Now — about the exhibition itself. There is little ‘new’ here. Nothing to really knock your socks off.  There are a number of companies that you haven’t seen before, and my guess is that half of them will not be there next year. That’s how it works.

Most of the really REALLY “new’ stuff is technology that has not been proven in the real mean streets of a parking garage or city street. It works great in the lab, or in the ‘test’ but lets see it under battlefield conditions.

I am spending today searching out the really new.

Hub is new, in name, but it is promoting its time tested products, Zeag and Datapark. Amano has “opus” and I’m going to check it out today and see what its all about. 3M is new to the IPI, and has a fancy booth, we shall see about what’s ‘new.’

And there are a lot of snazzy marketing pushes, with great booths, elephants and dancing girls. But as one CEO told me in Europe — “We are seen to be selling commodities.” Is that the case, or is it a perception.

Someone told me that a certain company had the greatest software. Another told me that a different company had the best software. HUH? Can both be right?

Something is certainly ‘new’ — Streetsmart is now FYBR pronounced ‘fiber,” and is announcing a ‘new’ technology with in street sensors. They will be installing the first one soon.

There are lots of pay by phone, sustainability is fading into the background. Its there, but not with the vigor of past years. So far the folks who have really profited from this show are the booth designers. Everyone has done a great job in that department. I’ll take more pictures and put them up on Thursday when I get back. My technology is limited here.

There is a new technology I am to see today, but only after I take a “blood oath” not to tell anyone about it. Sigh. Sure I’ll do it and keep quiet, but…

Six more hours of exhibits, spread over today and tomorrow, the traffic will slow today and even more tomorrow, its the nature of these events. Parties in the evenings, cruises on the inland waterway to check out all the billionaire’s second, third, and fourth homes. The Bimini Boat Club is getting a lot of play with two parties on successive nights.

And the Parking Life goes on…

I’ll see what I can scare up today

JVH

PS Park Me impressed — but I love Audi’s R8 and they have one in their booth. Better than a dancing girl.

IM3 is a comic book. It has its genesis in Marvel comics and although it may stray from the letter of the comic, it brings a group of characters and a story that you like. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr,) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) become more real than we have seen them. Tony actually is telling this story from his psychiatrist’s couch (but you don’t find that out unless you stay through all the credits at the end) and has realized that there is more to him than Iron Man. He is forced to leave his suit aside and fight his foe with Macgyver like use of bailing wire and duct tape but in the end, CGI and high tech come into play to finally save the day.

I guess I could pick out flaws here and there (how the hell did Pepper survive that fall and where did that car come from that he drove to Florida) but then if you buy in to Iron Man suit parts that fly across country to mate up with their maker,  everything else falls into place.

What makes the IM series work is that you like these characters, particularly the “evil” Mandarin, played in wonderful camp by Sir Ben Kingsley and of course Tony and Pepper. The story can be described in two sentences, but I won’t — you need to see it. Its simple, good versus evil, and why not.

I liked this movie. If you like incredible CGI, a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and lots of “derring do.” IM3 is for you.

Oblivion is much more complex. I know that many people left the theater shaking their heads and asking their friends what it was all about. I ‘got’ it about halfway through and found it relatively simple –  if you  suspend your disbelief early on and buy into space invaders, memory erasing, cloning. and Tom Cruise being a ‘robot’ repairman, the movie does make sci fi sense.

Cruise does journeyman’s work in this film as do his co stars, Andrea Riseborough and Olga Kurylenko one playing his lover and the other his wife.  That certainly adds spice to the story. Morgan Freeman is Morgan Freeman as leader of the resistance movement and there you have it.

Beautiful vistas, soaring music, making love in a glass bottom swimming pool, the giving of ones self for love and country, what more could you want.

If you like sci fi, and a complex plot that turns on itself that least a couple of times. Oblivion is for you.

JVH

The judge didn’t comment but has previously been quoted as finding parking in a disabled spot “despicable.”   I couldn’t agree more.

The director of the local Automobile Association commented as follows:

“To park in a disabled spot is distasteful and I would have no sympathy to those who are found guilty and severely punished. It is inexcusable behavior and those people deserve what they get.

“The motorists here have the opportunity to put it right by paying the fine.”

“However,” he added, “The punishment should fit the crime and it does seem a six-month driving ban for illegally parking in a disabled space is severe and excessive.”

The perp in this case had no record nor previous violations. It was a first offense, probably made worse when she didn’t show up in court.

