Millennium Gateway Innovation Lab Members Support Cities’ Reopening

COVID-19 shutdowns, re-openings, and rollbacks in cities across the U.S. have presented unique challenges for the U.S. parking industry. With $131 billion in annual revenue, parking employs more than half as many American workers as the entire automotive manufacturing industry. The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act classified parking as an “essential business,” and parking taxes generate $19.4 billion each year in state and local government revenue. Parking plays a crucial role in local transportation systems, which were already in a state of transformation before the coronavirus hit.

Pandemic-related concerns have increased commuters’ reliance on personal vehicles and places to store them. As City Tech Collaborative explored in a roundtable earlier this spring, comprehensive mobility solutions must balance the convenience and social distancing benefits of single occupant commuting with traffic congestion, vehicle emissions, and socioeconomic challenges. Parking facilities that are well-integrated with other transportation modes and broader urban systems can provide much-needed flexibility while minimizing negative impacts. Whether the concerns are short- or long-term, data, technology, and collaboration can enable dynamic responses to shifting demands while also accommodating local needs and considerations.

As the uncertainty continues, facilities are proactively making parking accessible for essential workers, residents, and visitors. Millennium Garages in Chicago continues to offer Free Parking Mondays for registered participants and Drive-Up Relief Rates. The newest Millennium Gateway Innovation Lab industry lead and City Tech member, San Francisco-based Smarking, is accelerating recovery by providing dynamic pricing for parking facilities through its Automated Yield Management solution, allowing rates to respond to demand; amid the pandemic, Smarking is offering three months free to new locations to make it easier for facilities to automatically determine adjusted rates. Locations using the Automated Yield Management solutions are outperforming others, showcasing dynamic pricing’s ability to prevent revenue to drastically fall compared facilities operating with fixed rates. These reduced and responsive pricing efforts are increasing the industry’s resilience, ensuring accessible parking, and encouraging visitors during a time when the local economy could most benefit.

As a critical service, parking facilities are considering the health and safety of employees and customers a top priority. City Tech members Millennium Garages and SP+ immediately responded to the pandemic through increased sterilization of high-touch surfaces such as payment kiosks, elevators, and door handles. Both are continuing these efforts as well as leaving doors open for touchless access when possible and regularly cleaning all touch points with PURE Hard Surface Sanitizer, a 15-micron misting cleaning solution application with demonstrated efficacy against coronavirus and a broad spectrum of other germs.

Millennium Garages has also set up a centralized sanitation station to sanitize third party valet cars before returning them to hotels or restaurants. Precautions such as these not only ensure the health and safety of employees and customers, but also instill trust in facility operators and encourage returning visitors.

COVID-19 has underscored the value of data to parking operators, investors, and local governments. Smarking, recently released its Parking Industry Benchmark which provides free access to real-time national and regional parking data in over 2,000 U.S. parking facilities as an indicator of economic recovery in cities following COVID-19 shutdowns. Meanwhile, Arrive is continuing to enable digital, contactless payments through apps such as ParkWhiz and BestParking, as well as working to enable completely touchless Bluetooth-enabled entry to all gates at Millennium Garages. Standardized data across the industry not only create a baseline to compare performance across facilities, but also provide a window into the health and recovery of local economies. From this, operators can learn from the insights, implement new technologies and efficiencies, and improve customers’ experiences. More broadly, data is supporting parking and mobility leaders’ advocacy for federal funding through efforts such as the Urban Mobility Coalition initiative, a pledge signed by over 40 U.S. cities to seek available funding to maintain critical services for communities and help the economy recover from COVID-19’s impact.

Looking beyond COVID-19, the Millennium Gateway Innovation Lab is integrating parking more fully into urban transportation systems, developing scalable, technology-enabled solutions for smart infrastructure management, and cultivating value-added services and space uses. City Tech and partners are defining the foundational technology layers – including facility and design, network connectivity, hardware, and data management – required to prioritize investments and ensure long-term flexibility. Upcoming solutions address garage wayfinding through 3D mapping and using sensors to gather real-time information at electric vehicle charging stations to track and communicate spot occupancy. Organizations wishing to test their technology, product, or idea in the Lab’s anchor facility, Millennium Garages, are encouraged to submit their proposal through the Millennium Gateway Testbed Challenge by December 11, 2020.

Amid uncertainty, it is critical to identify, develop, and scale urban solutions that address cities’ most important challenges in ways that can sustainably grow and evolve while also considering local needs. COVID-19 has highlighted the need for dynamic pricing, health precautions, and data-driven insights within the parking industry; cross-sector collaboration and technology can enable those responses while also scaling them beyond the day’s current needs. As cities adapt to the shifting mobility trends, parking will continue to play a critical role in getting them there.

About City Tech Collaborative (City Tech): City Tech is an urban solutions accelerator that tackles problems too big for any single sector or organization to solve alone. City Tech’s work uses IoT sensing networks, advanced analytics, and urban design to create scalable, market ready solutions. Current initiatives address advanced mobility, healthy cities, connected infrastructure, and emerging growth opportunities. City Tech was born and raised in Chicago, and every city is a potential partner. Visit www.CityTech.org and follow us on Twitterand LinkedIn.

About the Millennium Gateway Innovation Lab: The Millennium Gateway Innovation Lab is a groundbreaking partnership to shape the future of the parking industry and urban mobility. As a consortium of asset owners, parking and mobility operators, technology providers, policymakers, and other thought leaders, Lab participants work to integrate parking more fully into urban transportation systems, develop tech-enabled solutions for smart infrastructure management, and cultivate value-added services and space uses. The Lab is part of the Advanced Mobility Initiative at City Tech Collaborative, an urban solutions accelerator that tackles problems too big for any single sector or organization to solve alone. Founding members and strategic partners of the Millennium Gateway Innovation Lab include Millennium Garages, SP+, Arrive, the National Parking Association, the International Parking & Mobility Institute, and the City of Chicago. Learn more at www.CityTech.org/Parking-Innovation.