What We Can Learn from Campus Parking
Important as institutions of higher learning and pillars of research, colleges and universities also serve another critical function by acting as hotbeds of innovation. As this month’s issue of Parking Today amply illustrates, U.S. universities devote considerable time and attention to the subject of parking, offering key lessons that stand to benefit the industry at large.
In our cover story, we profile Sheryl Boyd, the assistant director of parking and transportation services at Chapman University in Orange, California. Through the careful introduction of new parking technologies, including digital parking management, Boyd has improved the campus parking experience while also making parking much more manageable (see pages 19-22). These improvements benefit students and faculty as well as members of the public attending events on campus.
On college campuses, employee reserved parking spaces paradoxically can be some of the most sought after but least used parking spots, resulting in serious inefficiency. At the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), a unique approach to managing reserved parking spaces has benefited employees, students, and the university itself by providing parking more efficiently and cost-effectively. As detailed by the UTA’s Greg Hladik, the university’s Smart-Flex Reserved Zone Program eliminated 87% of reserved parking spaces on campus while keeping the employee parking experience essentially unchanged and reducing parking permit costs for affected staff (see pages 23-24).
Safety is of paramount concern on university campuses. At Florida International University (FIU), this concern has led to proactive efforts to address the problem of suicide at the parking garages at FIU's Modesto A. Maidique Campus. In her article, the FIU’s Nicole Gazol describes the recently deployed suicide-risk-detection system that seamlessly integrates with the rooftop security infrastructure in all six of the university’s garages (see pages 36-37). By intervening as soon as possible in the event of a suicide attempt, FIU aims to help distraught individuals avoid a tragic outcome and prevent the devastating consequences that their family and friends otherwise would have to suffer.
I would love to hear your thoughts on these or any other items in this issue.
Sincerely, Jay Landers
CORRECTION
Astrid Ambroziak’s last name was misspelled in last month’s Editor’s Note. We regret the error.
