The Forgotten Big Brother
By: Madison Latorre and Shaun Howard
Intro: The following article was written by two people who are employed by the Federal Government. After attending PIE 2019, they were able to put their thoughts on paper and present it here. Obviously, they have a great understanding of the issues we deal with daily, including the need for charging for parking and the use of technology to better assist parkers in their quest for a parking space.
The Forgotten Big Brother
On a warm May day, President George Washington worked to develop the Federal Government, in 1789. Little did President Washington know, that while developing the government, he would have to consider parking to be a major issue.
Fast-forward to 2019, where two eager millennials sit and wait impatiently to make parking no longer the topic of fury. Their parking quest leads them to conferences and expos, but are still falling short of their mission to make parking no longer a problem. But with all this technology and ability, why is parking such an issue for them?
The answer: The Federal Government shies away from parking technology and most agencies offer parking free of charge. Not implementing the ability to charge for parking at some level causes the government to miss out on beneficial revenues that could assist in improving outdated parking technologies. Implementing paid parking could actually reduce the carbon footprint by pushing employee to utilize mass transportation. Many government agencies offer a subsidy for utilizing mass transportation.
Parking Technology
While the government focusses on furthering their technology within other fields, our parking technology is nonexistent. The goal of the two eager millennials is to rid the mindset of those (ahem) older employees and bring the latest and greatest to their parking lots. These technologies may not solve our problems completely but would certainly be a step in the right direction. Our workforce would be much more satisfied with wayfinding technology within the surface lots, rather than spending 45 minutes “sharking” spaces.
Final Note
The Federal Government parks millions of cars daily. Having a goal to make parking easier and more convenient, for its employees, could make coming to work a better experience for all. Charging for parking and using technology would be certainly be a significant step in the right direction.