News & Insights

Prep for pay by plate As you plan for your transition to a pay by plate parking system, it’s imperative you understand the full scope of situation. This includes examining both parking management systems: what you’re working with now and what you want to see in place once the transition is complete. Transitioning to pay by plate parking isn't always a linear path. Because of this, we’ve released “The Facts of the Matter" to set you up for pay by plate success. This downloadable sheet should provide you with some insight around what obstacles may stand between you and a pay by plate implementation. Submit your email address below to access it instantly. hbspt.forms.create({ portalId: "154767", formId: "2c13c2cb-195a-40a1-b8e4-befe79ddeb91" });

Parking enforcement software solutions for parking management agencies have been historically dominated by Microsoft operating systems like Windows CE and Windows Embedded Handheld. As end-users expect their work devices and applications to look and function like personal devices, application developers have recently begun looking for viable alternatives. Google Android is being watched closely, mainly due to the benefits of Android OS in the consumer smartphone market to enhance user experience. Both end-users and application developers have recently begun looking for a viable alternative. Google Android has emerged as the OS that most businesses and developers are evaluating primarily due to its popularity in the consumer smartphone market and the following several reasons: More and more parking managers expect e-ticketing software solutions to include the same user experience as consumer smartphones. The ease-of-adoption lowers the training costs associated with deployment, especially among younger workers. In general, one of the main benefits of Android OS is that it is considered more modern and optimized for touch applications. Enterprises are looking to develop applications that may be provisioned to their employees and also offered directly to consumers on their own devices. Some developers feel that it is faster to develop applications for Google Android The Android Market Place has hundreds of thousands of applications that may be helpful for end-users in day-to-day activities and also provides a new route to market for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). Some companies are simply frustrated with Microsoft and don’t see a clear roadmap beyond Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5. The demand for the new generation of mobile is a strong indicator that the market is dictating a new direction for commercial devices. What follows are only a few of the Android OS benefits in parking management, along with best practices and considerations when evaluating the most talked about issue when it comes to the new mobile revolution: security. New innovations are being developed that mean when it comes to parking enforcement, Android OS is not only a viable e-ticketing solution, but a more affordable one. Thus, it opens the doors for smaller government agencies, including parking enforcement and police agencies, with modest budgets to easily transition to an Android software solution for parking management needs. Device management considerations for the IT professional  There are number of OEM device management solutions emerging for the rapidly growing Android commercial market that greatly reduce the work and effort needed by IT support personnel to deploy and manage devices with an Android operating system. Below are some considerations when managing your fleet of Android devices: Root-access There are number of OEM device management solutions emerging for the rapidly growing Android commercial market that greatly reduce the work and effort needed by IT support personnel to deploy and manage devices with an Android operating system. Below are some considerations when managing your fleet of Android devices: By locking users into a kiosk mode or locking down menus it is possible to prevent users from changing device settings and getting root access. Best practices can be implemented such as setting up protocol to detect devices that have been rooted and take pre-defined actions to respond to this risk by removing the device from the corporate network or locking it down. Managing permissions, applications and mobile malware There are several ways to tackle issues related to applications and malware. First, by offering a kiosk mode end-users can be locked into an environment where they are unable to access, for example, the Internet or mobile market places. Additionally, certain hardware features can be disabled such as Bluetooth, phone, or Wi-Fi. These settings can be applied both on individual user and group level. IT managers can create lists of allowed and not-allowed applications and also monitor applications installed on devices and silently removing them if needed. Privacy When deploying units, the IT department can enable global settings that can, for example, prevent the use of GPS altogether or limit which applications can access the GPS information. Similarly a list of allowed applications can be used to tackle privacy issues. Lost or stolen devices IT departments can wipe, kill, and pull data from stolen or lost devices. In addition, measures can be used to enforce the use of complex passwords that will make it difficult to take advantage of a lost or stolen device. Managing Exchange ActiveSync Environments Control