Case Study
City of Grand Rapids
ParkHub Enhances Urban Mobility in the City of Grand Rapids
Who’s Involved
Jennifer Kasper | Business Manager, City of Grand Rapids
Customer Takeaways
ParkHub is very good at data integration. It has made it very easy for us to onboard new vendors. We’ll be relying on ParkHub as we adopt new technologies and build for the future.
Jennifer Kasper, Business Manager for the City of Grand Rapids
Summary
In 2015, the City of Grand Rapids partnered with ParkHub to enhance its parking management and integrate it into a broader multimodal mobility initiative. This collaboration aimed to optimize the use of nearly 10,000 public parking spaces and support the City’s fast-paced economic and real estate growth.
The Challenge
Integrate comprehensive parking data with the City’s multimodal transportation policies.
Streamline data collection and policy implementation amidst rapid urban development.
Deal with the perception that the City had a “parking crisis.”
The Solution
ParkHub’s Smarking BI Solution
With ParkHub’s Smarking BI solution, Grand Rapids centralized its parking data, facilitating quick, data-driven policy decisions. The solution provided a unified platform for historical and real-time data analysis, which is crucial for managing parking across the City efficiently. The robust data integration capability of ParkHub’s Smarking BI solution allowed for seamless data preservation and analysis.
Innovative Mixed-Use Parking Model
The City introduced an innovative mixed-use parking program at a downtown leased garage, dedicating the ungated first floor to short-term parking. This new model, which uses mobile and pay-station payment options, aims to better serve retail customers with accessible and convenient parking solutions. The use of ParkHub’s tracking tools allows for efficient analysis and adjustment of the program based on real-time usage data.
Optimized Event Parking Strategy
The City launched a comprehensive parking rate study as part of its mobility initiative to develop demand-based parking policies, particularly for events. Using ParkHub’s data, the City modeled parking demand and then set differentiated parking rates tailored to specific locations and event types.
Enhanced Marketing Survey
To alleviate downtown congestion and increase parking availability, the City of Grand Rapids introduced a shuttle service from the Westside parking lot to the downtown core. Leveraging ParkHub’s data analytics, the City bypassed the need for a market survey, enabling targeted and effective advertising.
The Results
Efficient Policy Implementation
The integration of ParkHub’s Smarking BI solution led to a 10-fold productivity increase in the City’s parking management team and significantly improved stakeholder communication. With all the current and historic data in one platform, the City no longer needs to spend weeks or months collecting and analyzing data to develop new policies and evaluate the results of policy changes.
Cost Savings
The City updated parking equipment and introduced new PARCs systems without a chaotic historical data preservation and cross-system data integration process, saving time and money. Real-time data monitoring also saved the City the cost of a lengthy and expensive market research survey.
Better Communication
Using ParkHub’s Smarking BI dashboard to visualize data, City leaders can communicate more efficiently and effectively with key stakeholders regarding parking-related concerns and information requests. The City also used data to create more productive market surveys and campaigns for other mobility programs and services.
In Conclusion
The partnership between the City of Grand Rapids and ParkHub to use ParkHub’s Smarking BI solution illustrates the impact of advanced data analytics in urban planning. This strategic approach has streamlined parking management and supported comprehensive mobility initiatives, aligning with the City’s growth and development goals.
Learn More
With integrated payments, devices, and business intelligence, ParkHub is paving the road to a brighter digital future. On that road, ParkHub customers are driving away from cash, quickly and seamlessly.
Experience How ParkHub Can Transform Your Parking Operations
“ParkHub was designed to revolutionize an antiquated industry by providing an agnostic and open technology platform for finding, reserving, and paying for event parking online. As we expanded, we developed a best-in-class, mobile-point-of-sale device and comprehensive management suite, currently used by hundreds of parking operators, sports & entertainment venues, universities, festivals, & more, at thousands of locations across the U.S. With our recent acquisition of Smarking, we also offer full-scale business intelligence, dynamic pricing, and pre-paid reservation products, utilized by numerous municipalities across the country.”
Chris Elliston
ParkHub Chief Revenue Officer