Flowbird and Wescor Hit A Home Run In Worcester, MA

Exciting changes are coming to the City of Worcester, Massachusetts. The City has announced its partnership with Flowbird Group and Wescor Parking Controls to implement a pay-by-plate parking system aimed at bringing customer ease and a user-friendly experience to drivers. The system will eliminate the city’s single-space parking meters that have reached their end of life in favour of 70 Flowbird Strada smart kiosks. The upgrade is a part of the city’s plan to enhance parking accommodations for city residents, employees, small business patrons, and attendees of large-scale events.

Worcester is the second-largest city in Massachusetts, and home to many cultural and historic attractions, along with having some of the best restaurants in the region. In addition, the city is welcoming a new baseball team, the Worcester Red Sox, Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. Polar Park, the newly constructed home to the “WooSox”, will seat up to 10,000 fans, adding excitement but also parking challenges to the area.

By implementing Flowbird’s pay-by-plate system, the city will be able to better manage parking turnover, which will be critical as more people drive into town. It starts with the user experience, designed to encourage compliance with parking regulations and boost parking turnover. The Strada’s 7” full-color display guides the user step-by-step through their parking transaction, beginning with entering their license plate number and desired parking duration.

“The city is experiencing rapid growth in both residential population and commercial development as well as a cultural destination,” said City Manager Edward M. Augustus, Jr. “With that growth comes the need to provide convenient, user-friendly parking and the responsibility to streamline parking operations.”

All transaction data is sent in real-time to Flowbird’s intelligent data management suite and shared with the city’s enforcement solution, ready to be integrated with other payment modes such as mobile phone payments or permits. Using the data provided by the Flowbird system, city staff can track the highest areas of use throughout the day. This data can be valuable to help determine future event game day parking, including plans for staffing.

From an operational perspective, the switch from single space meters to multi-space meters will bring about huge savings in time and cost to city staff. The Strada features a sustainable power management solution, featuring long-life batteries trickle charged by the pay station’s solar panel. Additionally, the city will only have 80 to 90% fewer meters to maintain and collect. An added bonus is that the single space meter poles can be removed to clean up the streetscape.

Installation of the 70 new kiosks began on March 23rd in the Canal District and will expand outwards throughout the city. The new parking system is expected to go live at the end of April.

Parking operations will be done in partnership with LAZ Parking, with project management and installation being managed by Flowbird’s local distribution partner, Wescor Parking Controls, based out of Auburn, MA.

Currently, Flowbird supports over 47,000 parking pay stations for 900 customers throughout the U.S.  Locally, in Massachusetts, Flowbird systems can be found in Boston, Andover, Beverly, Gloucester, Medford, Pittsfield, and Somerville, as well as at Harvard University.

About Flowbird US

Flowbird operates in over 5,000 towns and cities in 70 countries. The company is constantly innovating and breaking new ground to help provide solutions. Its mission is to facilitate the individual journey and maximize a city’s unique mobility potential while considering all city stakeholders and end-user experiences. Through its devices, elite service platform, and teams, Flowbird enables a new era for maximizing urban harmony and value throughout the city’s core.

About LAZ Parking

LAZ Parking, founded in Hartford, CT in 1981, is one of the largest and fastest-growing parking companies in the United States, operating over one million parking spaces across the country in 3,000 locations. With over 38 years of experience providing parking management and transportation and mobility services, LAZ works seamlessly across a variety of segments including hospitality and valet, office buildings, medical, airport and transportation, campus, government and municipal, retail, events, residential building and shuttle services. Additional information can be found at www.lazparking.com.