From CampusBird Blog
“Maybe the most mismanaged of all our resources….is parking.”
-- Donald Shoup, Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning, UCLA, author, The High Cost of Free Parking
Parking? Yes. Parking.
Here are a few parking stats to warm things up:
8 - Average number of parking spaces - per car - in US metropolitan areas
$18,000 - The estimated cost of a single parking space in a typical cement parking garage
$15,552 - US national average cost of building a single parking space
95% - Estimated amount of time the average car is parked
28% to 45% - Estimated amount of drivers in New York City who - at any given time - are cruising for parking
3,600 - Total daily vehicle miles travelled searching for parking in a 15-block radius on a weekday in Westwood Village, Los Angeles, amounting to 950,000 miles spent cruising per year, enough to circle the Earth 38 times or make four trips to the moon
$18 million - The cost for a college to add 1,000 parking spaces
43 percent of respondents in a recent study said finding a spot and parking is their top reason for wanting a driverless car.
Given that parking is such a problem, it's no surprise that facilities, transit and transportation professionals at campuses worldwide are actively seeking new and innovative solutions to help them better manage parking and to improve the campus experience for students, parents, staff, alumni and visitors.
CampusBird’s latest data feed addition improves campus experience by helping visitors easily find available parking spaces across campus, reducing traffic
CampusBird is excited to announce the integration of a data feed providing campus visitors with real-time information about parking lot occupancy. CampusBird is the first interactive campus map platform to offer live parking display.
The integration provides CampusBird clients with another tool to improve their overall campus experience for visitors, and gives admissions, marketing and facilities officials the ability to redirect visitors on the fly and to indicate when a particular lot is closed for a special event or construction, among other uses. CampusBird’s live parking feed integration is already in use at one of the largest public universities in the United States.
“We know parking is a major pain-point for campus visitors and schools, and this new integration will ease some of that pain for our clients,” said Oliver Davis, CEO of concept3D, the developer of CampusBird. “Now, anyone with a mobile device can pull up CampusBird and immediately see available parking. The live parking feed will improve visitor experience by saving the time, cost and headache of driving around trying to find a parking spot and subsequently reduce campus traffic.”
Live parking data is displayed on the CampusBird interactive map with color-coded polygons: red lots are full; yellow lots are almost full; green lots have plenty of capacity.
CampusBird map visitors can select a specific lot to see the exact number of spaces available.
“The live parking feed further demonstrates the utility of the CampusBird platform,” added Davis. “CampusBird displays your campus online with an elegant, 3D map and the platform is specifically designed for multiple administrators and departments to create, manage and promote location-based information, all in one hub. CampusBird is a huge advantage for schools looking to transform their online campus experience.”
CampusBird is built to accommodate any third-party data feeds and currently integrates live event, real-time bus route, and ESRI feeds in addition to the live parking data feed.
Source Links and Interesting Resources
- Inside Higher Ed: “Rockstar Parking, for a Price”
- University Business: “Park this way: Colleges find high-tech solutions”
- Freakonomics Radio Podcast: “Parking is Hell”
- New York Times Op-Ed: “Gone Parkin,” Donald Shoup
- Access, “Cruising for Parking,” Donald Shoup
- Victoria Transport Policy Group, Parking Costs
- Tech Insider: "Here's the number one reason people want driverless cars"
Topics: Live Data Integration, Campus Map, College Campus Tours, Interactive Virtual Experiences, Content Management System
