Blogs

Vehicle Intelligence: Why Vehicle Identification Must Go Beyond the License Plate By Laura Caillot

By IPMI Blog posted 5 hours ago
By Laura Caillot: License Plate Recognition is entering a new phase. As parking, mobility, and access systems become fully automated, the license plate is no longer just a reference point; it is the transaction key tied directly to revenue, access rights, compliance, and customer experience. And that raises an important question: Is one identifier enough? In real-world environments, license plates are often dirty, damaged, partially obstructed, or inconsistently captured across cameras. Variations in plate formats, vanity designs, and lighting conditions add further complexity. When operations depend entirely on optical character recognition (OCR) reads, ...

New 5-Part Parkonomics Series Examines LA’s $26 Billion Olympic Transportation Bet By Andrew Sachs, CAPP

By IPMI Blog posted yesterday
By Andrew Sachs, CAPP: Parkonomics has published a five-part investigative series examining the transportation infrastructure investments tied to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. The series, co-authored by Andrew Sachs, CAPP and Kevin Bopp with original interviews featuring Frank Ching of LA Metro, applies a mobility economics framework to evaluate whether LA’s $26 billion in Olympic-adjacent transportation spending will produce lasting value or follow the pattern of past host cities. The investigation examines the failure patterns of Athens (2004), Rio (2016), Montreal (1976), and Sochi (2014), analyzes the conditions that made Barcelona (1992) the ...

Your Face Is Your Logo By Trystan Henry, PECP

By IPMI Blog posted 2 days ago
By Trystan Henry, PECP: One of the unique aspects of the parking and mobility industry is how relationship-driven it is. Over time, professionals begin to see the same people across conferences, committees, and industry discussions. In many ways, the industry functions as a close professional community where reputation and relationships travel quickly. Because of this, personal visibility matters. A simple way to think about it is: your face is your logo. You don’t have a personal marketing team. People tend to remember individuals before they remember organizations. When someone consistently participates in industry conversations, contributes ideas, ...

Automation With Guardrails: Bringing Generative AI to Parking By James Paden

By IPMI Blog posted 8 days ago
By James Paden: Generative AI is moving at lightning speed. Headlines predict sweeping change. Vendors and software companies are promising fully automated agents. Our bosses (and their bosses) are demanding an AI strategy yesterday. But parking doesn’t need more hype. It needs discipline. Our industry has been a quiet leader in AI for years. License plate recognition, occupancy counters, and enforcement systems already rely on intelligent technology operating at scale. Generative AI simply adds a new layer — the ability to understand intent and communicate in natural language. That creates real opportunity at every point we interact with motorists: answering ...

Thinking About Traffic Control By Scott Rohde, PECP, PTMP

By IPMI Blog posted 9 days ago
By Scott Rohde, PECP, PTMP: In this blog, I hope to present some information and guidelines regarding temporary traffic control. Typically, we think about traffic control in the context of police officers, construction crews or those involved in flagging operations. But as parking professionals we have to consider major events (planned or unplanned) or special event parking also include traffic getting to the parking space. Most major event venues in universities do not have unlimited resources to hire significant numbers of police to direct traffic. Police of course are best suited to direct traffic on roadways and approaches to the parking area. But ...

Waymo and the Art of Accountability By Carmen Donnell, PTMP

By IPMI Blog posted 14 days ago
By Carmen Donnell, PTMP: When you think about using an autonomous vehicle, is your reaction ‘No Waymo’? Or are you curious about the changing technology around us and instead think ‘Yes Waymo’? Being that I live part time in Phoenix, I have become quite accustomed to seeing Waymo on the streets around us for almost a decade now. First as a testing ground in Tempe and then mainstream as one of the first launch cities in the US. About 18 months ago, my husband Nathan transitioned from Uber to Waymo when it was possible, and I quickly followed suit. Now, I have had numerous experiences, with a wide variety of stories that I can [and frequently do] tell. ...

Rethinking the Curb: From Observation to Evidence-Based Decisions By Dr. George J. Mclean, PTMP, MPA, DBA

By IPMI Blog posted 15 days ago
By Dr. George J. Mclean, PTMP, MPA, DBA: Across the parking and mobility industry, I see leadership undergoing a quiet but significant shift. Traditionally, operational decisions were guided by experience, institutional knowledge, and field observation. While these remain valuable, today’s environment demands something more: evidence-based leadership. The curb is now one of the most contested and valuable assets in municipal parking. We must move beyond intuition and toward decisions grounded in data, research, and measurable outcomes. For years, our traditional approach to curb management relied on observation and anecdotal feedback. When a location felt ...

