It’s Not Your Father’s Campus Anymore — or Your Mother’s, Either!

February, 2017

“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.” ~ Richard Feynman (ranked as one of the top 10 physicists in the world)

Have you fallen for the latest “shiny thing” in parking technology for your campus? Or has your boss? Will it solve the parking problems? Do you really understand what is causing the problems, or are you about to be “fooled?” Will someone else’s solution work for your campus, or do you have to find your own?

The list of campus parking headaches seems to change over the years, but it never gets smaller. A few of the most recent ones:

• Our supply has been reduced because of development, but the Administration has said we are not building any more parking. Too expensive!

• Even though Admissions doesn’t like it, we are going to end parking permits for first- and second-year students.

• Most of our parking is in small lots spread all over. We can’t afford any technology to govern those!

• The neighborhood next to us doesn’t believe that we can prevent resident students from parking in their streets, and we aren’t sure we can, either.

• Which is better: LPR, gates and permits, monthly permits or just daily parking; assigned spaces or first-come-first-served; online or mobile payments?

This 2017 PIE seminar will trace a little campus history, provide current data from campuses immersed in new technology, share some horror stories and bad results, cheer you up with winning strategies to consider, and give you a few questions to pose as you talk with the techies on the floor of PIE.

And remember: “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!”

Barbara Chance is CEO of CHANCE Management Advisors, Inc. Contact her at 

Barbara.chance@chancemanagement.com.