Save the date!!!

Mail once was a magical thing. I had international pen pals and my bestie and I used to routinely send letters to each other arguing the merits of Prince versus Michael Jackson (I was all about Prince). Over time, mail has devolved to uncountable credit card offers, store flyers, election pieces (October was BRUTAL!) and tree-destroying junk mail.

It's just not magical anymore.

Until today! I received my TPTA 2017 Conference Save the Date! I hope you received it too! If you did not, please make sure you are on our mailing list. When you opt-out - we cannot contact you. And we want to make sure you are kept in the loop.

My calendar is marked for Ft Worth, April 3-6, 2017. We will soon be launching the Conference website where you can register and decide on sponsorship opportunities.

Remember you must be a member in good standing to register for the conference. So while you wait for the Conference website launch - ensure you are a registered member today!

Special thanks to Toledo Ticket for sponsoring the 2017 Save the Date! Looking forward to seeing you all in Ft Worth!

Nominations for Distinguished Service Award

TPTA is now accepting nominations for the 2017 Distinguished Service Award which recognizes parking professionals who have contributed to the education, professional development, creative solutions, and standards of customer service in the parking and transportation industry. 

Your nomination must include the items below and cannot be longer than 800 words.
 
Name of nominee:
Title:
Organization:
 
Name of person nominating:
Title:
Organization: 

Please provide a statement (800 words or less) that entails the individual’s accomplishments and why they are deserving of the Distinguished Service Award. 

Criteria for selecting the Distinguished Service Award recipient include:
1. Professional reputation
2. Contribution to the parking industry/organization
3. Creative solutions and innovations (include outcomes)
4. Public Relations and Customer Service
5. Peer Interaction

Please include items that will address the criteria in your nomination statement. 
 
Email all nominations to Maria Irshad: maria.irshad@houstontx.gov. 

All nominations need to be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. on March 1, 2017. 

Reminders!

Happy New Year! Is this the year your organization will install new technology? Or will you collaborate with transportation partners to reduce SOV? Maybe you are working with local artists to dress up a garage? What cool projects does 2017 have in store for you?

Tell us about it! Write about it for the blog or in a series of posts. Your colleagues will benefit from your lessons learned - not to mention that successful projects are always fun to talk about!

In case you missed it - it's time to renew your membership. We'll be announcing the winner of the membership renewal contest for those who renewed before Dec 31, 2016. If you still need to renew - fear not, you can still take advantage of the new member referral program. Refer a new member and if they join, you will receive a $50 discount on your conference registration. Good deal!!

The Spring Roundtable will be held In late February 2017. Stay tuned for details!

Here is to a prosperous and awesome 2017 for you all!

Holiday Greetings from the TPTA Board of Directors

The TPTA Board of Directors thank you for being a TPTA member and supporting parking & transportation professionals throughout the state of Texas.  May you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Time to Give Back

It's that time of the year! Hopefully, you have finished your Christmas shopping, but are still in a giving state of mind. Because TPTA has an ask of you.

Yes, we are looking at you, ALL OF YOU!

TPTA has put out a call for presentations for the 2017 Annual Conference & Tradeshow, Are you up to the challenge? The Host Committee is working on two education tracks for the conference this year. Knowing my TPTA colleagues, there is no lack of interesting stories and projects to share. So submit your proposal today and good luck!! Deadline for submissions is February 12, 2017.

If you are interested in taking on a leadership role in TPTA - now is the time. There are six (6) positions on the ballot this year and the call for nominations is open until January 6, 2017.

Elections are run in accordance with the TPTA By-Laws.

We want to hear from you - so nominate yourself or submit a presentation for the Conference. This organization depends on you! Good luck!

News and Job Postings

If you haven't already, please check out the new job postings - The City of Austin and the University of North Texas are looking for parking professionals and you might fit the bill!

