Previous Posts
Trend #1: Self-driving Cars
Trend #2: The Internet of Things
Trend #3: Smart Cities
Trend #4: Millenials
Our final trend is the thread that you’ve seen woven though each of the previous trends: Data Analytics. The self-driving car is dependent on data, the Internet of Things generates data, the Smart City leverages data, and the Millennial is comfortable using data.
We generate so much more data than is possible for a human to comprehend, and that’s why data analytics tools are becoming so important. Parking vendors like T2 are now generating data from our systems and devices, while providing data analytics for customers.
When North American cities started to offer 311 telephone services for citizens to report potholes and graffiti, they opened up a floodgate of data collection. We even see some cities with parking data collected this way: citizens are reporting parking infractions and abuse of disabled permits.
As Baby Boomer parking managers retire, the generation to fill their shoes will likely be millennials who have high expectations of technology, will be asking for more insight and consulting from companies like T2. The way a Millennial purchases parking solutions will be different than how a Boomer did.
In fact, parking offices are already hiring full-time data analysts to help cope with the data they do have, and bring together data from other departments.
The parking operation of the future will see data as an interconnected stream of measurements, not individual ones. They will understand their ability to impact parking, or transit, or carbon footprint simply by making small adjustments to their systems – for instance by changing a class schedule could shift the parking needs of hundreds of students, decreasing congestion and saving a few trees in the process.
This is just one example of many possibilities… if we can be creative enough.