The College Conundrum
Higher education institutions everywhere experience it. It’s an unavoidable part of student life. Parking can be difficult anywhere, but colleges face a unique challenge. In a university environment, classes begin and end throughout the day and the veritable “rush hour” can take place multiple times each day. At Baylor, the 5 university garages with 11,000 parking spaces should be ample place for students to park. But students were complaining that they couldn’t find spots.
Equipping University Garages with Parking Counting
The Parking Services Department at Baylor knew that a parking counting system could be a great way to keep track of spots and guide students into them. But with a limited budget, they didn’t think they could afford the exorbitant price of purchasing, installing, and maintaining parking guidance. The only way they could make parking counting work for any of their university garages would be with a system that cost far less than most, wouldn’t require structural changes, and was easy and inexpensive to maintain.
Simpler, Smarter Parking Counting
Simpler, Smarter Parking CountingBaylor discovered OpenSpace from Parking Logix and knew they had found the answer to their challenge. The system requires sensors only at entry/exit points, drastically reducing costs. Furthermore, no installation was needed and the system is plug-n-play right out of the box. Students can see data clearly displayed so they know just where, and where not to, look for parking. Maintenance is simple and inexpensive with the OpenSpace cloud.
Student Support
After Baylor invested in an OpenSpace system for one of the university garages, students were so enthusiastic about the system that they decided to invest their own discretionary funds to buy three more. The student government gave $20,000 toward the purchase of 3 additional OpenSpace systems. For Baylor, it was the ultimate endorsement. Students were not only thankful for the parking guidance system, they actually were interested in using their own funds to buy more of them!
