Municipal Parking’s Most Valuable Resource
By Peter Little, Executive Director, Parking Authority of Baltimore City
I have to admit that when I joined the Parking Authority in Baltimore over 20 years ago, I did not fully realize what I was getting myself into. The number of challenges was daunting.
As an operator of parking garages and lots for almost 15 years prior to joining the Parking Authority, I was familiar with the many challenges of operating and maintaining them. Staffing; customer service; cleaning; maintenance of elevators, lighting, and signs; operation and maintenance of PARCS; marketing; rate adjustments; determining the best customer mix; auditing; snow removal; and capital repairs are just some of the challenges of managing off-street parking facilities.
Upon joining the Parking Authority, I was introduced to the wild and wonderful world of parking meters! Maintaining and operating meters; determining where meters should be installed; establishing meter rates, stay durations, and in-effect hours; and implementing mobile payment options are just some of the challenges of managing a parking meter program.
Along with meters, came the opportunity to delve into many other interesting, but challenging, municipal parking programs and projects, including:
Parking enforcement
Residential permit parking
Truck loading zones
Passenger loading zones
Valet parking zones and regulation
Parking for people with disabilities
Publicly accessible electric vehicle charging
Managing politics
As we all know, there have been huge advances in parking technology over the past couple of decades offering solutions to many of the challenges we face. There has also been much thought put into the best strategies for parking management (thank you, Donald Shoup, and others). They are all great resources.
But, the most valuable resource we as municipal parking professionals have is each other. We can all greatly benefit from sharing with each other and by collaboration on certain matters.
To that end, MAPTA has formed a Municipal Parking Committee (of which I am a founding member) to develop, and implement, methods of sharing and working with each other, here in the Mid-Atlantic region. We plan to:
Host quarterly municipal parking & transportation roundtables (at the spring and fall conferences; and online in the summer and winter)
Provide resources through MAPTA’s website, including: RFPs; city/state parking codes and legislation; job postings; job descriptions; article recommendations; book recommendations; and a list of municipal MAPTA members and their contact information
We can also help to coordinate advocacy of parking-related legislation in states and municipalities in our region (e.g. legislation to allow parking citations by mail)
If you are a municipal parking professional and a MAPTA member, please participate in our future activities. If you are not currently a MAPTA member, I urge you to join so that you can directly benefit from the most valuable resource we have – each other. If you have any questions or would like more information, please feel free to contact me.