When the Unthinkable Happens: Trying to Find Steady Ground Again By Lisa Copeland, PTMP

By IPMI Blog posted 22 days ago
By Lisa Copeland, PTMP: Only a few days have passed since our campus was shaken, and yet it feels as if time has stretched and folded in on itself. I’ve watched our faculty, staff, and students move through these days with a heaviness that’s hard to put into words. What we’re feeling isn’t just grief — it’s a deep, disorienting devastation that touches every corner of our routines and relationships. In the earliest moments, everything feels unreal. Shock settles over the community like a thick fog. People speak softly, move slowly, and look at one another with the same unspoken question: How do we even begin to process this? As the days unfold, the ...

99 Tradeshows By Jeff Pinyot

By IPMI Blog posted 23 days ago
By Jeff Pinyot: 5.82 tradeshows per year, that’s what I estimate I’ve attended over the 17 years since founding Level Solutions, now ECO Parking Technologies. Take one down and pass it around, 99 tradeshows under my belt. The early ones, when we were ECO Parking Lights, included a hand-me-down trade show booth that we literally hammered together in the sweaty confines of half lit halls across the nation. What most attendees at trade shows don’t know is this. The Air Conditioning doesn’t fully come on, nor do the “Good Lights” turn on until the doors open to the general population. When I arrive at a trade show, I see my clients dressed in nice suits, ...

Rethinking Future Proofing: Planning for Operational and Technological Evolution By Andrew Sachs, CAPP

By IPMI Blog posted 29 days ago
By Andrew Sachs, CAPP: In this four-part Parkonomics series for Urban Land, Kevin Bopp, Bernard Lee, and Andrew Sachs, CAPP, examine how parking facilities must evolve to remain viable in a rapidly changing mobility landscape. Beginning with Parkonomics: Rethinking Future Proofing , the authors argue that future proofing is not about distant adaptive reuse but about preparing garages to function effectively over the next five to ten years. Rather than focusing solely on flat floors and high ceilings, they emphasize operational flexibility, modular structural grids, strong sightlines for machine-vision systems, and curb extensions that accommodate transportation ...

March/April’s Ask the Experts – More Great Answers!

By IPMI Blog posted 30 days ago
We received so great responses to the March/April 2026 question that we wanted to share them all! Click here to see the responses listed in Parking & Mobility magazine , and then read on for more great thoughts! What is the most impactful step parking and mobility professionals can take today to move cleaner and smarter toward a more sustainable future? @Adam Jones , Vice President, Bedrock Sustainability starts with efficiency. Parking and mobility professionals can make an immediate impact by optimizing existing assets through better utilization, pricing, and shared-use strategies rather than building more. The cleanest parking ...

The Disadvantages of a Fully Automated Parking Access and Revenue Control System (PARCS) By Vincent Thomas, MSM, PTMP

By IPMI Blog posted 03-10-2026
By Vincent Thomas, MSM, PTMP: The transition to a fully Automated Parking Access and Revenue Control System (PARCS) offers many benefits, but it also comes with a set of significant drawbacks that organizations must consider. High Initial Investment Costs: One of the most significant drawbacks of fully automated parking systems is the high initial investment required for their implementation. The cost of purchasing and installing the necessary hardware, including sensors, cameras, robotic mechanisms (in advanced systems), payment kiosks, and access gates, can be substantial. Furthermore, the specialized software required to manage the system, along with ...

Building Digital-First Infrastructure: Shaping the Future of Mobility By Alwyn J Veliyeth

By IPMI Blog posted 03-04-2026
By Alwyn J Veliyeth: It’s a busy Saturday lunchtime, and your city parking lot is filling up fast. EV chargers are occupied, rideshare drop-offs are backing up, and drivers are stuck in line at the ticket machine, wondering why they can’t just pay by phone. Your decade-old parking system isn’t broken. It’s doing exactly what it was designed to do. The trouble is that consumer expectations have changed. Today’s drivers expect parking to behave like every other digital service they use –seamless, omnichannel, and instant – allowing them to check EV charger availability before arrival, extend parking remotely, and move between transport modes without re-entering ...

