According to a recent investigation by the Parking Management Institute, more than half of the established parking lots need some kind of parking management system. Because of an increase in population and development, parking is becoming more and more limited.
Even with the creation of parking garages and towers, there doesn't seem to be enough space.
A great way to combat the complications that arise with parking structures is to take advantage of parking management. Parking management is a revolutionary system that can help your company take control of its parking and make the area around your building safer.
To learn more about parking management, keep reading. We have everything you need to know about parking management below.
Parking management consists of a group of strategies that work towards creating more efficient parking facilities. Efficiency can be met by improving the parking structures themselves or improving the quality of service at those parking facilities.
Parking will only become a bigger issue as time goes on. You have to get your parking lot under control now to avoid catastrophes later. Using a parking management system can help you meet these organizational goals as well as land use, economic, and transportation goals.
There are many different ways that your company can take advantage of parking management. Depending on your company's current problems and future goals, certain strategies may work better than others.
Parking management companies are equipped to deal with different kinds of parking issues. If you're currently experiencing issues (or are anticipating that you may experience issues in the future), you should get an idea of how a parking management company could help you.
With so many different strategies, parking management companies will have one that can help you get your parking under control.
Keep reading to learn some of the most popular strategies that have worked for parking lots just like yours. Whether you have a cramped space or a large tower, there's bound to be a strategy that can save your lot from a disaster.
Shared parking simply refers to the act of removing any assigned parking that a building may have. Many establishments use the practice as a way to make sure certain people have parking.
However, assigned parking can actually cause parking to become more scarce, and is an inefficient method of allocation.
At any given point in time, there may be some assignees that are out of office, on sick-leave, or simply using a different form of transportation. When these people are gone, others could be using their space.
This is not to mention the fact that their space may be closer to the building. One day, one of your employees might enjoy a slightly closer space to the building due to a sprained ankle, a late-night, or even just a bad day.
Shared parking can also refer to the act of multiple buildings sharing the same parking deck. For example, an office building and a restaurant could share the same parking deck since they have different peak times.
Parking regulations refer to those rules that some parking lots and complexes use to minimize traffic and maximize parking turnover. There are a number of ways that organizations have taken advantage of different parking regulations.
We've listed a few common examples below. You may have noticed some of these in your own daily life.
One of the biggest problems with parking lots today is that they aren't made for the current population or traffic pattern of the place that they're located in. Many parking lots and garages were built before cities expanded and other buildings were added.
It's hard to predict what the future landscape is going to look like. Therefore, many parking lots aren't made to handle geographical changes.
By keeping yourself current on the population in the area as well as the traffic flow, you can help maintain a proper, helpful parking lot. Otherwise, you may find that you can't keep up with demand.
Keeping up with the standards and recommendations of the current time can also help you improve the walkability of the area. This way, employees and students will be able to access your building by walking. Even if it's too crowded for this, you can encourage the use of public transportation.
After reading a little bit about parking management, you may be wondering how it all works.
Parking management is usually carried out by individual companies and services include enforcement, setup, signage, traffic flow management, revenue collection, mobile payments, and more.
City planners and transportation engineers are then put to work on alleviating the issue that has been identified. Sometimes, fixing the problem can make the problem slightly worse for a short period of time. However, these construction projects are typically quick fixes that happen easily.
While professionals are working on fixing the parking problems, they are keeping up-to-date on traffic problems, population trends, and more. As time has gone by, planners have gotten better at predicting trends in population and parking so that they can prepare for future problems as well as current problems.
Because it seeks to fix the problems that arise with an increase in population and crowding, there are many benefits to effective parking management. Several garages and property owners have seen the benefits of parking management strategies as they've used them first-hand.
In fact, you've probably seen many of the benefits of parking management yourself. You've seen handicapped spots that allow disabled people to have a closer walking distance. You've seen restricted parking areas.
Whether you've realized it yet or not, you've benefitted from parking management strategies yourself. Restricted parking allows you to have more lanes on the road during rush hour. Shared parking lots give you a closer spot to where you want to go.
