Embracing the future of transportation, offering electric vehicle charging stations (EVCS) at your parking facility adds to its level of service and represents a forward-thinking commitment to sustainability and customer satisfaction. As you consider the integration of EVCS into your facilities, Walker Consultants is ready to guide you towards a greener, more efficient tomorrow.

Understanding EVCS and the Components

EVCS are essential for powering up the increasing number of electric vehicles hitting our roads. From level 1 and level 2 chargers providing standard charging options to the rapid power of DC fast chargers, selecting the appropriate charging solution is critical for catering to your needs.

Customization: Decisions and Directions

Determining the ideal mix of chargers for your parking structure involves a deep dive into your specific requirements and the electric vehicle trends among your clientele. Whether the need is in long-term parking or specialized spots for taxis and rideshares, deciding on the quantity and location of chargers requires strategic insight. We’ll help you plan for the right system, supporting your facility from inception to implementation.

Partner with us for Your EVCS Implementation

With a proven track record of assisting clients with the seamless installation of EVCS, we will lead you through this transition. Our expertise spans from evaluating your garage’s charging demands to meeting ADA standards, positioning you to lead in the adoption of green technology.

Electric vehicle charging stations are not just infrastructure improvements; they are a statement to travelers about your dedication to innovation and environmental responsibility.

Embark on this electrifying journey with us! Contact Erik Nelson, PCIP or Geoffrey Posluszny, CPP today to discuss how we can facilitate your successful adoption of EVCS.

Check out some of our EVCS projects below.

Walker Consultants is proud to work with vital healthcare providers like Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Mount Carmel Health System, OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, and The Ohio State University.

Over the past 27 years, Walker has completed 36 healthcare projects in Columbus, including 10,183 spaces of parking design and restoration, as well as 17 studies of parking and mobility. Key highlights are below.

Walker’s expertise can save you time and money, and allows your patients to access the care they need as efficiently as possible.

Please give us a call to discuss your needs.

Todd Lohman, PE
Senior Vice President/Managing Director
317.842.6890
tlohman@walkerconsultants.com

Featured Projects

OhioHealth Riverside Memorial Hospital Red Garage

Now featuring a total of 1,633 spaces, the expanded Red Garage has separate ramp systems for visitor and employee areas. Walker’s services included prime design; parking planning; functional design; structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering; access and revenue control system consulting; and signage consulting.

• Learn more about the Red Garage >>

Nationwide Children’s Hospital

Walker designed multiple garages for Nationwide Children’s in a seven-year expansion project, including an award-winning underground garage.

• Underground Garage
• Livingston Ambulatory Center Yellow Garage
• 18th Street Parking Structure

Mount Carmel Health System

Walker has provided parking planning; functional design; and structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering for several structures for Mount Carmel Health System.

• Mount Carmel Grove City >>
• North Garage at Mount Carmel East >>

Walker’s team of transportation experts prepared a Regional Park & Ride Study on behalf of the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho (COMPASS).

The study serves as dynamic tool available to the public and provides critical information in the development of a more detailed transportation plan that will meet short-term needs and 20 year growth projections throughout the state.

“This was an exciting, multi-faceted project that the Walker team was awarded in part due to the strength of our references from transit agencies nationwide and strong feedback from our clients and their partners,” says Mallory Baker, Walker’s project manager.

You can find the full report here.

Geoffrey Posluszny, CPP a member of the CPMS Group located in Walker’s Charlotte office presented a webinar to the International Parking and Mobility Institute (IPMI) on Wednesday, December 9^th: “The American Dream – A Case study – Implementing the latest Technology and the Effects of Covid-19 on PARCS”.

The presentation touched on the latest technologies including a fully automated pay-on-foot system, level-by-level parking guidance, license plate recognition, integrated valet, on-line reservations, and integration with Ticketmaster.  Geoffrey discussed how the technology was selected, the RFP process, construction, installation, testing, and implementation; and explored how COVID-19 impacted the project, and how most of the contactless technologies had already been selected which can help combat the pandemic for the user.

Thanks to Geoffrey for your participation and IPMI for the opportunity.

