Walker’s Brian McGann is providing subject matter expert consulting services for the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities Campus as they completely replace and re-vision their access and revenue control system. The university campus includes three distinct academic districts: the stadium village (Minneapolis), St. Paul campus, and a hospital campus, all set in an urban location between the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. Serving over 50,000 students and staff, the system replacement was needed as existing technologies had reached obsolescence. But rather than just replace equipment, the university saw the opportunity to critically assess what tools would best deliver a world-class parking experience for today, modernize payment and security methods, and improve flexibility as uses and technology changes.

The first phase of PCI-DSS compliant improvements and upgrades to 16 parking structures and 19 lots are underway and include introduction of License Plate Recognition (LPR), University card (Ucard) access credentials, credit-card only in-lane transactions, strategically located pay on foot cash and credit accepting stations, along with specific event-mode operations unique to the many athletic and academic events on campus.

Given it’s scope, this phase of the improvements are anticipated to continue into 2021. Future phases are anticipated to renovate permit and on-street parking, as well as improvements to parking guidance.

Walker’s David Lieb, TDM-CP presented a webinar for the National Association of College Auxiliary Services (NACAS) on the topic of “To Build, or Not To Build: Parking Supply, Demand, and Autonomous Vehicles.”

The presentation highlighted Walker’ planning approach which entails improving current efficiencies and mitigating demand, before adding parking. If parking is needed, this presentation also confronts, using Mary Smith’s fine research, the impending (or not-so-impending) adoption of autonomous vehicles, and how that should or should not impact planning.

By what year do you think that autonomous vehicles (AVs) will account for 33% of vehicles on the road? Watch the recording of last week’s webinar below to find our the answer suggested by Walker’s research.

Join our Indianapolis office at this year’s SCUP Northeast Regional Conference

 

As one of this years sponsors, Jeff Smallidge, PE, LEED AP BD+C and Todd Lohman, PE, Vice President and Managing Principal of the Indianapolis office will be in attendance.

 

 

 

Todd will also be presenting “Autonomous Vehicles and the Impact on Parking” Tuesday October 2nd at 3:45 PM EDT.  Don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about the transition to AV’s and how they may affect parking for higher education facilities and adaptive reuse of existing facilities.

For more information about the conference click here.

Duke University Garage’s Sustainable Design Cuts Energy Cost in Half

 

At Duke University, the Science Drive Garage anchors the main campus portal.

Building the garage on an existing lot maximizes land use and provides users with access to public transportation, lodging, educational facilities, and sporting venues.

The garage’s environmentally friendly design begins with the entry plaza, which includes a mix of green space and hardscape and hundreds of trees and shrubs.

EV-LEV and Bikes

Faced with limited parking and a steady increase in demand, the university built this sustainable garage as the primary parking facility for graduate and professional students on West Campus. The garage also adds parking access  for the athletic facilities where some parking was lost to new construction. It has electric vehicle charging stations on all tiers, low-emissions vehicle spaces, and moped, motorcycle, and bike parking.

 

“The Science Drive Garage is optimized with energy saving components, leading to a 50 percent reduction in energy costs.”

Light Harvesting

The parking fixtures have individual motion/photocell controls to maximize light harvesting. Roof and exterior fixtures feature photocell controls.

 

Ready for Back-Up

In lieu of site generators, emergency power is provided externally by the university. An uninterruptible power source system is provided for strategic equipment.

AVI Emissions

PARCS equipment, including automatic vehicle identification (AVI) for permit holders, streamlines the garage access. It maximizes traffic flow efficiency, thereby reducing emissions from cars searching for parking spaces.

 

Todd A. Lohman, PE, is a vice president at WALKER CONSULTANTS.

Email him at TLohman@walkerconsultants.com.

 

As printed in PARKING September 2018 Issue.  Click the link to the left view the current issue.