TPTA held its Winter Roundtable in El Paso on Dec 7. Thanks to our speakers: Brad Magee with CivicSmart, Jeremy Rocha, PE, NCEES, of Walter P. Moore and Dennis Delaney and Linsey Duett of the University of Texas - Austin. Special thank you to Mitchell Time & Parking for sponsoring lunch and snack breaks.

Attendees networked the night before with Mexican food and libations and spent a day learning the intricacies of sensor technology, occupancy studies and how to do more with less. Be on the look out for the next Roundtable event, scheduled for Houston from February 21-22, 2017. Details will be landing in your inbox soon!

In other member news...

Houston City Council approved an agreement for an on-street car-share program.  ParkHouston anticipates rolling out the program in early 2017.

What's your parking story - Installment #5

Peter Lange, Texas A&M University

I was working for the Atlanta Regional Commission’s (Metropolitan Planning Organization for Atlanta) commute options program called Commute Connections as a systems analyst assisting with the regional ride matching program.  One of the senior outreach coordinators left the program to work for Georgia Tech’s parking and transit department. I think it was the day after he arrived that he started to recruit me. A couple of interviews later and I became their first IT systems specialist in the spring of 1999.

How was I tricked? During my first week on the job the person that recruited me left. The week after that the director left and within two weeks, everyone I knew was gone.  Fortunately for me the university brought in a great interim team. Each person was completely new to parking but had been at Georgia Tech for several years. To this day, they are still part of my parking family.

Peter Lange
Associate Vice President
Texas A&M University

Register for the Winter Roundtable today!

Please join TPTA for our Winter Roundtable in El Paso on Dec 6-7, 2016. We still have space for this free networking event, but you need to register today!

Here are the details!

Roundtable Event
When:  Wednesday, December 7, 2016 from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm
Where:  Hawthorn Suites, El Paso Airport
              6789 Boeing Dr, El Paso, TX 79925 (click to view map)          

A light breakfast and lunch will be provided at no charge.

Agenda 

9:30 - 10:00 AM:       Welcome/Introductions and Continental Breakfast
10:00 - 11:00 AM:       Presentation: Brad McGee, CivicSmart: Sensor Technology - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
11:00 - 11:15 AM:         Prize Drawing/Break                             
11:15 AM - 12:15 PM:   Presentation: Linsey Duett, CAPP & Dennis Delaney, CAPP, UT Austin: Parking Challenges on a Landlocked Campus                                                       
12:15 - 1:00 PM:         Lunch and Networking                            
1:00 - 2:15 PM:          Presentation: Jeremy Rocha, PE, NCEES, Walter P. Moore: Why Parking Studies are a Good First Step
2:15 - 2:30 PM:         Prize Drawing/Closing

What's your parking story - Installment #4

Jacob Gonzalez, P.E.

My introduction to parking was the Texas Medical Center’s (TMC) parking facility condition assessment program in the summer of 1998.  On a quarterly basis, I walked every garage and parking lot TMC operated.  I was tasked to develop construction documents for repairs and provide oversight during construction.  TMC is the largest medical center in the world with more than 69,000 parking spaces so it was a grand introduction.

During that summer I also worked on the TMC Parking Access and Revenue Control System (PARCS) technology replacement project.  TMC was upgrading their parking equipment in the facilities by installing state of the art technology.  The transition was from a Pay-at-Exit system to a Pay-on-Foot automated system with turn-out lanes.  The project required a complete redesign of how the facilities functioned and an overhaul of the wayfinding/signage for operational alignment.

While these two projects were different they had two things in common, they were parking projects and we were the prime consultant leading the team.  This experience has become the foundation of my career and has since led to leading four of the last five garages built in Texas Medical Center and hundreds of consulting projects nationally.  My passion for parking is fueled through a team leadership approach and a project delivery process called Parking Integration.  I am a proud Parking Professional.

