Year: 2015

I had a wide ranging conversation with Matt Darst, VP at Xerox, the other day. We were discussing where the industry was headed and I

My friend down the street (who owns the Tesla and the Porsche) took her daughter to a local shopping mall on Christmas Eve to pick

There was a knock on our door last night. It was a homeless woman asking for a blanket. At first we said no, but then

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away… When the “Lucasfilm’ logo appears on the screen, followed by the Star Wars logo and

In an ingenious approach to a strange problem, National Car Parks, (NCP) based in Milton Keynes, is asking its customers why they get so many tickets

There’s a new sheriff in town and she cracks a mean whip. We are planning ahead and here’s what you will see over the next

I just completed a webinar for Women in Parking. I was joined by Kathleen Laney and we discussed the pros and cons of social media

Reading Kathleen Laney’s blog on lessons learned is inspiring.  I have to commend her on  having passion for what you are doing first on the

In the rush to embrace technology, there can be a blind spot for potential problems. Smart phone apps have taken over the world. People love them

When things go badly, it’s easy to start pointing fingers, but Lawrence Conrad, owner of Independent Security Services Atlantic Inc., is a good model for

Most people don’t have any idea how big the parking industry is, but the Chicago Tribune recently threw out a number: $30 billion. I would bet it’s bigger than

Around 6 years ago, then Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin hired a private firm to enforce parking in her city. At the time, Atlanta had given up

The city of Boston has announced that smartphone users who download the ParkBoston app with receive two hours of free metered parking this holiday season.

I have been musing for some time about who is affected. I think I have come up with a way to communicate it. The Problem: 

I visited GreenTech Automotive last month.  Here are a few musings after that trip: “Coming to work at GreenTech Automotive is a life changing event.”

At our house, the job of cooking the turkey is mine. I also make the stuffing. Mine is a rather “kitchen sink” stuffing with sausage,

In the post below I noted that Canadian Thanksgiving was not up to American Thanksgiving. In doing so, I offended, I understand, millions of Canadians

Thanksgiving is the truly American Holiday.  They don’t celebrate it in Europe, its a downmarket holiday in Canada, and Asia  — nada. Why? It seems

In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania meter parking is free today because all of the city’s 170 meters are suffering from a glitch that prints the wrong date

The threat of severe weather in Southern California this winter and coming spring has city leaders considering the needs of the homeless. According to lacurbed.com, Los

T2 systems started its annual customer training program in New Orleans yesterday. First time attendees were feted at a reception sponsored by Eco Lighting Solutions,

In Helena, Montana, parking officials are considering charging a $20 administrative fee for drivers who don’t pay their ticket fines within seven days, according to helenair.com. The city ticket charges

Yes, it’s today. As I was growing up, virtually everyone I knew had been in the military. Most had served in WWII or Korea. They

The “Gig Economy”  Ahh Yes – we really needed something new to worry about. For all those luddites that don’t know what it is, the

People have been collecting antique industrial items for years. Street signs, printing press forms, and old tools are all collector’s items. In Saskatoon, Canada, pay

In Atlanta, parkers were made painfully aware of the effort criminals will make to steal their money. According to 11alive.com, a crew of criminals posed

As you know, I’m the least PC person on the planet. I think electric cars are great, its just not my job to pay for

Google’s not just a website we go to ask questions about metrics, diseases we are afraid we might have, and how to spell “accommodate” (two c’s

I was in a meeting yesterday and one of those present said “I heard a rumor up in Canada that pay by cell would take

Yikes — Paul Barter (Reinventing Parking) tweeted that my comment that SF Park was defunct was incorrect. SF Park is up and running, thank you

Four years ago the Downtown San Diego Partnership installed “Donation Station” parking meters to collect money for the homeless. The meters are installed on private

I can always rely on San Francisco for blog fodder.  Today they proudly announced that they were going to install sensors throughout the city to

A little bad attitude goes a long way, especially when it gets turned into print ads and billboards. Airbnb recently lashed out at the city

