Baylor University, a private Christian institution located in Waco, TX, has been experiencing unprecedented campus-wide growth. This development included the addition of three 1,000-space parking facilities along the perimeter of campus, in addition to the removal of interior surface parking lots and on-street parking from interior streets and pathways.

Baylor's Department of Parking and Transportation Services, comprised of seven staff members, enforces nearly 11,000 spaces on campus for a population of approximately 20,000 faculty, staff, students and visitors.

Challenges

Low staff-to-space enforcement ratio
Baylor Parking and Transportation Services' staff of seven was essentially the same as when it had been created more than a decade before, despite the dramatic increase in spaces across campus. According to all peer metrics, the department was significantly understaffed.

Limited parking infrastructure
Devoid of counting equipment, gate controls, or metered parking areas, the parking management infrastructure lacked parking control technology, which led to ineffective enforcement coverage across campus.

Community expectation of free parking
The community's parking expectations reflect the historic small-town character which considers free parking to be the norm. In fact, abundant free parking options exist downtown, at hospitals, and even in the front row of the airport.

Solutions

After reviewing several options, Baylor began to consider License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology. While numerous entities used LPR to locate specific scofflaw vehicles, few utilized the technology for permitting and issuing citations. Baylor Parking Services envisioned both short- and long-term potential in the technology for their campus.

Implement LPR system
In August 2015, Baylor deployed two, two-camera LPR-enabled vehicles with a cellular connection to the permit database. These vehicles could appropriately patrol 88% of campus parking spaces, with the remaining areas covered by a more traditional walking patrol. Efficiency skyrocketed as the LPR vehicles covered large areas in a fraction of the time required by a walking patrol.

Ensure consistent, efficient enforcement across campus
LPR enforcement had some less-than-positive reviews by some in the campus community, primarily due to an element of the student population unprepared for the new mobility of Parking and Transportation Services. Previous enforcement practices had set the expectation that parking without the appropriate permit might not be noticed. LPR facilitated consistent enforcement in all spaces at all times.

Switch from physical citations to e-citations
Since the LPR vehicle could drive through large areas without stopping, staff members could scan plates then pull over to a safer, low-traffic area to review any potential violations. With a couple of verifications, the staff member could issue an e-citation directly from the enforcement vehicle. Additionally, the e-citations provide images, a GPS location, and web links to the appeal process. These emailed notifications meshed perfectly with Baylor's tech-savvy culture.

Provide hassle-free visitor parking
In the past, visitors were required to obtain a physical parking permit to attend any campus event. The off-campus parking offices required a special trip just to pick up the free permit, a time-intensive process for both visitors and staff that generated no revenue. Implementing LPR led to an innovative approach for visitors who parked on campus. Although any unregistered vehicle parked on campus would actually be issued a parking citation, the system would hold each e-citation in a suspended state for a 30-day period. After 30 days, provided the vehicle has not been seen on campus again, the software would automatically void the citation. Consequently, visitors who parked on campus only one time within a 30-day period did not have to take any special action to park on campus for free.

Results

Baylor quantifies the success of this new parking solution in multiple ways, with citation counts appearing at the top of the list. Citation issuance jumped from a previous three-year average of 25,140 citations to 47,443 citations. In a peer comparison completed by SP+ and Kimley Horn during a similar timeframe, seven peer universities averaged 23,781 citations issued. All seven of the peer schools were larger than Baylor in student population (21,503 peer average to 16,797 at Baylor).

For Baylor, LPR technology accomplished the dual missions of enhancing the parking team's current abilities while simultaneously providing a platform for future growth.

More on Baylor University

Want more on Baylor University's parking transformation? Check out their parkumentary video that celebrates the team and organization's successes.