email authentication to the email authentication by verifying the actual device so the user will not be able to receive email from non-trusted devices until admin grants permission. Similarly, IT administration can enforce the requirement that users must be enrolled before they can access their corporate email. Should a greater level of Exchange Email control be desired, there are many third-party solutions to compliment this environment allowing for advanced configuration of Exchange Email settings and a configurable sandbox where corporate email settings can be enforced and data loss prevented. Remote installation Quickly and easily create packages of software/data that can be deployed to mobile devices. Automatically execute and process other types of files on the mobile device. In addition, users have the option of adding scripts that get automatically executed at various points during the installation or uninstallation of the package. Wireless internet and unprotected networks IT managers can create, edit and delete configuration profiles including initial configuration like Wireless ZeroConfig, SummitWireless settings, Fusion settings, Devicescape Wireless settings, Static IP, Cellular connection (APN) Settings. Data storage It is recommended that the ISVs rely on application level encryption. It is also possible to enforce the use of complex passwords that will prevent hackers from accessing stored data in case a device is lost or stolen. hbspt.cta.load(154767, '16bc281e-a815-4760-912c-cf1bdd45c683', {});

by Mike Bourre, Vice-President Sales & Marketing, gtechna Inc. Advantages of collaboration between parking enforcement & police agencies For the past fifteen years I’ve worked with Public Safety and during this time interoperability has been, and still is, a hot subject. Why? Because having collaboration between public safety and parking enforcement agencies just makes sense. Sharing information amongst all agencies helps intelligence gathering and achieving the goal of ‘getting the bad guy’. In public safety several aspects of technology arise when considering system interoperability including radio communication and the allocation of wireless frequencies, computer aided dispatch and records management interfaces. One might say these technologies are only used by public safety, which is typically true, but there are other integral technologies which can be leveraged to gather additional information for public safety. One of those essential technologies which will be covered in this article is license plate recognition (LPR). Rising demand of license plate recognition (LPR) “Some cities are already achieving interoperability…a stealth enforcement program is currently being  employed by one of our clients, a major US city, between the Department of Public works and the police department…Parking enforcement officers aid in the detection of stolen vehicles. Any vehicles registered on a hotlist will simply trigger an alert that is sent directly to the police agency to act upon.” For several years now LPR has been a tool primarily used by public safety for hotlist alerts such as arrest warrants or amber alerts. However, LPR is beginning to gain popularity in parking enforcement for cities and municipalities. The reason behind increasing attention toward LPR technology is that there is a technological shift occurring within the parking industry. In the past, parking was a fairly  unsophisticated activity primarily consisting of single space meters or time limit zones. Parking was visually enforced meaning that a PEO (parking enforcement officer) would have to walk the beat and visually inspect vehicles to determine whether or not they were over the time limit. However, as populations increased, new, more efficient methods for managing parking were required to accommodate rising demand. Parking enforcement’s hi-tech edge: the barcode The technologies that most cities and municipalities are looking at today and the future are pay by plate, e-chalking, pay by phone and paperless permitting, which can all be enforced through License Plate Recognition. In the parking industry, the license plate is becoming the “barcode”, or in other terms, the reference point for all enforcement. One might ask why this is happening? Well there are several factors: the first one being the European example, where these technologies have already been proven. Europe is more densely populated and has taken the lead when it comes to parking enforcement and management. Frequently, in most parking trade publications there seems to be a recurring theme: cities are asked to improve enforcement efficiencies while increasing revenues. LPR, basically a parking barcode scanner, for the parking industry is a perfect solution because it accomplishes both of these goals. For example, it is estimated that an LPR equipped vehicle can enforce the same area that would normally require 20 Parking Enforcement Officers (PEOs). Of course, parking system rights acquirement such pay by plate and other technologies also have its own merits which are beyond the scope of this subject. The new meaning of interoperability – inter-agency cooperation This article serves as a call to action to public safety agencies to take a closer look at what cities, municipalities and counties are doing with regard to the management of circulation and space, vital assets to communal prosperity. There are potentially powerful synergies to be forged by adopting an inter-agency