If we handle it right. The Uber/Airbnb concept, a web company that can put together people who have a service with people who need a

I don’t know why I am surprised. Ethics and our industry became a hot topic at the Temecula Group and I was shocked SHOCKED that

It’s been an amazing year for our industry, and PT December brings you all the news in review. 3M Closes Parking Division – A Major

I have been looking at my favorite web sites, parkingtoday.com and parknews.biz and have come away embarrassed. I noticed that our ads on these sites

In Los Angeles, it’s illegal to lock your bike to a parking meter. It’s probably illegal in a lot of places, because how do parkers use a

I spent this morning with a major developer in Dallas. He supervised building projects across the south, but focused on Georgia and Texas. We were

Just to be clear, the meters in a hip shopping area of Wheeling, West Virginia are decorative, but not only decorative. They still take money and keep

Ridley Scott has another triumph.  The Martian is a techno thriller on a grand scale. The 79 year old director/producer who brought everything from Alien,

Jeff Wolfe ‘adjusted’ PT’s October Cover. Jeff Pinyot sent the new cover to me without out much comment. Somewhere this is a story about Jeff

One of the attendees at this year’s Temecula Parking Group noted that he had been in a number of industries and this meeting was the

If you’ve been to New York City, you’ve seen the traffic. It is, indeed, terrible. I’ve been there and the last thing I want to

This Sunday, the city of Paris will institute a car-free policy between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., reports usatoday.com. The article doesn’t specify how a

I have no clue. But I will tell you one thing, they have trained me to close them immediately without even looking at them. Often

You run an ad — you want to know if it works.  Back in the day you counted bingo cards to see how many people

In Toronto, fines for parking illegally in a handicapped space have tripled. It’s not doing anything to stop those parking in handicapped spots with fraudulent

Yes, it was a silly sitcom that lasted on season in the 60s. But this article in the Washington Post says that not only are

In Center City, Pennsylvania, a special guest is creating parking havoc. Pope Francis will be making a stop in the city later in September, and

Its held on the third Friday in September — That’s this week. The idea is to take a parking space or two, and turn it

I was checking out Parknews.biz and noticed that virtually all the companies mentioned were new, hot off the press, app companies. There was no mention

Everyone who says ‘hi’ on Monday asks that question. I thought about my weekend and at first blush, not so great.  No movie, no clubs,

Astrid snagged an article for Park News by Aashish Dalal from Parkwhiz over on Tech Crunch. Aashish is talking about disruption and whether we are

If there is insurance coverage for parking meters, that’s the business I want to be in. One of my last blogs was about parking meters

I was asked to dinner by Christine Banning at the NPA expo.  This is not really unusual, the NPA has become a great friend of

I spoke with INRIX Chief Marketing Officer Steve Banfield and Parkme co founder Alex Israel yesterday.  They noted that Inrix and Parkme had been working

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a tulsaworld.com columnist has taken a pretty critical stab at the city’s new solar-powered parking meters. One of his main gripes is

A friend visited San Luis Obispo this past weekend. He decided to have lunch on a wide boulevard where there were a number of restaurants.

The leaders of Muscatine, Iowa are looking for their missing parking meters. According to wqad.com, nearly a dozen meters were stolen from the city’s downtown

I consider myself fairly well read and ‘on top’ of what is happening in business, but I began to run into the term “disruption” only

Yikes – Mark quotes a survey in a recent PT article here, that 29% of those owning smart phones ‘can’t imagine living without it.” I

According to this article, one of the reasons credit card companies are going to chip and signature rather than chip and pin is that we

In West Lafayette, Indiana, parking enforcers have a new tool at their disposal: cameras. In the areas around Purdue University, tight parking has brought about

Secure Parking is a major operator here in Australia. I sat in on their presentation at the Parking Australia Outlook Conference yesterday and was blown

Parking Australia, the professional organization for parking pros here in OZ, really has its act together. Beside picking me to speak before their “outlook” conference

In Tucson, Ariz., a resident has filed a complaint against the city for installing its meters too high. At first glance, it seems hard to