The original fine was $100 and she was called to court because she hadn’t paid it. There may be more to the story, but if not, yes, this is severe and excessive. It sounds like the judge was slapping the fifth kid through the door (First kid through the door and slams it — “Don’t do that Billy”, second kid “Come on Mary slow down”  Third kid “Johnny, don’t slam the door” fourth kid, “Do that again, Charlie, and you are going to get it.”  Fifth kid – Slap, paddle, room with no dinner.”)

Actions like this give the justice system a bad name. And the parking enforcement group. A jump from $100 to $1400 AND a six month driving ban.  Over the top.

Just Saying

JVH

When I say ‘free parking is a fairy tale’ I really mean I know there’s no such thing as free parking, but I’m still fully invested in the idea. And so are a lot of people. Read more here.

A group of residents in the town of Keene, New Hampshire, call themselves Robin Hood and his Merry Men and spend their days putting money in expired meters. (JVH has a different take below.) They leave notes for the parkers they’ve saved from tickets asking them to “pay it forward.” Officers claim they have been harassed by the group, as well. (Small gourds have been thrown at their heads and cruel notes sent flying their way on burning arrows.)

I hope members of enforcement are not injured or offended – they do not deserve it. As for the parking public, nothing else illustrates its attitude towards paying for parking better than this article.

When I read this story I thought the important part was the fact that city employees were stealing parking. Seems that they were parking in a loading tow away zone and were leaving expired parking tickets on their windshields. Citation folks, being what they are, simply skipped the cars, figuring that someone else had written them up.

This was all discovered by a local TV investigative reporter. Local authorities were incensed that such a crime had taken place and took decisive action against the perps, ensuring that this would no longer happen again. The head of the local Transportation department was aghast and, well, you read the last line in the story:

Tinlin (head of the dept of trans) told us that as a result of our investigation, the city installed new signs along Nashua Street. Free two-hour parking is now available to the public.

That’ll show em.

JVH

“The next great step for mankind is the step toward the voluntary society,” the website reads. “We are going to accomplish this using peaceful, market-based actions. This is not a revolution. We are not revolving, or going back to the beginning. This is evolution.

This quote from the “Robin Hoods’ of Keene, New Hampshire who are under assault from the city because they have been ‘topping up’ parking meters that have expired and ‘harassed’ the enforcement staff. Their group is being sued and the city is asking an injunction to keep the “Hoods” 50 feet away from enforcement staff. Read about it here.

I have had a lot of different thoughts on this issue. First — they may have picked a bad name for their group, since Robin Hood was in fact not much more than a thief and not a very good one at that. He “robbed form the rich…” but he still robbed. But let’s leave that aside for a moment.

There was a group in Australia that sent bikini clad women around with bags of quarters and beat the citation folks to the punch. The local city dads put a stop to that nonsense. I say that was a loss to all concerned.

These folks are just short of being militant, calling the officers names and literally interfering with them. That activity is beyond the pale and should be stopped immediately. They don’t have a very good PR department. The Aussies had the right idea, but it might be a little cold in New Hampshire for Bikinis.

Then of course, there’s the city’s reaction to all this. It has to be stopped, why? Because its costing the general fund big bucks. Not a word about the reason for charging for parking, not a word from the local merchants who probably need turnover so they can provide their wares, not a word about what the money is used for. Just “We are losing money?”

I wonder what would happen if the Robin Hoods had been asked to a meeting with the merchants who wanted the meters in the first place. I wonder what the conversation would be if they realized that they were taking food out of the mouths of those who were striving in the ‘free market.’

I wonder if there had been any discussions about ways to mitigate the parking problems in the city and perhaps make the a learning experience for everyone.

Nope! “We are losing money!”

I”m sure the “hoods” have the words to the famous folk song embroiderer on their green tights. But I bet the city dads and moms aren’t singing.

When will they ever learn.

JVH

I spent the past couple of weeks talking to the heads of some of the best known manufacturers of parking equipment on the planet and I came away with…..not a lot of excitement. Sure they all had some unique stories to tell, and different approaches, but in the end, their equipment sort of worked, and it fit in most parking applications, and in most places, the users would install it, ignore what it told them, and continue on as they had in the past.

A decade ago someone told me that we were in a paradigm shift in the parking industry. Technology was going to change how we do business. Here we are, ten years later and the shift has taken place and virtually nothing has changed. Sure things are a little prettier and there are fancy displays and the such, but what paradigm shift (a change in the basic assumptions) has happened.

We run garages the same way we always have (well, maybe with fewer people on site, but  people park,  they pay, they leave. We hire third parties to run our garages. On street we charge for parking (meters, P and D, P by S).  We charge more, but it works the same.We write citations to enforce our rules. Life goes on.

