National Parking Association Announces 2015 Innovation Award Winners

The National Parking Association (NPA) announced the winners of its 2015 Innovation Awards during today’s Innovation Awards Luncheon at NPA’s 64th Annual Convention & Expo being held this week in Miami, Fla.

"Each NPA Innovation Award winner represents excellence, best practices and innovation in the parking industry,” said NPA president Christine Banning, CAE. “The winners demonstrate professionalism and parking best practices while using leadership and state-of-the-art technology to improve safety, sustainability and bottom line results.”

The 2015 NPA Innovation Award winners are:

NPA Innovator of the Year: Chandrea Frantz, President and Chief Marketing Officer, Parking Guidance Systems, LLC

Chandrea Frantz, a parking outsider, founded Parking Guidance Systems, LLC (PGS) to bring a consumer advocacy approach to parking guidance. PGS and Frantz designed a business model based on a “problem-solving approach to parking systems.”

PGS designs feature state-of-the-art parking solutions to improve efficiency and profitability. The company has completed major wayfinding and space management projects for all parking sectors, including the installation of 11,000 sensors at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and a real-time parking system at West Village in Uptown Dallas.

PGS partners with INDECT, AVPM and Frog Parking Systems to make parking industry partnering a path to the best solution for the parking assets. PGS brings a smart city and sustainability focus to hotels, municipalities, airports and mixed-use spaces.

Chandrea Frantz is an inclusive team leader, who focuses on the voice of the customer and the value of the parker with the latest tech innovations.

Innovative Organization of the Year: University of British Columbia

In the past, the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) gated facilities were causing significant traffic delays for the university, equaling 166 hours of idling each day. This resulted in wait times of up to 45 minutes for parkers, burning 175 gallons of fuel daily.

Fixed license plate recognition (LPR) cameras monitor traffic and a virtual permit program allows parkers to purchase permits as needed online. To solve this problem, UBC installed a gateless, permitless solution from T2 Systems. The new gateless system drastically reduced idling, improved customer satisfaction, decreased UBC’s carbon footprint and saved the university more than $4 million.

“The conversation around parking at UBC for a long time was about how expensive the parking cost. Once we installed the new parking system, the conversation changed really quickly to how easy it is to get in and out of the facilities,” said Brian Jones, director for parking and access services, UBC. He added, “We changed the way the community viewed us. Now we are demonstrating a real value-add by speeding up entry and exit.”

Innovative Facility of the Year: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport

To boost parking revenue and customer satisfaction at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport, Kent George, director of aviation for Broward County, developed a customer-centric plan to identify the needs of both business and leisure travelers.

George explained, “We went through a process and established focus groups asking consumers how we can do better with airport parking. Business travelers like to be able to reserve spots and valet at the curb. Leisure travelers were more interested in parking in an economy-type lot, as close to the airport as possible, with little hassle. We addressed those areas and made parking easier with apps, a reservation program and priority parking. We are responding to the marketplace needs that were derived from our focus groups.”

As a result, the airport is responding to the marketplace with a $2.3 billion modernization program, including Park Assist’s M-4 camera-based guidance system and HUB Parking Technology’s revenue control platform. The new system will generate up to $5 million of premium parking revenue and reduce search time by 44 percent, the equivalent of 1 million miles driven.

Innovative Sustainability Project of the Year: University of California, Irvine Transportation Services

University of California, Irvine (UCI) Transportation Services developed a comprehensive sustainable parking program that decreases emissions by 80,000 vehicle trips. The program reduced total commuter gas emissions by 45 percent, and decreased energy use by more than 70 percent.

UCI’s parking system uses LPR technology for 8,000 users across 6,500 spaces. The university offers movable EV charging stations to meet growing demand, and its rideshare program connects UCI staff and students through online matching of carpool partners. An automated bikeshare program, trains, buses and incentive programs all encourage green transportation practices. Of UCI’s 38,000 students, faculty and employees, 65 percent use sustainable transportation options.

About NPA

The National Parking Association is the nation's leading parking trade group advancing the interests of the private and public sector in parking technology, sustainable mobility, certification, advocacy, research and education. Founded in 1951, NPA has more than 2,500 members and represents all segments of the parking industry. www.weareparking.org.