To learn about the less obvious benefits of parking management, keep reading. We've listed a few of the most revered qualities of these strategies.
By managing where the parked vehicles are going, you can help leave more room on the road for other vehicles who are trying to drive. If parked cars remained on the road at all times, they would hinder traffic and cause more issues. Parked vehicles could block an entire lane that those who are driving could use.
Organized parking lots help off of the road as well. People who are driving around in a parking lot can find it difficult to find a space or navigate the parking lot without getting caught in twists and turns around other vehicles.
By having clear parking rules, you can make sure that everyone understands where they need to go. This avoids traffic within the parking area and makes parking easier for everyone.
By applying some new parking rules, you could save tons. Your expected savings do depend on which strategy or strategies you employ. However, you will see some changes in your budget no matter what you choose.
By using Shared Parking, convenient pricing, or other similar methods, you'll find that you're gaining parking spaces back. Your employees and/or students may need to walk a little farther, but it will do your company the most good.
By saving these spaces for others, you can make sure that you're dropping costs on your parking. You don't have to worry about providing all of the spaces. Rather, you can use the space to invite more customers and visitors in.
If people are carpooling, using public transportation or taking advantage of walkability, you will notice that you're having your employees and students use their vehicles less. This saves all parties money. They will pay less on gas, and you'll pay less in parking.
By having fewer vehicles on the road, you're improving traffic, relieving infection, and reducing road risk. This is not to mention the fall in pollution and urban sprawl that you'll see over time.
Pulling vehicles off the road by creating these free incentives will be a win-win situation for everyone. You'll notice the difference as employees and students find the benefits of walking and taking public transportation outweigh the 'need' to drive to work or school.
By enacting parking management strategies, you're going to notice a better and more efficient use of your parking space. Overall, you'll find that your parking space will become more useful for community land use.
This space can now be used to increase walkability in urban areas. This is as opposed to making traffic worse than it already is.
The better, more efficient parking design also helps in fulfilling any objectives that the city may have. You can help meet environmental goals while slowly removing traffic from the roads.
Although parking management has so many benefits, it does come with some costs. As with anything, there could be unforeseen consequences and effects.
Since parking management strategies have been used commonly before, we can predict some of the effects.
If you want to know what some of the costs of parking management are, keep reading. We'll let you know what you might encounter after implementing these parking strategies.
If you choose to increase parking prices or encourage your employees to park further away, you could just be displacing the traffic. While the traffic in your area won't change, you could be increasing the traffic around another nearby parking lot.
This could also happen if your employees don't find favor with solutions like carpooling and public transportation. While these may be great options for the environment, you may just find that no amount of convincing can encourage them.
Spillover impacts only happen if your employees choose to park someone else rather than take advantage of different options. If you're going to convince them to take advantage of other options, making sure that you're communicating why these options are better for everyone.
If you do decide to inflict costs on parking, you might find that your employees and/or students are defiant. They won't want to pay the extra money or move elsewhere.
They could feel like they're being pushed out of there own space. It's important to listen to your employees and/or students if they are sharing concerns of being pushed out.
It's important to highlight how great the transition is for the entire company (and city) as a whole. You could even show support by carpooling or using public transportation yourself.
Parking management requires more overhead. You'll need to make sure that you have people in place to manage parking regulations and make sure that rules set in place are actually being followed.
You may find that you don't have the staff to take on parking management. However, you should know that much of parking management can simply be done by setting an example.
Taking on parking management doesn't mean you need a team of police officers on your property. However, you may need to hire an extra staff member or two to regulate parking.
If you're looking to take advantage of parking management and all that its services have to offer, look no further than AirGarage. We offer a wide variety of parking management services for your parking needs.
Whether you're looking for a parking operator, a parking machine, or even just a consultation, AirGarage has what you're looking for.
Feel free to contact us today so we can help you take control of your parking space.
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