This October, the Fresno County Rural Transit Agency (FCRTA) launched REV-UP (rural electric vehicle utilization project), it’s new electric vehicle microtransit program for residents in rural Fresno County.  Walker planned, designed, and worked with FCRTA to implement the innovative and cost-efficient transportation service in areas of the county where traditional public transit has not been a suitable option.  The vehicles have been funded by Measure C dollars, a local sales tax in Fresno County aimed at improving the overall quality of Fresno County’s transportation system.

Walker’s Mobility practice is led by Chrissy Mancini Nichols and Manuel Soto, both of whom worked on the project.

Mancini Nichols shares, “An important component of the new REV-UP service is coordination with social services agencies to offer a low-cost travel option for the most in-need riders that’s also good for the environment.  This coordination also helps grow transit ridership, a challenge in rural areas”

Soto further says, “The REV-UP service is the result of a year-long study conducted by Walker Consultants that explored the feasibility of operating shared-ride on-demand services in rural parts of Fresno County to satisfy mobility needs in disadvantaged communities, eliminate transportation barriers and provide access to employment, training and healthcare opportunities. Walker assessed market demand, projected costs, and revenues developed a financial model, and identified performance goals to ensure the sustainability of service operations.”

Moses Stites, the general manager of the FCRTA shared, “Without the expertise from Walker, FCRTA would not be in the position to launch this new and innovative microtransit demonstration in Fresno County.”

Rural public transit agencies face several challenges.  The cost of providing traditional transit service in rural locations grows every year while struggling to meet rider’s needs due to wide coverage areas in sparsely populated, low-density places. At the same time, rural demographics that are aging and lower-income mean residents are more likely to need public transit.

As a result, there are no transit services in many areas of Fresno County. Ride Apps (such as Uber and Lyft) are also non-existent because of the low-density nature of demand.  The only transit option for people is a miles-long walk in the heat and elements to get to the nearest bus stop. From there, riders often make several bus connections to reach their final destination, making it a long and unreliable travel option.

The new REV-UP microtransit service will help fill those transportation gaps so people can easily travel to jobs, training, health care, and other quality of life destinations.  The program also aims to reduce vehicle emissions to improve air quality and community health in one of the most polluted places in the nation.

FCRTA engaged Walker in 2019 to investigate how new technologies can be implemented to enhance and expand transit service in rural areas. Walker’s planning and analysis identified existing transportation gaps and determined how to deploy electric vehicle technology and rideshare in new and more cost-effective ways to expand transportation options.  The study also included outreach to local social service organizations to create partnerships and coordinate service to give their clients access to low-cost transportation to meet basic needs.  The study was funded by the Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant through the Fresno Council of Governments.

FCRTA is partnering with Inspiration Transportation to operate the service.  Inspiration Transportation is a local 501 (c)3 organization that provides sustainable transportation services to underserved communities.  Rides are offered in advance and on-demand for a $5 round trip in all-electric vehicles.

Walker will continue to work with FCRTA to expand REV-UP across Fresno County.

For more info, Inspiration Transportation’s founding director, Matthew Gillian was recently featured on the local ABC affiliate.

Walker Consultants presents Curbs, Streets and Parking for Reopening, a guide for communities to use these spaces to aid in pandemic response.

As cities and states begin to lift stay-at-home orders related to COVID-19, there will be a phased reopening of business and other institutions. Physical distancing will continue to remain especially important. As restaurants and retail begin to reopen, new measures will need to be taken to ensure customers, visitors, and employees can maintain adequate physical distancing.

This guide highlights ways for cities and communities to re-purpose their curbs, streets and parking to create more space for people. To ensure these efforts adequately consider the needs of business, customers, and residents—and are community appropriate and equitable—careful and considerate planning of public right-of-way will be essential.

Want to talk to a Walker Consultants expert about managing your curb? Contact Chrissy Mancini Nichols, Walker’s curb management lead.

Read the guide now (PDF).

Parking challenges faced by hospitals vary greatly. The way in which the system is managed, can have a profound effect on the ever so important patient experience and their perception of the hospital. A hospital or medical facility must carefully balance the needs and expectation of its patients/visitors, physicians, and staff. All within the limited resources that many facilities have today.

