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City hears two parking‑technology pitches as staff looks for ROI and integration options
Summary
Vendors UpCity and Joppa demonstrated sensor-based parking wayfinding and enforcement systems; commissioners asked about accuracy, privacy, integration with ParkMobile/PayByPhone, and ROI and directed staff to return with cost and deployment analysis for FY27 budgeting.
The City Commission heard demonstrations from two vendors offering sensor-based parking wayfinding and enforcement technology and directed staff to collect additional return-on-investment data and integration options for the upcoming budget cycle.
Carlos Manco, the city's parking manager, introduced the presentations and said the goal was to explore technologies that reduce friction and guide visitors to underused parking inventory. Sean Grimes of UpCity described a sensor (not camera) system integrated with PayByPhone that shows block‑level availability, provides anonymized data to the city dashboard, and supports guided enforcement and pedestrian counts. “This is a sensor, not a camera,” Grimes said, adding the system yields near-term wayfinding benefits and city-owned data for planning.
UpCity emphasized first‑year promotions (co-funded with PayByPhone), a leasing model that covers hardware replacement, and messaging capabilities for app users. Commissioners asked about false positives, sensor spacing (roughly 4–6 spots per sensor/150 feet), and how the system flags anomalies. Grimes acknowledged no detection system is 100% accurate but described analytics to detect long‑term occupied spots or blocked bays for enforcement follow-up.
Matthew Magno, CEO of Joppa, presented a per‑space sensor approach with claimed detection accuracy around 99%, indoor/outdoor capability and integrated enforcement tools. Magno said Joppa supports open APIs and existing payment apps (ParkMobile, PayByPhone) and offered an illustrative annual cost range per space depending on deployment scale.
Commissioners pressed both firms for ROI examples and adoption KPIs; UpCity agreed to provide case studies (including Paris) and PayByPhone said the city can message registered users to drive adoption. The commission asked staff to study interoperability with existing systems, deployment scale and pricing and to return with a recommendation for possible inclusion in the FY27 budget.
Next steps: staff will gather vendor ROI studies, integration proofs of concept, sample pricing for scaled deployments, and a recommended go‑to‑market plan for a pilot or phased deployment.
