Contemporary Approaches to Parking Pricing: - FHWA Operations

In smaller downtowns it is possible to conduct license plate occupancy and duration counts that cover all or most of
the inventory manually. These counts can be conducted with assistance from part-time employees or interns. Ideally,
counts should be updated at least once a year or after changing prices or time limits. In larger communities it may not
be possible to analyze all parking facilities on a regular basis. In this situation conducting counts in sample areas that
are representative of the larger community can reduce costs. LPR technology can significantly decrease the staff time
required to conduct occupancy and duration counts.
If a community has advanced meters but lacks space sensors, meter payment data can be used to roughly estimate
parking occupancy and duration. SFpark and other agencies are developing processes for doing this in an accurate
manner. Meter data can be supplemented by manual counts.
Adjusting prices on an annual basis, rather than quarterly or monthly, will further reduce the staff time needed to
implement a performance-based parking policy.
3.4 Going Forward
In the future, technology will become more affordable, integrate better, and offer more opportunities for sharing data.
Cities and municipalities are likely to use overlapping technologies such as parking meters, pay by phone, and LPR
technology, which will likely result in increased demand for improved data integration. In turn, this should make it
easier for cities to integrate parking payment and enforcement systems.
Improvements in LPR technology should make the collection and tracking of occupancy and duration data easier as
well, and the way in which parking data are shared is also likely to change. Online and mobile tools that allow parkers
to check on the availability and cost of parking are just beginning to appear, and their presence in the marketplace is
likely to increase significantly in the future. The integration of radio-frequency identification chips that allow cell
phones to communicate with nearby electronics will likely give parkers one more way to pay. The potential to integrate
mobile devices into the payment, data tracking, and parking space locator functions should offer significant opportunities
to innovative manufacturers and communities.
Mechanical parking meters ruled the world of parking for decades, negating the need for parking managers to monitor
new technologies and manufacturers. Today a parking agency must carefully examine its technology options and attempt
to see far enough into the future that its asset purchases do not become quickly outdated.
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