Year: 2013

I wonder as I wander, no wait, Christmas is over. I wonder as I mosey through the security line at the airport, if everyone who

Time seems to have caught up with me and I didn’t get around to blogging about this greatest of holidays until today. So there. We

This is really strange — I don’t know if they are just trying to be PC or really don’t understand the problem but in this

Its Christmas time in the city and time to see movies. I have seen two in the past week, one at my behest and one

This is a guest blog post by Ryan Neu, Co-founder of TicketZen (www.ticketzen.com), the company that has unified and optimized the way we pay parking

I have known Chuck for longer than either of us wants to acknowledge. He has been a tireless supporter and a good friend.  Here is

The following letter is circulating from the SFMTA, the Parent of SF Park. I post it in its entirety. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency

Parking lots and crime often go hand in hand. Something about a closed off parking garage or the wide open spaces of a parking lot

It’s safe to say I have no idea where Utrecht is, but I like what I’ve read about a parking garage recently completed for the

I love to see somebody putting their money where their mouth is. Sometimes it seems like there’s just so much talking and so little doing.

A Washington Post blogger points out the sad truth that hospitals around the country can tell you what their parking rates are, but not the

It would be easy to put on my curmudgeon hat and grump around about Football, Turkey, and green bean casserole. But I rather like this

It’s heartwarming that the simple act of parking can be transformed into a gesture of giving. Red parking meters in downtown San Diego take payments

From the Chattanooga Times-Free Press: Jim Berry, head of Republic Parking System and the owner of some major downtown buildings, died this morning. Berry’s company

The Parking Industry Exhibition is pleased to announce that Marilyn Etheridge has joined the organization as its team leader in charge of attendee outreach. Her

Correspondent Mark pointed this story in my direction. Seems researchers at Carnegie Mellon are discovering that all electric vehicles, being mandated by governments far and

Chad Reed of 3M and I were discussing how one company can make a different in an industry. He noted that Apple had completely changed

I have had a great week in Parking. I spend Monday dinner with Marilyn Etheridge in Tampa. She has joined the PIE crew to help

There’s something about huge tragedies that lodge forever in our memories. The Hindenburg disaster (no I wasn’t around for that). Pearl Harbor, (not that either),

A new website created by the City of Los Angeles will show drivers where they can expect to get a ticket or where they can

I had a most interesting discussion with Mike Harley, COO of SMC Software.  Amongst other things, we discussed parking reservations and I gave my usual

Cruise ship passengers in Miami disembarked from their dream vacation to a valet parking nightmare: their cars keys were lost. Read the article here. Vehicle

In his testimony before the Washington DC Zoning board, Matt Malinowski ended with the following: Rather than perpetuating the current set of arbitrary requirements based

Elections have consequences. Seems the city of Cincinnati,OH, had cut a deal with its port authority, Xerox, and others to privatize the parking in the

A manufacturing plant was having trouble with a new machine. The huge mechanical monster simply wouldn’t run.  They had tried everything. Nothing worked. It hiccuped,

City of Salem Vows to Strictly Enforce Downtown Parking Rules Read the article here. This headline is pretty much the stamp of failure. If you

A high school in East Bridgewater, Mass. is offering 20 reserved parking spaces for teachers who drive fuel-efficient cars. The plan is to inspire more

This is the first of a series of articles, to be expanded in Parking Today, from The Temecula Group, a parking think tank that meets

From Don Shoup at UCLA: The unintended irony in the last sentence of this invitation suggests how far UCLA has to change to become sustainable.

