No-stopping zone Technology-driven change comes to parking

Parking is inextricably linked to broader patterns of how people and goods move around—and those patterns are in the midst of transformative change. Driven by a series of converging forces (see figure 1), the entire way we get from point A to B is evolving.7 The result could be a new mobility ecosystem that provides faster, cheaper, cleaner, safer, and more efficient transportation than today. Already, advances in vehicle connectivity, smart infrastructure, and IoT applications are changing the possibilities for parking. Sensor-equipped physical assets, such as garages and street meters, can offer operators real-time space availability and maintenance-needs updates, while feeding digital aggregator platforms with pricing data and licenseplate recognition-based payment systems. For the consumer, such features can reduce search times and create a more seamless experience. For operators, it can enable more efficient use of assets and increase revenue by reducing the number of customers who give up and leave a lot, ramp, or neighborhood due to a perceived lack of space, while facilitating more dynamic and flexible pricing throughout the day or week.8 As cameras and other sensors become more cost-effective and data-processing capabilities grow, providers’ ability to react to changes in the environment is only likely to increase. Even as technology available today offers significant opportunities, the intersection of ride-hailing and autonomous vehicles—along with new modes of transportation such as e-scooters and bike-sharing— could fundamentally reshape the parking landscape in the coming years. The parking industry is predicated on widespread use of private, driver-driven automobiles, but Deloitte’s forecasts suggest that by 2040, more than half of the miles traveled in the United States could occur in shared autonomous vehicles,9 which would rarely need to park—at least not in the ways parking has traditionally occurred (idle throughout an entire workday, for example). While the timing and impact of these trends is uncertain, many areas could see less general demand for parking. That’s likely to be especially true in dense urban areas that are or become well served by shared self-driving fleets, public transit, and other mobility options, enabling people to substitute away from personal vehicles. At the same time, the need for space to maintain those fleets could increase, along with demand for new types of spaces such as pick-up/drop-off zones and electricvehicle charging stations.