Our customers still have exactly the same complaints they did a decade ago. Parking Lots are dirty, dark, expensive, dangerous. Parking should be free!!! Idiots still take disabled spaces and cheat with falsified permits. Life goes on.

Don Shoup wrote his book eight years ago. We thought we had a revolution on how parking was going to be used to help change the way cities operate. So what has happened? Meh.

PPP — Yowza — We were going to monetize parking throughout the country. I can count the number of deal on one hand. Where did that go. OK, maybe its on the cusp, but each deal is being ‘adjusted’ to fit. The original deal with the Chicago off street lots, leased for nearly a billion was seven years ago.

I”ll be at the IPI show next week. Be warned. I’m going to every booth and I’m going to find the ‘new’ stuff. The cutting edge stuff.  And I will report it. Maybe we can get some excitement back into this business.

It goes back to people. Technology can’t fix the problems, whatever they are. It can only provide the tools for good managers to fix the problems. A friend told me 25 years ago that there were only so many really good managers in the business and that was the problem. Those that managed garages well ran first class operations, whether out of a cigar box or with the most expensive technology. And those that didn’t, didn’t.

Maybe if we took a year off from changes, the newest, and the highest tech, and spent the year finding, hiring, and motivating the best people out there, maybe, just maybe….

I’m just grumpy. Must be the change in the weather.

See you in Ft. Lauderdale.

JVH

The other day I went to the bank. I had been there many times and knew exactly what I was going to do. As I walked into the lobby, I was assaulted by no less than seven blazer clad employees who were going to help me whether I needed it or not.

I was greeted, asked if I was having a nice day (I was up to then) then was asked how they could help me (they couldn’t, unless they could take a deposit which they couldn’t.) I went to fill out a deposit slip and was told not to do it, but to take my checks to the window and the teller would fill it out for me. When I got to the teller, there was a cop at the next window who looked as exasperated as I did. “This is a bank, right?” he said. I said that I wasn’t sure.  When I walked out I was again asked if everything was OK and if they did a good job. I told the ‘vice president’ who was speaking to me that maybe their customer service was a tad over the top. He was horrified. I left.

My wife and I have a favorite restaurant. Its pretty up market and we go about once a year. When we go in, the Maitre ‘d escorts us to our table and asks if we would like cocktails. He took our order and seconds later, a waiter arrived with our drinks. He asked if we wanted menu’s now or would prefer to wait. We said we would wait a few minutes and enjoy the beautiful room. He disappeared.

A few minutes later I looked around the room and caught the waiter’s eye. I nodded my head and he returned with the menus. He handed them to us and left. We opened them and found that they were self explanatory. We discussed what we wanted and I looked up again and caught his eye. He came over, asked if there were any questions and took our order.

The rest of the evening went the same way. It was like the staff was invisible, but there when we wanted them. It seemed they were always in the background but carefully watching and were tuned to notice if we needed anything. They never came by and asked, never intruded, but were there when needed. They didn’t ask how the food was, they already knew. And if there was a problem, they would have sensed it and fixed it. The evening was perfect. And the waitstaff never introduced themselves. What a relief.

In the case of the bank, I felt ‘put upon.’ I knew what I was doing, I didn’t need help. In the case of the restaurant, I felt like I had fantastic service, but frankly I seldom felt like I was being served.

There is a fine line between good service and overdoing it. This is particularly true in situations that are routine, like a restaurant, hotel, car rental, or a parking lot. We want help when we need it, but don’t want it thrust upon us.

A good staff can sense when help is needed and step in, and the rest of the time let you be on your way.

My bank was simply trying too hard.

I rather like it when a bank officer stands in the lobby and sort of  ‘oversees’ the operation. They can help when needed, but more importantly they can fix problems (open another window, direct a lost soul to the right place, help a newcomer find their way. But for the rest of us, a simple smile and nod is sufficient.

JVH

The warning can be friendly – one message gently chides the “dear motorist” for parking on private land and asks the driver not to leave the car there in future. Later versions of the technology will allow drivers to record a response to the landowner on whose behalf the ticket was issued in the first place.

I’d like to be a fly on the roadside when these tickets start postulating.

Read the article here.

Recognizing that competition is on its way and that parking revenue is vital to the airport’s solvency, new plans and programs are in the works.

“Parking is the airport’s largest source of non airline revenue,” said Michael Huber, senior director for commercial enterprise and a former deputy mayor. “What we are setting the stage to do is roll out a series of new parking products that the customers have told us they value.”

Kudos to IIA for being proactive.