability is a very important piece to our business, and while we do make an impact by promoting the usage of cars, we know that this will be one of many great ways to give back to help the environment,” said WhereiPark co-founder, Jeremy Zuker. “We’re very excited about this partnership and as our company grows, we hope that our positive impact on the environment continues to grow as well,” said co-founder, Alex Enchin.
You pull up to the curb and the valet is there to greet you. Instead of handing them your keys, you simply take your ticket, lock your doors, and walk away as the valet lifts your car by its wheels and totes it away, depositing it in a sea of vehicles packed so tightly together that no human driver could ever open a door to get in or out of them. The valet, a cheerful looking robot that is part tugboat, part tow-truck, logs your vehicle’s location in a central database and silently makes sure that no other vehicles will be blocking you in when you’re scheduled to pick up your vehicle.
This may sound like science fiction, but if you’re traveling to the Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport in France or London-Gatwick in the UK, you’ll see that it’s very much reality. And as these two early adopters continue to demonstrate the value and efficiency of the robot valet, it just might become commonplace wherever you travel.
Parking lots are always looking for ways to improve their efficiency, and these new robot valets are one of the most innovative solutions yet. By removing the need to open doors to get in or out of the vehicles, valet robots can store up to 50% more vehicles in a given space. This is a huge boost in capacity, one that would otherwise be impossible without significantly expanding the available parking area — a solution that isn’t always possible, let alone feasible.
The robo-valets work essentially like miniature tow trucks, sliding a lift beneath your vehicle and lifting it off the ground to transport it. Because no part of the robot is wider than the car it’s carrying, it is able to pack vehicles tightly together without fear of damaging them. The algorithms that power the robot work to optimize placement by maximizing capacity and minimizing the amount of movement needed to deposit and pick up vehicles.
Even if it takes a while for robot valets like this to fully catch on, there’s an interesting possibility in leveraging the AI behind them in order to optimize parking layouts while still keeping a human behind the wheel. This includes using AI-based “smart spaces” that can detect when they’re occupied by vehicles, and feed that data into a management platform in real time in order to optimize parking strategy. If you're managing a parking lot or garage, this can dramatically simplify the decision-making process for placing vehicles in the right place to retrieve them later.
And of course if you’re just looking for a place to park, AI-boosted parking algorithms are going to ensure that you have more options available. If a robo-valet system can increase a lot’s capacity by 50%, take a moment to imagine how much easier it will be to find parking when every lot has a system like that in place. Even without the robot valets, AI-assisted parking management will help lots to increase their capacities so that parking is easier to find, while also reducing wait times when picking up your vehicle.
The more AI and robotics find their way into parking lots, the more data will be generated and the better the data-driven enhancements will become. As lots gather usage data, they’ll be able to leverage AI and predictive analytics to forecast occupancy rates and possible bottlenecks or busy times. This will include accounting for things like weather as well as time of day, and will help lot managers optimize the way they use their space — regardless of whether they have robot valets or not.
It’s no secret that the U.S. is long overdue for infrastructure rebuilding. President Biden has a $2.3-trillion plan on the table to address the nation’s crumbling system of highways and rails, and it includes some pretty impressive expenditures for mass transit that could help cut down on the number of vehicles on the road. This carries major implications for the environment, as cars are key contributors to greenhouse gasses and fossil fuel usage, but it also means a future with less traffic and (hopefully) easier parking.
As part of the proposed plan, federal funding for mass transit would double, and $80-billion would be bookmarked for expanding and modernizing passenger rail service. The U.S. lags behind most other developed nations when it comes to rail, with fewer routes, slower trains, and less reliable service. While this spending would certainly mean improvements for the current system, it’s important to note that the bill doesn’t include any specific plans for implementing a true high-speed rail service — something the country is sorely lacking. Instead, it focuses on expanding and improving the existing railway network for both commuter and freight trains.
Biden’s push for improved mass transit includes an $85-billion investment in subways, buses, and other transportation systems. The plan has a stated goal “to modernize existing transit and help agencies expand their systems to meet rider demand.” In other words, it will get people out of private cars.
And that’s a good thing! Next time you’re driving somewhere, pay attention to how many cars have only one occupant. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, it’s most of them. While mass transit has always struggled to catch on in the United States, especially compared to the rest of the world, the Biden plan is clearly hopeful that a significant investment in public transit options could be enough to help jump-start the shift away from single-occupancy vehicles.
Speaking of mass transit, it’s interesting to note just how much of a hit the industry took in 2020. As the pandemic worked its way across the nation, the number of Americans taking trips on buses and rail systems fell 53 percent. Private vehicle travel during the same period of time fell only 13.2 percent. The cramped confines of buses and trains were clearly places people chose to avoid during the outbreak of a deadly airborne illness, but whether or not this hefty investment will help people feel more comfortable taking mass transit is yet to be seen.
There’s a long way to go before Biden’s infrastructure plan is approved and put into action, and indeed it’s possible that governmental gridlock will prevent this from ever seeing the light of day. However, even examining the proposed plan can help give us an idea of what the future of transportation looks like in this country, especially the emphasis on providing alternatives to the personal automobile. Americans love their cars, and they’ll surely be the primary commuting option of our lifetimes, but it’s clearly time to make a heavy investment in mass transit for the good of the environment… and the reduction of traffic jams.
