Downtown Parking Management System

The Vendor is required to provide a comprehensive downtown parking management system.
- The City seeks to understand the current market landscape for smart parking technology that can serve the unique operational context of the city and surrounding downtown core.
- An operational enforcement challenge: The City currently relies on sworn police officers to physically monitor time-limited parking spaces (2-hour limit, 8:00 AM–4:00 PM, Monday–Friday) across a geographically dispersed inventory of on-street spaces, surface lots, and a structured parking deck. This manual model is resource-intensive and difficult to execute efficiently given the layout of downtown.
- A public information and narrative challenge: City leadership seeks to address a persistent public perception that downtown parking is inadequate. Real-time occupancy data and dynamic wayfinding signage have been identified as tools that could demonstrate actual availability, reduce circling behavior, and reduce pressure on the City to pursue costly new parking infrastructure.
- Current Enforcement Model, Environment and Challenges
• The spatial distribution of spaces across multiple blocks, lots, and a deck makes manual monitoring time-consuming and logistically complex
• Officers must physically return to each space at intervals to observe whether a vehicle has moved, leaving insufficient time for comprehensive coverage of the full inventory
• Enforcement resources are shared with public safety priorities, which may interrupt or delay parking compliance monitoring
• The manual model lacks data capture, making it difficult to analyze utilization patterns, peak demand periods, or enforcement effectiveness
• Approximately 400+ on-street and surface-lot spaces in and immediately surrounding agency.
• Currently posted as free, two-hour limit during enforcement hours.
• Mix of head-in, parallel, and angled on-street parking plus dedicated surface lots.
• Active downtown with retail, dining, government, event, and residential uses.
• Existing City infrastructure includes hybrid Active Directory / Entra ID, Microsoft 365 (GCC), enterprise GIS (ArcGIS Server/Portal), SQL Server, and municipal fiber/wireless backhaul in portions of the downtown area
- The City is interested in technology solutions that can assist with or augment enforcement activities, reduce reliance on manual observation, and provide officers with actionable, data driven information.
- Real-Time Parking Occupancy Detection
• Reliably detect when a vehicle exceeds the posted two-hour limit, with minimal false positives.
• Support fair, defensible, and efficient enforcement workflows for City staff.
• Provide actionable analytics on occupancy, turnover, and duration of stay, time-of-day and day-of-week patterns, and event impacts.
• In-ground or surface-mounted individual space sensors (magnetometer, ultrasonic, etc.)
• Overhead sensing systems deployed on poles, light fixtures, or building-mounted infrastructure
• Computer vision and video analytics (camera-based detection with on-device or cloud side processing)
• Hybrid approaches combining multiple detection methods
• Preserve a frictionless, free experience for compliant visitors — no payment, registration, or app required to park within the limit.
• Integrate with or coexist alongside existing City systems where reasonable (GIS, identity, reporting, finance/citation processing).
• Scale to additional zones, lots, or future paid-parking models if City policy evolves.
• Maintain compliance with applicable privacy, data retention, and public records requirements.
- Dynamic Wayfinding Signage
• Available sign form factors (LED, e-paper, full-color display, etc.) and appropriate mounting configurations for urban streetscape environments
• Message capabilities — static directional plus real-time space counts, zone-level vs. block-level vs. individual space guidance
• Visibility characteristics (readability in direct sunlight, night visibility, viewable distance)
• Communication architecture between sensors, back-end systems, and signage hardware
• Power and connectivity requirements
• Durability, vandal resistance, and typical maintenance intervals for outdoor urban environments.