ABSTRACT
Pressures are coming from different corners (within parking and from transportation) for a new strategy so that we can go beyond just parking. The International Parking and Mobility Institute (IPMI) has two task forces (nationally and internationally) working on different aspect of such strategies. The public consensus is that parking spaces had been over-built, especially in the city, with the proliferation of personal automobiles. On the other hand, truck parking spaces had been under-built. We need to bring a balance: to declare a moratorium on new car parking spaces in the city and find a way to use them more efficiently while redistributing those spaces to accommodate future autonomous and electric vehicles. As discussed in Chapter 6, parking spaces are source of renewable energy and that potential must be explored. A pay-as-you-use formula for parking, irrespective of its location, and cost-based fair rates will also remove the disparity of parking costs among business entities. Automation can avoid discrimination based on an enforcement officer’s mindset. Nevertheless, for the immediate future, we can expect parking scarcity to continue in the city, even in the most developed economies, before automated transportation is available from the newly defined Suburban Parking District (SPD) to the City Business Center (CBC). While such planning is underway, inclusion of a truck parking solution on Interstate Highway corridors, defined as a truck parking district (TPD), is also warranted. Generally speaking, the value propositions of a new parking paradigm are (a) security, (b) reducing the urban and suburban economic gap, (c) consolidation of all transportation services, and (d) user convenience. Previews of mobility, registration, pre-reservation, pay-by-cell, and other improvements on installed infrastructure during a transition period (a pseudo semi-automation) are highlighted before fully automated RWPTTP design objectives are outlined – a revolutionized infrastructure for full auto identification and auto invoicing. For a full-blown RWPTTP implementation, we will need a building block type of transportation information network to serve local, regional, and national markets. In the end, such an information network (RWPTTP) would resemble a connected ground transportation network system, creating a similar impact on the new economy to Google, Facebook, Amazon, eBay.
