Short Parking Stories

April, 2017

Towne Park Announces Strategic Acquisition of CitiPark

Towne Park has acquired CitiPark, a leading provider of hospitality and parking solutions for hotels, hospitals and special events with operations in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Together, the companies said, they will offer the most comprehensive healthcare and hospitality services platform in the market, helping clients to build better patient and guest experiences and improve business performance.

The transaction represents a key milestone in Towne Park’s strategy to strengthen its position and open new opportunities in large, growing markets in the northeastern U.S. The combination creates the region’s largest service network, with an on-call event staff that features more than 700 associates, enabling Towne Park to respond to the heavy demand periods or special needs of any of the more than 60 portfolio clients it now serves.

“CitiPark is one of the best-run, fastest-growing parking management companies in the area with a culture similar to ours and a number of high-profile clients,” said Towne Park President and CEO Chuck Heskett. “The deal will expand our base in critical markets and provide an exciting boost to the record organic growth we expect this year, with potential upside from cross-selling and scale synergies.”

“Towne Park brings world-class operations quality, unmatched scope and scale with outstanding technical and professional resources, and one of the best training programs in business,” said CitiPark President and former owner Clifford Hoinowski. “We will now be able to offer more extensive, more valuable solutions to clients and stronger career opportunities to employees.”

The acquisition by Towne Park is its third in the past three months as it continues to increase both its diverse range of services and its service capacity in the hospitality and healthcare industries. The company’s portfolio of services is unlocking synergies in the healthcare and hospitality verticals, helping hospitals, hotels and other businesses create new business models, maximize growth opportunities and enhance their brands.

[Source: Towne Park]

ParkingSoft Acquires SEMtech

ParkingSoft has acquired SEMtech Systems, one of New York’s fastest growing commercial access and parking control service and support companies.

“SEMtech is very excited about the acquisition,” said Co-Founder Steven Benz, “and we look forward to extending the footprint of ParkingSoft’s technology in the New York area.

Michael Canzian, ParkingSoft’s CEO said, “Having worked with [it] over the last few years, [we are] fortunate to acquire a known quantity in terms of reputation and capability. This move allows us to more directly support the New York marketplace and key customers such as the City of Rochester.”

ParkingSoft is a leading innovator and manufacturer of “cloud” software, automated hardware, and IT and Support solutions in the parking technology industry, servicing North America from its headquarters in the Atlanta metropolitan area.

[Source: ParkingSoft, SEMtech]

Inrix Identifies Top 10 U.S. Cities for HAVs

Inrix, the global leader in “connected” car services and transportation analytics, has identified two key findings derived from the hundreds of millions of data points collected about population movement, congestion and parking in urban areas across the U.S.

The deployment of highly autonomous vehicles (HAVs) is expected to deliver substantial benefits: reduced traffic congestion, decreased emissions, lower cost of mobility and safer travel. It is crucial for public officials to proactively plan for autonomous vehicles using a data-driven approach aimed at tackling specific urban area needs. Without “smart” planning, this technology could clog roads, increase pollution and further stratify mobility options.

“Shared-use vehicles will be a highly effective deployment of autonomous vehicles, where shorter, intra-city trips can maximize occupancy and efficiency, which means safer, faster and more convenient travel for users,” said Avery Ash, Autonomous Vehicle Market Strategist at Inrix.

Intra-City Trips Lay Groundwork

To see which urban areas could have the greatest proportion of vehicle travel replaced by HAVs, Inrix looked at one year’s worth of travel – nearly 1.3 billion trips – in and around the top 50 U.S. cities by population.

Combining Inrix data and StreetLight InSight, an industry-leading mobility analytics online platform from partner StreetLight Data, Inrix Research analyzed trips that began and ended within a 25-mile radius of each downtown and compared this with aggregate regional trips (including outbound, inbound and passing-through trips) to establish a percentage of intra-city travel.

Inrix then looked at the percentage of a city’s intra-city trips, 10 miles or less, and combined these two metrics to score each city out of a possible 100 points.

Top 10 U.S. Cities Primed for Autonomous Rollout

Leveraging ‘Big Data’ to Plan for Autonomous Vehicles

As cities prepare for HAVs, planners need to prioritize deployment strategies to maximize potential benefits. The mobility goals of cities vary, such as reducing congestion and emissions, expanding mobility to underserved and lower income populations, and reducing cost-intensive capital infrastructure improvements.

“‘Big data’ is a powerful tool that should be used as cities explore HAVs, and mobility data and analytics are more powerful when multiple layers are added into the equation,” said Bob Pishue, Transportation Analyst at Inrix. “Using data-driven insights to inform public planning will allow city officials to proactively leverage HAVs to solve key mobility and societal challenges, while mitigating potentially-negative side effects of this technology.”

