Car count system to reach all garages by next fall

Nicole Montero/Asst. News Director

Maria Pelegrin spends over 45 minutes every morning looking for available parking. During her four years at the University, she wished there was a way to know about parking availability before driving into a garage.

Now with the expansion of a virtual car counting system at the Modesto A. Maidique Campus, she’ll be able to know how many student parking spots are available before driving in to look for a spot.

“If this actually works, it’s going to be amazing,” said Pelegrin, a senior information technology major. “I can’t tell you how much time I waste trying to find parking in a garage that is already full.”

The roughly $400,000 system, introduced by the Department of Parking and Transportation, will tell drivers which garages have available parking spots, similar to what Parking Garage 6 offers.

“When you drive into the University and you go into Gold Garage, you don’t know if it’s full or not,” said Thomas Hartley, executive director of the department. “You drive all the way to the top and to the bottom. This way, we can just direct people ahead of time.”

The system will have sensors that count when cars come in and out of garages by reading each vehicle’s license plate.

It’ll be released sometime this fall in conjunction with a mobile app.

The Parking App, for both iOS and Android devices, will feature permit purchases, citation appeals, citation payments, information about where to park and Pay by Cell functions for visitors, as well as a place to report parking violators on campus.

App approval for iOS devices is a longer process so the car count system may be finished first, said Hartley.

In the meantime, the department plans to have signage outside the garages.

“We’re going to have signs that’ll change the car count as cars are driving in and out of the garages,” said Hartley. “We’ll know because we’ll have cameras set up that look at each car’s virtual license plate permit.”

The University recently went from having physical decals and stickers to virtual permits, which helps the department use license plate recognition to identify who’s parking where.

With the LPR technology, the department will know the availability for both student and nonstudent parking spots.

“When you drive through the garage, it’ll stamp your plate and that’s know it’ll know if you’re a student, rather than a staff or other,” said Hartley.

The new system includes cameras in all garages and will be able to tell how long each person stays at the University.

“We’ll be able to start making some good predictive modeling and direct people in advance,” he said. “If we know, for example, that Gold fills at a particular time, we’ll be able to communicate this to folks.”

Alejandro Hernandez, a sophomore math major, thinks this is big step for the University as a “technologically-savvy college”.

“I can see what’s available beforehand,” he said. “It’s a huge plus for FIU.”

Hernandez also thinks the new system will make everything easier.

“PG6 has it and I’m glad they’ll be implementing this in every garage,” he said. “You know where to go and it’s convenient. It’s about damn time they have something like this.”

The system is set to be finished in November, depending on construction. Construction will start with PG1 and PG2 and then continue with the remaining garages.

“I think being able to direct people to the closest available parking is a huge win for everybody,” said Hartley.

Nicole.montero@fiusm.com