cooperative model. For example, while a parking system is being enforced with LPR cameras, the data captured from vehicle plates could also be cross checked with hotlists as mentioned earlier. Some cities are already achieving this interoperability. For example, a stealth enforcement program is currently being  employed by one of our clients, a major U.S. city, between the Department of Public works and the police department where parking enforcement officers aid in the detection of stolen vehicles. Any vehicles registered on a hotlist will simply trigger an alert that is sent directly to the police agency to act upon. An LPR hit on, for example, a stolen vehicle is sent in stealth mode to the  police agency minimizing the involvement of the PEO allowing her to continue her beat without being involved in any way with a vehicle of interest. This information is then sent to police who can enforce properly and efficiently. The manifold benefits to police agencies speak for themselves but additionally, there is one reason why it is great for a city parking system as well.  Take the following case for example: – A car was just stolen, and the victim of the theft asks the police if they have any leads, to which the police reply, “no”. – A month later the owner of that stolen vehicle receives a late notice for a parking ticket.   – The disgruntled citizen whose vehicle was stolen decides to phone city hall to complain because the police cannot locate the owner’s vehicle, but “the city seems to have no problem locating the vehicle to issue a citation”. The preceding scenario clearly reflects poorly on the city’s ability to maintain efficient, functional public services. So, not only does collaboration help to improve public safety for citizens and Parking Enforcement Officers, but in general government looks like it is well organized and effective. Now, imagine the opposite scenario where stealth alerts are enabled and a stolen vehicle alert is dispatched to police who promptly recover the stolen vehicle. In this instance everyone wins. System interoperability – additional benefits There are additional benefits to leveraging LPR since parking vehicles do not enforce the same roads as police; collaboration covers more territory. Police will typically monitor more highways, while parking enforcement officers cover the downtown city core. Enhancing the parking enforcement process, leveraging LPR to enforce warrants, amber alerts and in general, vehicles of interest  strengthens initiatives to maintain high public safety standards.  Everyone benefits from this while significantly improving public safety by maximizing the use of city assets for better return on investment. Imagine the data sharing that could be automatically used to aid in policing initiatives. Next steps It is to the benefit of all government entities to consider a strategic collaboration. License plate recognition benefits more than the public and parking enforcement officers, police agencies can also leverage this technology and others to great advantage. This is why is especially critical that public safety agencies are aware that such a technological shift toward enhanced enforcement (such as LPR) is occurring. Further, parking enforcement agencies should be aware that the data being captured using LPR could be very useful for public safety. City’s are increasingly being asked to do more with less; collaboration between parking and police agencies presents potential economies in operational costs and gains in efficiency that ought to be explored further. For years there has been interoperability discussions between police. Now, it is not just about public safety sharing crucial data; it is about cities, counties, and municipalities and the agencies within these branches of government all pitching in.

Earlier parking management systems – pay & display parking When Aspen, Colorado adopted the first Pay-and-Display system for on-street parking in the United States in the mid-90s, local merchants were outraged.  Business owners and many of the thousands of commuting employees staged a “honk in” to protest the city’s decision to change from time-restricted, free parking to some unusual form of pay parking from Europe called Pay-and-Display.  But the complaints were not about having to display a receipt on the dashboard, or having to walk back to your vehicle in the snow.  The complaint was about change, and fear that customers of this vibrant, upscale business community would not accept such a drastic change. Months later the pain was mostly over and most business owners were thankful for the newly-created turnover of prime parking spaces which previously were occupied all day with non-paying employees of local restaurants, shops and lodging facilities.  The city was touting higher sales tax revenues, further showing that the implementation of pay parking was good for business, plus its mostly-empty city parking garage soon had a waiting list of local employees looking for an off-street, affordable alternative for parking.  Within the next decade, hundreds of cities in the US followed the Aspen model, from New York City to Chicago to Seattle and many smaller cities in between.  The benefits of being able to offer a credit card payment over the old coin-only style meters and the efficiency of having one meter manage 10 spaces instead of just one space were apparent.  Customers learned to accept that parking was a 3 step process: park, pay, and display.  