Impark adapts to urban need to go green
Canada's largest parking company plans to keep its spot in an energy-saving, commuter-driven future

Bruce Constantineau
Vancouver Sun
August 13, 2007

As CEO of one of North America's largest parking management firms, Herb Anderson sees a bright future for Impark, even in energy-conscious cities. Herb Anderson knows the Big Yellow Taxi lyric only too well -- they paved paradise to put up a parking lot. But the chief executive of Vancouver-based Impark insists parking does not have to symbolize urban blight. "If the market controls things, then parking spaces close to destination points will cost more and that will push more people onto public transit," Anderson said in an interview, citing U.S. parking expert Donald Shoup's recent book on the subject.

He also noted Canada's largest parking company has become more environmentally responsible in recent years -- with 13 of 80 company vehicles being fuel-efficient Smart Cars, tickets printed on recycled paper with soy ink and $12,000 spent on carbon offsets from Tree Canada that will result in at least 2,500 trees planted across Canada this year. (The company says the Tree Canada investment offsets the carbon footprint from its office space and vehicle usage but not company air travel.)

Impark -- a private company owned by U.S. and Australian interests -- is the largest parking management firm in Canada and the third largest in North America, behind only Central Parking Corporation of Nashville and Chicago-based Standard Parking. It operates about 1,800 parking locations in the U.S. and Canada and company revenues increased by 15 per cent last year to $200 million. Impark employs 3,700 people and about 70 per cent of its operations are in Canada. Anderson said the company will grow through acquisition, as the North American parking industry is still very fragmented, with about 80 per cent of the business controlled by local and regional operators.
"Many of them have been in the business for a long time and are looking for exit strategies," he said.
Impark has acquired two parking companies in the past year -- Urban Parking of Winnipeg and Metro Parking of Vancouver.

Canadians have been quick to accept automated parking services -- like pay-by-cellphone technology -- and more than 50 per cent of Impark operations are automated to some degree. Anderson said Impark competitors have only about five per cent of their operations automated. "It usually takes about 35 seconds to exit a parking lot through a cash line," he said. "But it's only about 15 seconds if you pay at an automated line or pay in advance and just go through."

So what is the future of big parking companies if environmentally-conscious governments push to get more cars off the road and more people onto public transit? Anderson said the future looks promising, even though big cities like London, England, now tax people for the privilege of driving in the downtown core. New York is considering a similar measure. "That encourages greater use of commuter trains, which offers new opportunities for us," Anderson said. "We'll look to manage parking lots along the train line [where commuters drive to catch the trains]."

Shoup, a UCLA urban planning professor, agrees parking management companies have a viable future. "Companies that manage existing spaces and figure out how to make the best use of them will do okay," he said in an interview.
Shoup's book, The High Cost of Free Parking, contends that free or cheap curbside parking in cities encourages wasteful practices as drivers cruise around and consume more gas as they search for parking spots. He expects drivers will have to pay more for those spots in the future. "That will require more sophisticated metering and technology, a lot of which is made in Vancouver [by Digital Payment Technologies]," Shoup said. "The right price will be one that yields about 85 per cent occupancy, so it's well used but parking is still readily available."