Point of View

Regular readers of this column know that a couple of things get my dander up. One is where “our betters” feel it is OK to

I took a quick trip that required air travel. I have a couple of comments.   First, air travel seems to be “back.” I took

I opened PIE 2024 with the announcement of sale of Parking Today Media to Kevin Uhlenhaker.  I will let you read it here:   I

It is difficult to realize that as people age, their abilities in certain areas change. A friend pointed out that when running the Boston Marathon,

  The EV crumbling has begun. General Motors and Honda have pulled back their EV programs and cut drastically the number of such vehicles they

January 2024   would have thought that a business transaction in the parking industry would involve the number $1.5 billion? What venture capitalist would consider

Just what is “mobility”? The best answer I can get is that it’s the use of some way to get from Point A to Point

July, 2023 “Any damn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple.” – Pete Seeger Social activist and folk singer

June, 2023   For those of you who might have noticed that I haven’t been my normal self lately, I thought you deserved an explanation.

May, 2023 I have been distracted with PIE and other issues, so I decided to look back a few years and rerun a few postings

April, 2023 I was reading in the parking media about scooter parking and the use of scooters (Bird, Lime, etc). As you know, I live at

March, 2023   I have received a gazillion emails touting local health spas and online health programs. Get your body in shape for the new year.

February, 2023   Astrid Ambroziak, our Parknews.biz editor, reports that she is getting news every day that crime in parking, read that in garages and

January, 2023   For years, I have expressed concern about the ‘fixing’ of society’s ills. Our betters have a solution, that in most cases involves

From Point of View, December 2021 – I cannot improve on it. The phrase “In Hoc Anno Domini” refers to the conversion of St. Paul

I’m pulling together the October issue of PT and am humbled by the articles we have on hand. We reached out to organizations industry wide

We are constantly harangued by those who know more than we do that the world’s problems relate back to parking. There is too much of

I have just read for the fourth time an article published by the Commercial Real Estate Development Association titled “Parking in a Post Pandemic Economy.” I

From time to time I attempt a movie review. I will not in this case. There is no need. The public has spoken, as have

Chase is launching a program to place EV charging at 50 of its branches across the fruited plain. They are partnering with EVgo and plan

I will open this with a bit of crow eating. My buddy Tony in Portland has criticized me for using the term “our betters” in various

Our Keynote speaker next month at PIE is an old and dear friend of mine, someone I knew when we both were new in parking,

Recently, PT’s Creative Director Astrid and I spent an hour and a half with Michelle Horton, the Director of Parking and Transportation Services at the

Bloomberg labs has published an article by Eric Jaffe on a study done by a bunch of Italian statisticians concerning folks’ preference to cars over

I blasted through a headline over at Parknews.biz concerning parking at Trader Joe’s. It was, I thought, a ‘dog bites man’ story. After all, we all

From my Blog, December 2020: The phrase “In Hoc Anno Domini” refers to the conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus. Every year,

Let’s start with a quick note – take the time to read Jeff Pinyot’s column on page 14 in this issue. It is perhaps the

Reading can be recreation, like watching TV. Except that when you watch TV, no mental activity is required. You simply sit and it washes over

I know, I know – I’m a contrarian. Someone says up, I say down. Someone says white, I say black. I get this from being right

I have spoken to a number of people who have been vaccinated, and their experiences have been positive. Not just that they are now protected from

I was in Las Vegas last month and the city was abuzz with the news that the World of Concrete would be held in early June

Twenty-Five years seems to some like a long time, but for me it went by in the blink of an eye. Parking Today Volume One

It was 1996. Bill Clinton was elected president. Gas was $1.22 a gallon. The Dow closed the year at 6,400. Mad Cow Disease was ravaging

There are two articles over on Parknews.biz that caught my eye. One has to do with “Parking Hunger Games,” the difficulty of finding on street

I hadn’t been on an airplane for nine months. For most, that doesn’t seem unusual, but checking my calendar for 2019, I was averaging two to

The holidays shouldn’t be too difficult this year. What with politics, the virus, and our betters telling us not to celebrate, what could possibly go

I have been sitting here trying to figure out what to write. Normally, I am bubbling over with ideas to put down on paper, or planning

Over on Parknews.biz, Astrid has posted an article from the The Atlantic Magazine. The article posits that millennials are buying cars. Yes, this group that

Celebrations like Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Veteran’s Day are among the things that define the American Experiment. When we declared independence from England nearly

Is parking back? Will the recovery be a “V” or a lopsided “S”? The answers to these questions mean jobs, profit, and, in some cases,

Author Erik Larson writes historical nonfiction based on tremendous in-depth research about his subject. He quotes sources and diarists and blends two or more complex

As I write this in the first week in April, I pray that when you read it, we will have turned that famous corner. My

The State of Nevada has changed the requirements to get a driver’s license. They have removed the part of the driving test that asks the

Longtime readers know that I love to take the temperature of one issue or another by simply looking around. Weather – look outside. Automated vehicles

As I write this in January, I begin to think about the future. I’m not sure why, I can barely deal with today, but it’s

When I spoke at a recent regional parking event, I was riffing on the money involved in municipal parking. I told the story of a