If it seems like a lot of these posts are about San Francisco, that’s because it has just about the worst parking problems in the

The Temecula Parking Group met this past weekend in, guess where, Temecula, California. We talked, argued, laughed, ate, drank and generally had a perfect parking

In a stunning turn of events, parking authorities in England have recommended motorists fight more parking tickets and have a plan to make it easier

Shawn Brown, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, Town of North Hempstead, NY, took Parking Today along on his trek to Rio De

A Government functionary in the UK., one Eric Pickles, is calling for a half hour of free parking on street in the central business districts

When I was a kid, we couldn’t wait until we could drive. I think it was 15 and a half and I got a learner’s

The headline was just a teaser – there really is no trouble at Trader Joe’s. Just because people complain doesn’t mean there is actually a

Handicapped parking is a hot button for me and a lot of people. The issue with having hot buttons, however, is that they are easily,

In Milwaukee, a new system for parking enforcement has raised concern in residents.Now, parking permits will be issued a permit number that will be electronically

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could

My friend Mike Bigbee returns to the parking industry after a decade hiatus to become CEO for the Americas of revenue control manufacturer TIBA. His

The Canadian Parking Foundation’s bi-annual World Parking Symposium is on for 2014. the dates are June 29 to July 3. The meetings will be held

It seems that former Secretary of State and Presumed Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton was in the UK the other day and parked for 45 minutes

Technology is the taking the parking industry by storm.  The NPA show in Chicago last week was no exception. It seemed like every other booth

Columbus Day — We celebrate it to recognize an explorer who braved the unknown to discover the New World for Spain. But do we?  The

With all the myriad ways to get information today, why should we spend the time and money going to trade events. Its true that attendance

The brainiacs at the Milwaukee School of Engineering have shown us all what they are made of: they built their new soccer stadium on top

Once again Christine Banning and her band of volunteers have turned a magnificent show. With over 1000 attendees, this year’s NPA Conference and Trade Show

In Middletown, Connecticut, a parking garage is shedding its outer layer. Salt and water are mixing with the concrete to create a drippy sludge that

I will set aside my prejudices against USC (or the University of Spoiled Children, as we call it in my circle) and focus solely on

If you look in the dictionary for a definition of  “Tour de Force” you will find one word. “Gravity.”  Writer and Director Alfonso Cuaron spent

Some people who get laid off sit around crying for a few days, sign up for unemployment, and then begin the endless slog of finding

As the City of Seattle tries to carry out a program to enforce parking laws on its worst offenders, city officials have acknowledged some major

I guess it shouldn’t surprise one.  The District of Columbia, our nation’s capital, can’t seem to get residential parking permits straight. That shouldn’t surprise a

We’ve all seen those commercials – the ones where a sad-faced young adult talks about how he killed three members of one family because he

I have been losing my hearing for upwards of 20 years. It is insidious. You don’t know its happening.  People may notice you don’t hear,

Can a parking spot be unlucky? A woman in England has had a pretty bad run with the spot out in front of her house.

When you think about it, driving a car must be easy. We drive billions of miles each day in the US with around 32 000

Over at Paul Barter’s Reinventing Parking, he goes into detail about the call for more parking in Hamilton, ON. Seems that although the city has

OK, I gave Don a bit of flack in the last post, but I have to throw a few roses in this one.  A blogger

An article in the San Francisco Examiner challenges the long held supposition that 30 percent of all traffic in a city are actually cruising looking

Since I’m certain this will not be available in the main stream media, I link here without comment: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324549004579067532485712464.html JVH  

Cynicism is quite a crutch, but it’s statistically true that most people who are murdered are killed by a family member. It’s also statistically accurate

In a report released today at the European Parking Congress, we find that parking in Europe has a value of just a tad under $40

I’m in Dublin — its the European Parking Association Congress. Over 500 delegates from across Europe are gathering here for the event.  According to EPA

An Indiana woman came out the victor in a race for parking, but lost the battle of the barbecue sauce. Ms. April Roney and another

Some 340 meters in downtown Honolulu will not longer accept pay-by-phone transactions as of September 15. The story is that cell transactions are eating up

We all know it’s not safe to look directly at the sun. And the latest news reports say it’s also unsafe to park under the

Voters in Ocean City, Maryland didn’t like the parking meters recently installed on their streets, so they created a petition, gathered signatures and convinced their

I rail about this problem quarterly so here is the summer 2013 edition. The story is from Providence RI but could be from most anywhere.