There’s construction going on in my neighborhood. They are replacing curbs and gutters, and soon a water main and then the streets.  Chaos reins. The

Everywhere you turn these days there is a list of things to make you life, business, health, or even parking better. On twitter today I

I graduated from UCLA, its also home to parking guru Don Shoup. However according to a story snagged by Astrid at parknews.biz, over 1000 students

News Release from Duncan/CivicSmart Duncan Solutions, Inc. today announced the divestiture of its US-based equipment business, Duncan Parking Technologies, Inc., which provides parking meter and

One day I’m sure I’ll tell my grandchildren about this old fashioned thing called paper money and coins. I won’t mention the typewriter, because they

My industry sources tell me that Duncan Solutions (the US Portion) has been sold to Spectrovation. Spectrovation is the company that owns CivicSmart parking solutions,

Dinner last night with Andreas Jansson from Cale America was enjoyable. He is a  bright young man whose heart and head seem to be in

You think you’ve seen it all and then Chicago starts collecting 20-year-old tickets. I started to read the article, published on chicago.cbslocal.com, and I thought,

We had our company picnic last weekend and virtually all of our staff showed up with their families. It was a super afternoon. The kids

I was discussing Parknews.biz with editor Astrid the other day and was wondering why there was so much news about the new Tech companies in

At least according to this guy. Mr Crichton seems to think that unless you have a talent for the long con, no one will invest

We are all used to driving to a valet, but what if he came to us? That’s the premise of an enterprise called Luxe. In

I have had two twitter events this morning. First of all, a woman that I follow, Kathleen Laney @laneysolutions, posted a piece about finding leaders

A group of transportation companies have designed and built a technology based ‘city’ north of Ann Arbor MI. The goal is to have a testing

It’s reported that some New Orleans parking enforcement officers are in a world of trouble. They are suspected of wasting time sitting around coffee shops

For a moment, let’s talk off street. What do we do? We rent a parking space to a driver for a short period of time,

Manny Rasores deToro, Mr. Parking is tweeting madly about local authorities in the UK that are considering ‘Free Parking” to help central city merchants increase

Over at the “Parking Matters Blog” Frank Giles does an admirable job of giving ideas on how to make customer service in a fully automated

There are over 180,000 Uber drivers in the US. Plus a huge number of Lyft, Sidecar, and the rest. These companies aren’t just taking business

Note: If you think Twitter is for kids and fools, read my post on Twitter and business here. I used to think that, but now

If someone told me two years ago that I would be following Twitter and Facebook, I would have told them they were crazy. This social

In Manhattan Beach, California, where street parking is illegal on weekends and holidays, residents are sounding off about tickets they received on July 3, according

The knee jerk reaction to that questions is an unequivocal YES! How can it not? Technology makes garages run smoother, ensures more money is collected,

I wonder if we get too much information, about things we can’t control and affect us only peripherally.  I want information about my industry so

The folks in Helsinki are planning to have only self driving cars on the road by 2030. That’s only 15 years away. They are certain

In Seattle, a new housing project is bringing up a very old parking argument, reports mynorthwest.com. In Eastlake, city council leaders have waived some parking

Its in the mail — and boy does it look hot. The Handsome Youakim boys from Passport on the cover, plus stories about EMV, PCI,

Does a rising tide REALLY raise all boats? When JFK speechwriter Ted Sorenson was looking for something to help sell the then senators economic policies

Astrid has a tremendous link over at Parknews.biz Missing Comma Gets Woman Out Of A Parking Ticket. (“Let’s eat, Grandpa” – “Let’s eat Grandpa”!) Strunk

I was fortunate to speak to a number of vendors, observers and attendees at the IPI show last week. What follows is some observations gleaned

Las Vegas always sizzles == and the past week was no exception. It was over 110 every day. But the heat didn’t slow the enthusiasm

We celebrated Independence Day this weekend at the Hollywood Bowl along with Sarah Hicks conducting the LA Phil, Smokey Robinson and fantastic fireworks.  It was