By Peter Richards:
The International Parking & Mobility Institute (IPMI) Conference & Expo is always one of the highlights of the year. IPMI brings together parking operators, consultants, universities, technology providers, municipalities, and mobility professionals from across North America to share ideas, debate challenges, and discuss where the industry is heading. The bonus was that Milwaukee was such a cool city!
This year, we were represented both as a speaker (Peter Richards) and exhibitor with Parkalytics. Between sessions, booth conversations, and hallway discussions, a few themes stood out.
- Event Parking Is Its Own Discipline
The event management session was packed with practical lessons. Washington State University discussed using shuttles to address parking shortages during major events. Auburn University shared how they reduced parking lot clearance times from roughly 2.5 hours by focusing on lot-level egress strategies and signal timing improvements.
Auburn also noted that only a handful of game days can generate a substantial portion of annual parking revenue. For many universities and venues, event operations are not simply a transportation issue. They are a major business function.
Another interesting takeaway was how different audiences require different approaches. Universities preparing for international soccer events noted that communication strategies that work for football fans may not work for entirely new visitor groups.
This resonated with some of our recent work supporting Arcadis on the Dodger Stadium Transportation Study in Los Angeles. While every venue is unique, the challenge remains the same: understanding how thousands of people arrive, park, move, and leave in a safe and efficient manner.
- Truck Parking Remains One of Transportation’s Biggest Challenges
Several sessions focused on freight movement and truck parking.
A few statistics stood out:
- More than 70% of goods move by truck.
- Truck parking demand and supply often do not align geographically.
- New York State has very limited dedicated truck parking infrastructure relative to demand.
- Pilot programs for overnight truck parking are showing gradual adoption but remain difficult to enforce.
The challenge is turning that information into practical solutions. As we listened, we could not help but wonder whether drones could eventually help validate or supplement some of these datasets by providing periodic aerial observations at key locations.
- Parking Policy Continues to Evolve
Donald Shoup’s influence remains strong. Several discussions referenced chapters and concepts from The Shoup Doctrine book and explored how communities are rethinking parking requirements.
The conversation has evolved beyond whether minimums should exist. Increasingly, municipalities are asking where they make sense, where they do not, and how parking requirements influence housing affordability, redevelopment potential, and travel behavior. The impacts of no parking minimums was noted to be felt most in residential areas.
In general, the answers remain highly context-dependent, but it is clear that parking policy continues to evolve as cities balance competing priorities around growth, mobility, and land use.
- Visual Data Changes Conversations
Peter Richards had the opportunity to present alongside Tom Brown from Nelson\Nygaard and Justin Goodwin from the City of Columbus, discussing how drones can be used to understand parking demand and behavior at scale.
One of the recurring themes was that aerial imagery provides context that traditional data collection methods often miss. Whether examining parking utilization at Detroit’s Eastern Market, residential development impacts in Columbus, or other large-scale studies, having a visual record helps stakeholders understand patterns, validate findings, and build confidence in the results.
- Counting Cars Is Harder Than Most People Think!
At the Parkalytics booth, we ran a simple challenge. Attendees were shown an aerial image and asked to count the parked vehicles as quickly and accurately as possible.
We expected some participants to post incredibly fast times and 100% accurate results. Most people either counted slowly, counted incorrectly, or both.
It was a useful reminder that parking data collection is often harder than it appears. Even seemingly straightforward tasks become challenging when hundreds or thousands of vehicles are involved. That challenge is exactly why automated detection and scalable data collection tools continue to gain traction.
Final Thoughts
IPMI remains one of the best opportunities to hear how practitioners are tackling real-world parking and mobility challenges.
This year reinforced that our industry is balancing several major transitions simultaneously: changing parking policies, evolving mobility patterns, increasing use of technology, growing freight demands, and higher expectations for data-driven decision making.
The tools may change, but the goal remains the same: helping people, goods, and vehicles move more efficiently through increasingly complex environments.
We enjoyed exhibiting and speaking in Milwaukee, and the conversations at our booth were every bit as valuable as the formal sessions. The good news? We’ve already booked our booth for IPMI 2027 in Orlando, so we’ll see many of you again next year. 🚁🅿️
Peter Richards is the CEO of Parkalytics. Peter can be reached at pete@parkalytics.com.
This blog is republished with permission from Parkalytics: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/volume-18-what-we-learned-ipmi-2026-parkalytics-ehtmc/
Forum Question: What were your biggest takeaways from the conference?