Leveraging aggregated Inrix trip data from millions of connected cars, parking availability and restrictions, and U.S. Census demographic data, Inrix created a scalable and customizable scoring system to analyze and visualize priority corridors for HAV deployment.

Trips: Electric and shared-use vehicles are best designed to fill shorter travel needs in more heavily trafficked areas. In these environments, the upside of electric drivetrains is maximized, while range and charging infrastructure limitations are minimized. Also, high trip concentration increases the opportunity for ride-sharing by pairing users traveling along the same route, while minimizing passenger-less travel.

Parking: Up to 30% of urban traffic congestion is caused by drivers looking for parking. HAVs deployed in shared-use fleets can operate continuously and don’t require parking, making them ideal for areas where parking is scarce. While HAVs don’t require parking spaces, they do benefit from restricted parking areas for pick-ups and drop-offs.

Demographics: Beyond moving people from Point A to Point B, HAVs can be leveraged by cities to deliver expanded, cheaper and faster mobility options to target populations. Inrix identified three key demographic indicators to include in our census block scoring: age, household income and mode share.

To see the complete Inrix HAV City Evaluation, visit http://www2.inrix.com/2017-autonomous-vehicle-study.

[Source: Inrix]

Proactive
Alert System Offered for Unattended Parking Collisions

HueCore Inc., an innovative technology company based in Manhattan, has announced the launch of its first-ever device, the vehicle auto response unit (VARU). The integrated proactive alert system is designed to protect parked vehicles from collisions by alerting drivers when approaching an accident-prone distance while parking in the front or rear.

The device integrates with the vehicle’s alarm system and activates the hazard lights and horn to alert other drivers within an unsafe proximity. If a collision is detected, VARU records the incident details and generates an insurance and police report, which is then delivered to the user through the VARU mobile app.

“VARU was born as a result of the widely shared need for drivers to protect their vehicles while parked,” said Joel Reyes, CEO and Founder of HueCore. “In New York alone, thousands of parking collisions go unreported annually,” he noted.

“Many companies focus on adding ‘smart’ technology to vehicles, but none of them caters to the dangers that a vehicle faces while parked and unattended,” Reyes said. “At HueCore, we look forward to creating an ecosystem of products that, like VARU, will bring market-leading technology to the aftermarket automotive industry.”

VARU, a three-part system comprising a HUB and two SmartFrames, is designed to be easily installed to any vehicle without the use of wires or special tools.

The system’s HUB has an OBD2 connection that makes this device compatible with any vehicle built after 1995, and gives VARU the ability to safely interact with the vehicle’s alarm system. VARU’s SmartFrame replaces the vehicle’s standard license plate frame and is equipped with sensory technology, wide-angle cameras and a solar panel designed to be sleek, yet functional. Designed with compliance and safety in mind, VARU will not void the vehicle’s warranty.

Through its SmartFrame’s 3-Proximity Alert system technology, it monitors vehicle safety 24/7.  The device will warn drivers coming within a collision-prone distance using the vehicle’s pre-installed hazard light and horn features. The first alert is activated at 30 inches, while the second is activated at 15 inches.

If a collision is detected, VARU will record the GPS location, time, date and license plate of the at-fault vehicle, and it will instantly generate a report delivered to the VARU mobile app. The app gives users the ability to easily complete an insurance claim or file a police report quickly and efficiently from a mobile device.

[Source: HueCore Inc.]

Klever Logic Rebranded as FlashParking, Adds New Website

Already known in the parking industry as the “Flash Guys,” it seemed only fitting to transition the brand from Klever Logic to FlashParking. The rebrand also “signals to our customers that our suite of parking solutions goes beyond valet, and now includes revenue control solutions for garages and parking lots,” the company said.

The rebrand includes a new brand identity, along with a new website that merged all of Klever Logic’s solutions — FlashValet, FlashPARCS and FlashMobile — under the FlashParking umbrella. The company first started under the FlashValet moniker, which is why it became known as the Flash Guys.

But as its solution portfolio grew, it became apparent, the company said, that it needed an identity that represented the full breadth of its capabilities. Now customers can visit www.flashparking.com to get a 360-degree view of the company and its solutions, as well as log on to the customer portal to manage their venue in real-time.

All of this comes on the heels of FlashParking’s funding announcement, led by Austin-based serial entrepreneurs Sam Goodner and Dan Sharplin. Their $3 million injection allowed for a hiring surge, and the company has grown from 12 to 36 people. Fueled by this growth, the company moved in January to its new headquarters in South Austin.

Since the company launched five years ago, FlashParking solutions now run in more than 850 venues across the country, and are used by the top brands in the hospitality industry. Its platform has processed more than 33 million vehicles, so far.

[Source: FlashParking]