Critical Thinking Part 3 By Scott Rohde, PECP, PTMP

By IPMI Blog posted 03-03-2026
By Scott Rohde, PECP, PTMP: This blog wraps up my thoughts on applying critical thinking to new employee onboarding and on-the-job training. I will describe an example of how I would apply critical thinking training to a session for new employees. My example will be training the employees on the importance of customer service. First, I would begin by clarifying the employees background information, customer service, and develop a working knowledge of what he or she already knows. I would then ask them to describe a time when they applied good customer service skills. I would use the employees’ response as a time to inform them about the uniqueness of ...

Most of Them are Telling the Truth By Ben Schnabel, PTMP

By IPMI Blog posted 02-25-2026
By Ben Schnabel, PTMP: Being a frontline staff person can sometimes test your faith in people. You will inevitably be presented with stories that might not be truthful, particularly if it involves people getting out of paying their fee. It doesn’t take long for frontline staff and supervisors to become jaded and mistrustful. How do you tell if this is just another story? And more importantly, how are you going to respond to them? Start every conversation with the premise that they are telling the truth. It’s a much better outcome if you start by believing them and then uncover that it isn’t true rather than suspecting them of deceiving you to ...

Revolutionizing the First Mile: The Power of Automated Airport Parking By Vincent Thomas, MSM, PTMP

By IPMI Blog posted 02-23-2026
By Vincent Thomas, MSM, PTMP: For many travelers, the journey doesn’t begin at the boarding gate; it starts in the parking garage. Transitioning to a fully automated Parking Access and Revenue Control System (PARCS) is no longer just a luxury for airports—it is a strategic necessity that balances operational excellence with passenger satisfaction. Seamless Efficiency and Speed The primary advantage of automation is the elimination of friction. Technologies like License Plate Recognition (LPR) and contactless mobile payments allow travelers to enter and exit without fumbling for tickets or waiting in long kiosk lines. This “ticketless” flow significantly ...

When Climate Risk Meets Mobility Planning: Why Severe Weather Resilience Matters for Parking Infrastructure By Michael Dunlap

By IPMI Blog posted 02-18-2026
Parking & Mobility Magazine Online Exclusive By Michael Dunlap Climate risk, particularly severe weather, is becoming an increasingly important factor in how parking and mobility infrastructure is designed and how vehicles are insured and protected. Hail is one of the costliest and most disruptive weather threats facing vehicle-centric infrastructure in the United States. As vehicles with panoramic glass roofs, advanced sensors, and EV components become increasingly technologically complex and expensive to repair, the financial impact of hail damage continues to grow. At the same time, insurers are responding with higher premiums, stricter underwriting, ...

Critical Thinking Part 2 By Scott Rohde, PECP, PTMP

By IPMI Blog posted 02-17-2026
By Scott Rohde, PECP, PTMP: In my previous blog , I talked about the importance of onboarding and introduced critical thinking and scenario-based training as very important considerations when it comes to preparing new workers. I want to provide a few specifics about critical thinking and how it can be effectively delivered by the trainer. Critical thinking is really a process. It has been described as the cognitive engine which drives problem solving. It involves the learner developing good self-regulatory judgment and thinking through the implications of every decision before they conclude the decision-making process. This includes as well as unstated ...

Policy Corner By Vanessa Solesbee, PTMP, CCTM

By IPMI Blog posted 02-10-2026
Extreme Weather is Here – Are We Ready? By Vanessa Solesbee, PTMP, CCTM: Extreme weather events are becoming a more regular occurrence. As I write this blog, large portions of the country are digging out from significant winter weather events – many of whom do not experience ice, snow and subzero temperatures on a regular (or even occasional!) basis. While emergency response efforts often focus on road conditions and public safety, parking and curbside policy can play an equally critical role in maintaining access for delivery of vital public services to support residents before, during and after an extreme weather event. During IPMI’s January 28 ...

CMPA Brief: Body-Worn Cameras in Parking Enforcement By Dulce Gomez, PTMP, SHRM-CP

By IPMI Blog posted 02-09-2026
By Dulce Gomez, PTMP, SHRM-CP: The California Mobility & Parking Association (CMPA) surveyed agencies throughout California from December 10, 2025, through January 10, 2026, to understand the use and impact of Body-Worn Cameras (BWCs) in parking enforcement. Across CMPA respondents, BWC adoption in parking enforcement is emerging but not yet widespread. Where cameras are deployed, members most frequently cite reduced complaints and improved public interactions. A minority highlight governance barriers or mixed behavioral effects, underscoring the need for clear policy, training, and change management. We received 35 responses across city/county, police, ...