Here’s the deal — Ft. Collins CO has been using an Autovu system for the past decade to enforce parking around the community. The database

Parking space 32D at 1401 Wilson Blvd, in Arlington, Va., just outside DC was the epicenter of one of the biggest national political scandals in

Too much parking? Who would have thought? But it’s true, an overwhelming surplus of parking has hollowed out Detroit.  It’s understandable that the epicenter of

OK, I’m in Las Vegas.  I’m here on parking business…and I had lunch with the city’s parking guru, Brandy Stanley. Amongst other things we discussed

Chicago’s deal with Chicago Parking Meters LLC has had another interesting effect on parking in the city. It has inspired city leadership to take steps

This time it’s Houston where the anti-yard-parking contingent are looking to keep lawns free of cars. Three civic clubs have filed asking the city to

A New Orleans newspaper recently reported that some football fans are skipping Saints games because parking near the Superdome is getting too pricey for their

Ah yes, the warm afternoons, the cool evening breezes, vacations at the beach, picnics in the park—its summertime and there is another article about millions

Portsmouth, NH has a problem. They have a lot of restaurants and not enough parking. The merchants say that people are cancelling reservations because they

Employees at a hospital in Saskatchewan are getting regular tickets for parking on the street during their shifts. There are 3,000 employees and only 700

For those following the exploits of Paul Manning and the “Death by Parking” series, don’t fret, Paul, Shirley and the rest of the gang will

When I begin to put together an issue of PT, I typically worry about the quality of the articles we have in the pipeline.  The

A new law in New Jersey requires handicapped parking placard holders to provide a note from their doctor when they renew their permits. Not only

John Van Horn and I aren’t the only people trying to be eloquent on the subject of parking. It’s a popular subject online and in

The San Diego based parking operator sprung for $15K to help the local PD purchase bicycles for their patrols. You can read the press release

If you read the parking blog from the bottom up, you would have read my earlier bon mots about cities not using parking revenue to

The City of Palo Alto, CA has a problem. The downtown area doesn’t have enough parking and the employees of downtown are parking in the

There seems to be a lot of conversation out there about the reasons cities set parking fines the way they do. In some cases the

It seems Seattle has found another way to be cooler than the rest of us. Area business owners are applying for permission to build “parklets”

A merchant in Haverhill, New Hampshire says new paid parking policies are not working. You’d expect her to be complaining about the charges and the

The eclectic jazz/pop who knows what to call them group Pink Martini played the Hollywood Bowl this weekend and mesmerized the audience with music from

A guy in Milwaukee got tired of paying late fees for delinquent parking tickets and has created an automated payment system. The “Ninja-like” technology trolls

Yesterday, July 16, 1935, was the year that Oklahoma City installed the first parking meter. Invented by Carl C. Magee, the mechanical meter would become

This issue caused no end of controversy here in California with no less than Donald Shoup weighing in. The deal was an attempt to remove

>Bern Grush is a technologist and forward thinker. He has developed a system that uses satellites and transmitters in cars to locate you vehicle on

Kevin Warwood over at parkingithere blog is musing over a problem he has in his home town of Christchurch, NZ. After a devastating earthquake, the

Toronto parking officials recently decided to start enforcing a law that prohibits scooter parking on sidewalks. The law has been in place, but not applied

Pango, that pay be cell phone company you see popping up heather and yon in the US has its technology based in Israel, in Kadima,

Wednesday in Israel brought Parx, manufacturer of in car meters, and Sandra Smith, head of Parking for the City of Whistler, BC. She is a

Tuesday in Israel brought me to TIBA. This is the Israeli PARCS manufacturer that seems to be taking the US Market by storm, at least

Don’t pay the ransom, I’ve escaped. I know blogging has been nonexistent over the past 10 days.  It seems my hosts in Israel have kept