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Preparing for the post-pandemic parking surge

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Preparing for Reopening

With vaccine distribution underway, cities across the U.S. are starting to consider how to reopen. Entertainment venues, concert halls and many tourist destinations have been closed for close to a year. Once the vaccine is widely distributed, people will be rushing back to these venues to resume regular life. At the same time, business districts will see individuals returning to work, making city centers’ hubs for traffic once again.
In Ontario, Canada, they are expecting this surge a little sooner than usual. Since mid-December, the province of Ontario has been on strict stay-at-home orders, with schools and non-essential shops closed. Next week, some of these services will be reopening, and tourist destinations and stores are preparing for a surge of visitors and shoppers. As Ontario prepares for an increase in traffic and parkers, lessons can be learned from their reopening preparation that can be used in cities worldwide.

Optimizing Parking Space

The first thing that cities need to consider is the availability of space. Both entertainment venues and office buildings are expecting an increase in traffic, yet both have limited parking spaces available. To help solve this problem, businesses need to immediately start building partnerships with other businesses in the area. These buildings can share parking resources with less busy buildings. For example, office buildings and concert venues could partner on parking, with offices using both parking lots during regular business hours. During the evening, when commuters return home, concert venues can take control of the parking, using all available space to host the influx of concert-goers. Concerts usually start later at night; during the day their parking spaces remain empty. Both businesses can benefit from partnering and expanding their available parking.

Employee Parking Solutions

Office buildings also need to consider long-term parking options for their employees. In 2020, many commuters cancelled their long-term parking leases, correctly anticipating that they wouldn’t need the spaces for quite a long time. Now, as all offices start to think about reopening — and as public transit remains an unpopular option — offices need to be able to supply parking spaces for their employees to help encourage them to return to the office. A great tool to ease this transition is by working with a parking management tool. These apps can help your office reserve nearby parking spaces for employees. Because they vet the parking spaces, employees can rest assured that they will be convenient, safe and available when they need them.

Maximizing Parking Revenue

Finally, businesses that have opted to continue with remote or hybrid work environments can help the parking surge by offering up their empty parking spaces to other buildings, businesses and entertainment venues. By renting out empty spaces when there are fewer people returning to offices, your business can tap into a new revenue stream. Parking apps makes this process easy by managing all the administration, including payments and finding parkers. With a surge in parkers expected, there’s no doubt that these empty spaces will be filled in no time. Although the end of the pandemic may feel distant, cities will start to reopen slowly — and this may start happening soon. Businesses, entertainment venues and citizens need to be prepared for what reopening will entail and put strategies in place to do this efficiently and easily. With many experts anticipating an increased reliance on cars when the pandemic ends, preparing for parking is a vital step for any business.

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