The trend of increasing daily bed census and overall daily patient services continues to put pressure on hospitals’ limited resources. The need to support a growing demand within a fixed parking supply is a real pressure administrators and facilities managers face. The challenges and constraints at each medical facility are unique and expectations of their patients and staff vary.

Common Parking Challenges for Patients and Visitors

Often patients and visitors have difficulty finding the correct parking location which serve the practice or clinic they have an appointment at. This usually occurs when the hospital has a series of parking facilities serving the campus.

Other times there are either not enough physical parking spaces to support the campus operation or the available parking spaces are in inconvenient locations.

Strategies to Support Patients and Visitors

Valet Service

The primary goal of providing valet services is an extension of the patient experience. The service reduces the burden of having to find a place to park then walk to the building, which can be challenging for non-ambulatory or aging patients. The valet staff must be knowledgeable and able to direct patients and visitors to destinations inside the hospital. Highly utilized valet programs are provided for free of charge to patients and visitors, especially when the parking system is free. If the parking system is not free, a nominal fee is sometimes added in addition to the parking fee. Staff should be dressed in professional attire, deliver a high level of customer service, be located at primary building entrances, have sufficient staffing capable to overlap breaks, and be able to retrieve vehicles promptly so the patients and visitors are not waiting for an undesirable length of time. The parking system also benefits from a valet operation as it affords the opportunity to increase the density of parked vehicles within the same area of parking. This is achieved by double parking vehicles, sometimes referred to as stacked parking.

Signage and wayfinding

 Signage and wayfinding are key elements to ensure a successful parking system for any facility. Signage and wayfinding should indicate both the primary destinations as well as the locations where parking is available to serve them. It is important that all signs have consistent branding and theming. They should have appropriately-sized text for drivers viewing distance, driving speed and reaction time to process information. Lastly, they should provide clear and concise information and balance the length of the message, not too much or too little.

 

Website, Maps and Directions

The facilities website, maps, and directions all play an important role for patients/visitors. Providing information on the facilities website such as rates, payment options, hours of operations, directions to parking, and destinations served by parking will help patients and visitors adequately prepare prior to arriving to the facility. Highly rated hospitals go so far as discussing these items during pre-admission telephone calls with patients.

Technology

Having an appropriately designed parking guidance system throughout the campus can be a real benefit. Drivers can choose parking in advance of pulling into a facility based on real-time availability. Once inside, the parking facility, the driver can find a parking spot quicker with dynamic signage indicating the level or area within the structure where parking is available. These systems can even show the driver each individual parking space that is open! The technology varies in complexity depending on the campus configuration. These systems offer an excellent opportunity for a successful patient experience. Access and payment technologies have also advanced. These new systems enable facilities and parking managers’ better access to data, fraud protection, improved records management, and auditability.

Employee Shuttle

Sometimes remote staff parking is necessary in order to provide the most convenient parking for patients and visitors. When the parking supply closest to the hospital is not adequate for both patients and staff, an employee shuttle may be necessary. While it may be seen by staff as burdensome, a shuttle strategy may provide operational benefits for the overall parking system. Remote employee parking is used on a temporary basis during construction projects. In some cases, remote parking with a shuttle program is less expensive to operate long-term than constructing new structured parking; though a proper cost analysis is required to determine this.

There are operational considerations for employee shuttles that must be considered such as sizing the shuttle to meet peak demand periods, providing well-lit and maintained facilities, utilizing short headways between buses during shift changes, and providing enclosed waiting areas for staff waiting at the bus stops.

Incentives are a welcome reward for employees who choose to participate in the shuttle program. A free cup of coffee, water bottle, or reduced meal in the cafeteria, while a small gesture, goes a long way for employee morale.

Conclusion

You may have thought to yourself while reading this article; “while useful, these strategies are not specific enough to directly apply to my hospital or medical facility”. You’re right! Every facility and campus operates differently and the circumstances you experience, though not necessarily unique, they are specific to your operation. We at Walker develop the strategies and implementation plans specifically to meet the demands and requirements of your operation.

Please get in touch with us so we can learn about your operation and work together to achieve a better parking and transportation operation for your patients, their families, visitors, and staff.