Many university campuses occupy extensive space which accommodates university buildings, dorms, recreation areas, laboratories and, of course, parking spaces. Although the majority of them move with the times, e.g., modernize their buildings or design new facilities, the problem of outdated parking lots is usually ignored. Observations show that each year the more and more students commute to universities by car and thus the problem is growing stronger. Is there a way to tackle it without a complete rearrangement of the space surrounding the buildings?
Challenges to university campus management
In today’s world full of Internet, smartphones, cheap flights and huge access to products and services, our priorities revolve around big availability and short response time. This concerns many spheres of life, including education. Students who commute to university expect to reach their destination without any difficulties. Unfortunately, for many of them finding a free parking space around the faculty building can be time-consuming and for some universities, usually organized on small-area campuses, is next to impossible. That is why, nowadays, many students shift to online universities. But does it really have to be this way? Can modern technology, e.g., parking space reservation systems help us?
The ideal parking lot
To tackle the problem of parking lots that are located on university campuses, we should think for a minute about what an ideal parking lot should look like. Firstly, it should be big enough to accommodate all professors, students, other people employed at the university as well as guests. Parking spaces should be located close to different faculties and dorms so that each visitor could leave the car in proximity to their destination. What is important, cars of people unrelated to the university, e.g., people who work close-by, should have lower priority in space assignment.
Addressing the issues with campus parking lots with modern technology
As the number of students and professors who commute by car is constantly growing, the issues with leaving the car close to university buildings are being amplified. Of course, making a parking lot bigger could be a solution, but in most cases, this is not possible. In fact, many universities seek some university campus systems which are relatively inexpensive and offer high efficiency. The best example is a parking lot management system called Parkalot.
Parkalot is a simple mobile app that facilitates the management of parking lots. It allows users to book parking spots in advance. A particular parking space can also be assigned to a particular user on a permanent basis. What is more, the system allows setting priorities for those who need to park their cars the most, e.g., professors. There are many ways to customise parking rules: for example, if the reservation is not confirmed at a specific time, the previously assigned parking spot can be reserved by other users of the app.
Several more benefits…
The possibilities of the innovative software for parking lot management are not limited to assigning parking space. The system can also provide control over parking lot users. How is that possible? If someone took a parking space that was booked by someone else or blocked other cars, any other user can report the incident. This way people who are responsible for parking surveillance can react quickly and admonish the driver.
Thanks to the introduction of a parking management system at a university we can easily control the traffic around the campus and make life easier for both students and university staff. The solution is easy to introduce and use and the university doesn’t have to hire a professional parking lot attendant.
If you’d like to introduce Parkalot in your company, please contact us at contact-us@parkalot.io or book an onboarding call.Start using Parkalot in an hour. Allow your colleagues to commute by car, and park on the parking spaces assigned to those who are working from home.