I’m writing this the day after Halloween, so it’s difficult to get in the Christmas spirit. I usually reserve most of the gift buying for

When John Van Horn approached me to serve as Guest Editor for this November issue of Parking Today – the Veterans in Parking Issue –

Over at his Power 2 Go blog, Keith Jones expresses concern that mergers and acquisitions and the influx of venture capital money into the parking

“Wow! He’s really hard core, isn’t he”? That’s the response I got when I gave a five minute talk to the Parking Resource Forum held

Melbourne’s Elizabeth Taylor has written a fantastic piece for the online publication of Monash University which takes us through the maze of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart

My comments on my blog about Tony Jordan and Portland created a Twitter storm, well maybe a Twitter drizzle, and I found myself lambasted from

A federal court in the Midwest has ruled that chalking is no longer legal in five midwestern states. What the heck is that all about? It

The Parking Industry must adapt to changing times. We must become involved in planning and government as urban areas evolve. Parking is part of the

I’m told I’m a story teller. I was asked to craft a story to go with Dale Denda’s presentation last month at PIE. He posits

I have been musing about name changes and when I did my daily review of Parknews.biz I noted that a large number of the stories focus

When you come to PIE, you bring a world of experience to share. You also bring issues to solve. Whether it is curb congestion, revenue

The World Resource Institute is hawking a blog that is bemoaning the fact that urban sprawl exists and therefore an individual’s carbon footprint is larger

It’s All Hallows Eve as I write and the mind immediately turns to the holidays. Thanksgiving and then Christmas, Chanukah, Ramadan, Chinese New Year. Except

Well that was scary, for a minute, anyway. When I was given the honor of being this month’s editor for the special Women in Parking

One year ago, I was approached and asked to be the incoming Women in Parking chairperson. I was honored and flattered. For the past five

Back in the day, particularly in Manhattan, but in other places as well, parking was all about price and availability. If there was space, you

Last week I stayed at a major hotel in Las Vegas. The rules are that hotel guests pay for parking but get in-and-out privileges. If

When I was rereading a piece found in my favorite magazine about TDM and how our betters seem to go for the big, expensive solution

I have been to two parking trade events so far this year, the IPI and PIE. I’ll tell you about the IPI in a minute, but

An article from ITS International, posted on Parknews, attempts to define smart parking and I think comes up short. To wit: Smart parking should: •

There is a theory that everyone can be slotted into one of two camps. Are you an artist or a plumber, are you Kirk or

This issue of Parking Today is our Technology Issue. I have asked a number of tech providers, consultants, and others to write about the topic

When I started Parking Today almost a quarter of a century ago, my goal was to increase communications within the parking industry. I have been

Why did the economy stall and stumble during the Obama years, and yet take off like a rocket upon Trump’s election? Many wags say that

It’s two days before Halloween as I write this, and 100 degrees outside. It’s hard to think about a Christmas message. However, the stores are

Whenever the muse leaves me, or I become frustrated or bored, I rearrange my office. It would give me a different perspective and hopefully get

I had the privilege of attending the “Smart Cities Connect” event in Austin, TX. After spending a couple of days with the movers and shakers of

Has anyone figured out yet how John Van Horn’s head works? If so, please email me – any insight is warmly welcomed! In his John

LA shopping center magnate Rick Caruso is certain that autonomous vehicles are coming, and he thinks sooner rather than later. In an article featured on

I was favored to spend some time at PARKEX in the UK last month with the senior staff at IPS and, in a different meeting, with

As I was working on articles for PT April, I received stories from my usual sources (our columnists and unsolicited “over the transom,” plus the

A contributor’s post over at PowerLineBlog.com in late January reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend about Teslas and “range anxiety.”  He was

Correspondent Mark reports in a message headed “Premature Speculation” that car sales in the U.S. in 2016 are the highest ever and feels that the

In January, wags are supposed to enter a list of predictions as to what is going to happen in the upcoming year. It’s usually a

In an article posted on InsideSources.com, the author reports on a Pittsburgh conference where speakers posited that “Smart Cities” might make the “American Dream” possible

According to Wikipedia, the word Technology (“science of craft,” from Greek τέχνη, techne, “art, skill, cunning of hand”; and –λογία, -logia[3]) is the collection of

Volume 1, Number 1. Periodicals track themselves by volume and number. The volume indicates the year of publication from its beginning; the number notes the

 I have been musing for some time on the topic of parking industry “outsiders” buying up parking suppliers. What is going to happen when well-known

 What was once just another classic JVH moment of creativity – “Hey, let’s dedicate an entire issue of Parking Today to Women in Parking!” –

 Gerhard Mayer, an architect, urban planner and futurist in Los Angeles, has written a long piece for the Planetizen Inc. website on how parking affects

 “Smart Cities” – What are they?  What will they be?  Who is driving this philosophy? Is Smart Cities a term in search of a definition?

 The parking industry has been a tad panicked over driverless cars. OMG! Once they take over, there will be no need for on-street parking, certainly

 It was so great — you drove up in front of the hotel, tossed your keys to the valet, and they parked your car. You

 I’ve spent the last few days pulling together articles for PT February. It doubles as the program for PIE, and I am becoming very familiar

 For some time, I have been musing about who is affected when a law is passed. I think I have come up with a way

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