With all the hype surrounding the future of ridesharing, carsharing and even autonomous vehicles, and with a climate crisis looming large in the minds of a growing proportion of the general public, we asked parking professionals, is parking dead? What a relief to receive a resounding ‘no’! Yes, change is ahead, but no, parking cannot die. Find out more about the evolution of parking from our industry experts:
David Grinevald, VP International at Onepark
“Parking cannot die, as it is an integral part of individual mobility which is, and must continue developing alongside the strengthening of public transportation. Parking simply seen as a lifeless space, dedicated to storing cars might be on a downward slope, but parking reinvented, as a strong link in the mobility value chain is only at the beginning of its renaissance.”
Brian Wolff, President, and CEO of Parker Technology
“Parking is definitely not dead, in fact, it is undergoing a gigantic digital transformation. All the while people are beginning to realize that the customer experience is more important than ever. And so, technology must be balanced with the human touch in order to deliver what customers expect in the parking experience. But no, parking is definitely not dead.”
Jurgen Rutgers, Managing Director of BeSite
“I don’t think that parking is dead. It is part of the multi-modal journey. Parking is just a little step towards a complete journey to a destination. Until now, parking has not really been connected to the rest of smart mobility, and I believe that this will change, and parking is not different from other mobility choices.”
Silvia Palmarini, Country Manager, Italy at Parkos
“Airport parking is anything but dead. At Parkos, we see a higher demand for airport parking. When parking is cheaper than reaching the airport by public transport then people prefer to drive themselves. Plus, booking your travel is made easier every day, from booking your flight online to booking a parking online as well.”
Jussi Tomperi, Managing Director of Portier
“We definitely believe that parking is very much alive. Over the past few years, there has been a huge hype regarding different mobility-as-a-service concepts, as well as self-driving vehicles, but now we are seeing a little bit more realistic predictions with significantly longer uptake times in those services. At the same time, urbanization continues to be a megatrend, and even in developing countries, there is an increasing amount of private vehicles. All of these together mean parking will not only remain but actually become a more important part of a well-functioning mobility chain.”
Christian Grzona, Director of Sales and Marketing at evopark
“Parking is not dead, but certainly the product will transform over the years to come as more mobility services will require access, it takes a smarter, more agile and connected management of the area itself. Technology will be essential to combine all different stakeholders, collect data and to optimize yield, both financial and occupancy. I believe that we will rather refer to dynamic areas than parking in the future.”
Andrea Fossati, CEO of Parquery
“We at Parquery think that parking is not dead, it is still alive, but it needs to be modernized. In today’s world, parking users need to be able to find a free spot in a short and effective time. In the city of tomorrow, there are possible fewer parking spots, but the ones that are there need to be used cost and time efficiently.”
Fabio Mauri, Smart Parking Product Manager at Paradox Engineering
“Parking is more alive than ever. Despite car ownership declining in some more developed economies, in many countries, one or two vehicles continue to be registered per household, this means that congestion is a hot topic in most cities around the world. Since we know that around 30% of overall road traffic is due to parking search, smart solutions are more than needed to reduce cruising for a free spot, and the related fuel consumption, air pollution, time wasted and stress.”
Vanessa Amat, Marketing Director at Quercus Technologies
“I think the world of parking is not dead, it is more alive than ever. New technologies and computer vision offer solutions and services that were unimaginable just a couple of decades ago. License plate recognition and vehicle detection, in particular, are technologies we have been working on for 20 years. If a parking lot doesn’t adapt to new trends and commodities it will end up dying, but it doesn’t mean the whole parking sector will.”
Dominik Wieser, CEO, and Founder of Arivo
“When people talk about parking being dead, they usually refer to new ways of mobility, like self-driving cars or also car-sharing. Self-driving cars, unfortunately, are not a reality yet. And in my opinion, it will still take 10 years until a significant amount of cars will be self-driving. Recent studies even show that car-sharing leads to more cars instead of less. So parking is totally alive and will have a bright future in the next years”
Marc Boher, Chief Commercial Officer at Urbiotica
“For sure parking is not dead, but the way it is managed has totally changed. Less and better parking, strong integration with the mobility services of the cities, less because space exclusively dedicated to it is globally reduced or deported outside of the city centers, and better in terms of the services given to the users.”
Jerome Zhang, Overseas Product Manager of Parking Solutions at Dahua Technology
“Is parking dead? No. I think that parking is entering a vast new developmental phase, driven by rapid urbanization and solid technological developments. According to the data of Metropolis in China, parking space shortage is about 40-60%. However, the utilization of parking spaces is low. According to Dahua’s project experience in Chongqing, one of the biggest cities in southwest China, parking space utilization is less than 50%. What makes a parking lot dead is probably the contradictions caused by time and space shortage and low utilization.”
