The city has been working to knock out issues with the new parking garage tracking and payment system since it was switched to license plate reading technology in January.
Some have already been addressed — for example, in June the city changed the requirement for parkers to “check-in” before leaving the garage — and the city is working on more.
“With every implementation of this type, or any time you’re taking out extremely old equipment and putting in new technology, there are issues, and we have not been immune from those issues by any stretch,” Information Technology Director Mark Barham told City Council during their regular monthly meeting Thursday.
Barham said the previous payment system in the garage was “very old” — as old as the garage itself.
When the new system came online in January, improving the garage from its old system included several goals: removing the gates at the entrance and exit, installing sensors, establishing a mobile app to pay for parking sessions, installing pay stations, issuing city employee parking permits and semester parking passes for students, and the ability to go online and create a parking account for frequent garage users.
The city has achieved some of those goals — such as removing the gates — but not others. For one, the city no longer believes it needs sensors in the garage.
There also is no mobile app yet, but it is expected within the next two or three months, Barham said.
At the meeting, Mayor Paul Freiling said the overall parking garage experience is “much better” than when it was gated, although it still needs work.
Tackling issues
One of the parking garage’s earliest issues was outside of the city’s control.
Very soon after the city implemented the new parking system, provider NuPark was acquired by a company called Passport, causing some issues to “crop up” with the city’s parking system.
Barham said there are also some deficiencies in NuPark’s license plate recognition software that have resulted in a loss of revenue for the city.
“We fully recognize that,” he said. “We are working with the vendor both on the software and hardware side to improve upon this.”
The biggest issue faced by the city so far has involved generating bills for the auto day pass.
In June, the city took out the need for customers to check-in twice at the pay stations, relying more on the license plate reader to track the cars and, by association, on the city to send bills to parkers.
The process has put a strain on the police department, which handles parking enforcement, as well as the city finance department. Parking ambassadors with police enforcement are also often the first people to speak with customers frustrated with the garage’s “growing pains,” he added.
He said the city is working to resolve the issues with billing as well, and considering options such as third-party billing companies or additional staff.
Another unexpected issue with the parking garage has involved rental cars.
Because rental cars are registered to the rental agency and not the renter parking the car at the garage, the new system will send the bill to the rental agency if the parker doesn’t pay at the garage before leaving.
That’s caused a hiccup in the process, because the rental company will pass the bill on to the car’s renter, but with additional, “significant” fees on top.
Barham said the rental car issue is also being worked on.
Successes
There have been some successes with the new system, as well.
Leading up to the Fourth of July holiday, city communications official Lee Ann Hartmann created a flyer to hand out to people explaining how to use the garage.
Barham said both Hartmann and police Maj. Don Janderup stood at the garage after-hours handing the flyers to garage customers.
Barham indicated the flyers helped boost the number of online parking accounts, from about 160 before July 4 to about 530 as of Thursday.
“If the goal is to improve turnover and have a positive parking experience, there is no better way … than to have your account online,” Barham said.
