Americans have been looking for the right change to park their vehicles ever since 1935, and the parking industry has been seeking the most cost-effective and convenient collection method just as long. Both the $17 billion parking industry and the American public are about to experience a sea change of payment using smart card technology.
A new white paper, Smart Cards and Parking: A Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council White Paper, illustrates the changes taking place in the parking industry and the emerging role of smart card-based payment strategies. The paper also reviews the payment trends of the transit, financial and tolling industries, and their impact on the parking industry.
Smart cards already have considerable momentum in parking, and the report details the status of 30 U.S. programs, from Coral Gables, Florida to Portland, Oregon. The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), for example, has been issuing contact smart cards to pay for parking since 1998, and has issued more than one million cards. According to industry estimates, at least 75 percent of the tenders for payment in 2004 and 2005 have required both coin and a contact smart card.
The paper points to two motivational reasons for the parking industry to change the current payment technology: the strong desire for a cashless payment and improvement in data collection in on-street parking equipment. According to the paper, the potential exists for the transit and parking industry to be able to leverage common standards, systems, technology and support infrastructure to ensure payment approaches are more cost-effective and add value for the consumer