Enforcement by foot, with sharp-eyed PEOs peering into every windshield could now spot an expired receipt or a vehicle with no receipt displayed from half a block away. Improving experience: Advantages of pay by plate over pay & display parking “Pittsburgh was now a world-class parking city, and other US cities took notice. Many of the requests for proposals for multi-space parking meters in 2012 ask for Pay-by-Plate at least as an option, if not the primary mode of operation.” In 2012, the City of Pittsburgh became the first US city to implement an on-street Pay-by-Plate system on a large scale, following similar, successful models created in Calgary and Amsterdam.  The leap from mostly coin-only single space meters to a license plate based system with one kiosk per block face was equal in boldness to the Aspen leap in the 90s, and was only possible by the advances in integrated technologies for wireless communications and real-time database for parking payments and enforcement. Similar to the Aspen success with Pay-and-Display, it only took a few months for business owners and customers to sing the praises of the new system.  But in the Pittsburgh case, the benefits not only included the ability to pay with a credit card, but customers could pay at any pay station in the system and did not have to walk back to their vehicle to display a receipt.  In fact, the receipt was now optional and not required for compliance.  Enforcement efficiencies from checking plate numbers against the real-time payment database were enormous and much faster than brushing off snow from windshields to find a paid receipt. Pittsburgh was now a world-class parking city, and other US cities took notice.  Many of the requests for proposals for multi-space parking meters in 2012 ask for Pay-by-Plate at least as an option, if not the primary mode of operation.  One of the main questions that cities are starting to now ask is how do we seamlessly transition from Pay-and-Display to Pay-by-Plate from both the customer and enforcement perspective?  The key lessons learned from the Pittsburgh project included the need to educate the customer and condition them to know their plate number.  How many people have their license plate number memorized?  Not many, and add in the fact that people drive multiple vehicles, rental vehicles and fleet vehicles, and the challenge grows.  Additionally, the enforcement team needed to learn to trust the online payment status database. There is a unique, interim blend of both Pay-and-Display and Pay-by-Plate parking that allows for a painless transition from one system to the other.  Many of the Pay-by-Plate kiosks can operate in Pay-and-Display mode, but with the ability for customer to enter their plate number.  While this adds a step for the customer, it begins to condition the customer to expect to have their plate number as part of the parking transaction. From the city perspective, the plate number can now be printed on the parking receipt.  This means that the Pay-and-Display receipt is now only valid for one vehicle, and excess time purchased cannot be given to another customer.  Suddenly, this hybrid form of Pay-and-Display with Plate Entry requirement, moves the consumer and enforcement staff in the direction of focusing on the plate number for compliance while immediately increasing parking revenues through elimination of customers sharing receipts. Advanced enforcement methods – license plate recognition software Eventually, the enforcement system can begin to work with wireless handheld devices and license plate recognition (automatic number plate recognition) camera technology (LPR) to verify compliance without even checking the receipt, gradually building trust in the new technology by confirming that the live, online data matches what is displayed on the receipt.  This will naturally lead to the receipt being optional for compliance and a full transition to a plate-based on-street parking system. Once a license plate has been entered into the parking system it becomes a form of identification or bar code to which vehicle activity can be tied during the enforcement process. Parking Enforcement Officers drive patrol vehicles equipped with License Plate Recognition, or automatic number plate recognition cameras to scan the plates of parked vehicles at up to 50 scans per minute. Plate information is passed to a database checking for validity of the parking session, scofflaws etc. Should a parking session expire, an alert in real time is sent to the Parking Enforcement Officer who can serve a citation on the spot or use GPS coordinates to dispatch to the nearest PEO on foot. The scanned plate, like a barcode, provides instantaneous access to vehicle information independent of visual checks or keystrokes required using the old parking system. Further, through credit card information and vehicle license plate information, it now becomes possible to provide statistical data to better monitor and manage the utilization of a parking system as well as better serve merchants and citizens. Finally, this type of transition also enables cities to easily incorporate the latest virtual permit technology and payment options including pay-by-phone, where permits and payments are also tied to the vehicle plate number and enforced through a central, real-time database instead of visually looking at a printed receipt or permit. Download our whitepaper to figure out how you can transition smoothly into a pay by plate system!