What's your parking story - Installment #3

Angie Blocher, Winpark

If you asked me four years ago what my career path was, it wasn’t parking! I worked for a community college in Nebraska with a very clear career path when my husband was offered a promotion.  It was a difficult decision to leave as I loved my job.  I was working on my MBA with clear intentions on my future growth with the college.  I chose to support my husband and his professional growth and we moved to Texas.  I felt lost and confused as to where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do.  I put my MBA on hold and got a job for which I was over-qualified to bide my time. 

That is when I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Michael Cramer during a window retrofit request.  I have the habit of talking a lot, which was a useful skill for the small window replacement company I worked for and I was able to build relationships with our customers before the consultation appointment.  It proved very successful for the company and gave me the opportunity to better know Mr. Cramer.  He seemed impressed and we talked about my career path and the lack of direction I had at that time along with a million other things. 

A few months passed and I was contacted for an interview with Winpark for a new position, Project Manager.  At first, I couldn’t understand why a parking company needed a project manager but it was worth exploring.  After meeting with the Vice President, I knew this was the position for me.  I still couldn’t wrap my mind around going from the educational field to the parking industry but it felt right.  The position seemed challenging enough for me and I was eager to learn all the various aspects of parking.  I was shocked at all that went into managing parking.  I came to Texas with no sense of direction for my career and I landed in an industry that couldn’t fit me better.  It is challenging. You truly never know what kind of situation you will deal with next. The industry is full of wonderful and intelligent people but, most of all, I came here lost and found home. 

No data is better than bad data

There’s nothing quite like racing to your bus stop, checking the monitors and your smartphone app as you hustle to your destination, and making it by only seconds! No longer is this a miracle of  modern technology, but rather an expectation by  today’s savvy passenger .

Unfortunately poor implementation, limited program management, and inferior schedule algorithms result in transit agencies displaying wildly inaccurate wait times for buses and trains. Systems that don’t account for the unexpected have been known to display estimated arrival times that can be hundreds of minutes off or show nothing at all.

What if a student or businessperson arrives at the stop and has 30 minutes to get to a meeting or class. They look at the monitor, expecting a 5-10 minute wait and see 400 minutes until the next bus.

They will probably realize the monitor is wrong, but where do they go from here? When will the next bus arrive? Will it be two minutes or 20? Should they wait or start walking? Do you check a printed schedule? A printed schedule tells you what should happen, but without accurate location technology, how do you know where the bus is currently, so you can decide what to do next?

Inaccurate vehicle tracking data is worse than no data. It needlessly creates a poor customer experience.

What options do we have to correct these scenarios? Better programming, backup hardware, innovative apps, and send to text can offer additional information and alternative methods for finding bus locations.

What passengers want and expect today is real-time data. Technology impacts nearly every aspect of our lives, from the simplest tasks like ordering a pizza to complex and personal tasks like telemedicine where doctors can diagnose and prescribe from hundreds of miles away. The possibilities for transportation efficiency, transparency, and passenger satisfaction are incredible if they have confidence in the accuracy of the arrival data.

Your passengers will thank you.

Todd DeFeo
Passio Technologies

What's your parking story - installment #2

Lauren Nelson, Winpark

From the time I was 15 years old, I always knew that I would be in the restaurant business.  This was true for a very long time.  After years of managing restaurants from fine dining to local wing joints, I was ready for a change.  In the middle of a busy football Sunday, slinging wings and pouring beers, I got a call that would change my life.

After an initial interview for a property management position and several subsequent interviews, I found myself being offered a parking management position with Hines’ parking division, Winpark.

Career changes are scary but it was time for the next chapter in my life so I jumped right in and never looked back. That was almost four years ago.  I currently manage the Williams Tower garage, a 3,124 space garage serving one of Houston’s most iconic buildings, a building I was always amazed with growing up.

This career change provided an immediate improvement in my family’s quality of life and the roles I played in the restaurant business transfer quite well to the parking industry.  After all, customer service is applicable in almost every management position, and this is certainly true for parking. 

I have to say, I love my job and a career in parking is just right for me.

Lauren Nelson