By L. Dennis Burns, CAPP
According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), shared micro-mobility devices like bikes and scooters provided more than 84 million trips across the U.S. in 2018. While these numbers are impressive and contribute to reductions in urban area congestion and greenhouse gas emissions, I have been worried that the e-scooter industry in particular may be facing an uncertain future as it struggles with escalating accident rates and negative headlines.
I recently read an article entitled: “Micro-Mobility Contest Wants to Spark Data-Based Storytelling.” In this article, e-scooter operator Spin is leading a project in partnership with data firms StreetLight Data and Populus to make troves of micro-mobility data available to nonprofits advocating for safer streets.
According to the article, “Advocates working for improved bike, pedestrian, or other micro-mobility projects in cities across the U.S. could soon have access to new datasets, as they make their case to officials. Spin, an operator of e-scooters, is leading a pilot known as the Mobility Data for Safer Streets (MDSS) which asks nonprofits and other micro-mobility advocacy groups to apply for one of up to five slots to participate in the program. The five winning organizations will have access to a year’s worth of mobility data collected by StreetLight Data and Populus, two leading data collection and analysis firms often used by cities, transportation agencies, and others looking to use traffic and other data to shape transportation policy.”
I am encouraged by this move to better use available data in advocacy for safer streets as cities and states work to shape the public policy to both regulate the devices and reshape the public streetscape to accommodate them. It will be interesting to see what comes from this initiative.
L. Dennis Burns, CAPP, is regional vice president, senior practice builder, with Kimley-Horn.
By Brett Wood, CAPP
I can recall a moment about 10 years ago when we were collecting and analyzing data from a major U.S. city to help validate and construct a new pricing and management scheme. I was reviewing the time sheet of one of my co-workers who was entering and analyzing the data and his cell notes for the day were just the word “DATA,” written over and over about 1,000 times. I could feel his mental breakdown through the computer screen.
Data has become a critical cog in our decision-making relative to our parking and mobility programs’ performance. We are supposed to use it to apply policies, communicate change, and define success. But we are often so overwhelmed by the mountain of data we generate that it becomes crippling to achieve these principles. When we lose control of the data we are supposed to be managing, we risk losing the intended direction of our programs.
One of the key focus areas for managing and maintaining data is defining process and practice for capturing and analyzing data. This is best completed with the assistance of technology, dashboards, and the application of key performance indicators and benchmarks to measure change. I’m excited to bring some insights and information about these areas to the upcoming IPMI Leadership Summit in Pittsburgh, Pa. Hoping you can join me and 99 of the industry’s best and brightest to learn more about this and a variety of great topics!
Brett Wood, CAPP, is a parking consultant with Kimley-Horn. He will speak on this topic at IPMI’s 2019 Leadership Summit, Oct. 3-4 in Pittsburgh, Pa.
The U.K. Department for Transport (DfT) has committed £1 million to research and put into place parking data standards created by the Alliance for Parking Data Standards (APDS) to help drivers find parking more easily. Officials said it was the first time the APDS standards would be put into place across a country.
The APDS was formed by IPMI, the British Parking Association, and the European Parking Association to develop, promote, manage, and maintain a uniform global standard that will allow organizations to share parking data across platforms worldwide. U.K. officials said their initiative will help develop apps that will allow drivers to more easily learn the availability, dimensions, and prices of available parking spaces.
The £1 million will be used in Cambridge, Essex, Manchester, and Oxfordshire to begin using the standards. Read the whole story here.
On-Demand Webinar: $35.00 for IPI Members, $85.00 for Non-Members
The IPI Parking Research Committee approached this multi-faceted project to better define the scale of our industry. What started as a daunting task has turned into a robust and inclusive data mapping exercise that has included many of IPI’s member institutions and vendors, who have graciously provided information to map the size and scale of our industry. The results have been astounding, even with a small (but growing) sample size of respondents. This webinar will share those results, while taking attendees on an interactive exercise to map their parking data and compare results with the new industry benchmarks set by the IPI survey.
This archived webinar addresses the need for better data, industry efforts to benchmark and aggregate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and the results to date of this critical effort. Attendees will participate in live text polling to see how they match up, and discuss various KPIs as we play with the data.
Objectives:
- Review the various numbers put forth about the parking industry to date – and why we need better data.
- Understand the various KPIs aggregated under the survey.
- Take stock of your own organization in relation to the industry.
Presenter:
Brett Wood, P.E., CAPP, is a parking and transportation consultant with Kimley-Horn in Phoenix, Ariz. Throughout his career, Brett has worked on a variety of parking and transportation projects throughout the world that have afforded him a unique viewpoint of the role of parking in a successful and vibrant community. His unique passion for right-sized parking, transportation demand management, and innovative parking management solutions has helped communities find the right solution for parking.
