Temple’s Office of Parking Services created a more efficient way for students to park in two garages located on the main campus.
In both the Montgomery and Bell Garages, students and faculty can now tap their Temple OWLCard to gain access to the parking facilities. The system was added during the beginning of the Spring 2020 semester to limit the amount of time drivers had to wait to enter the facilities.
Prior to the implementation of the new system, students and faculty needed to slide their Temple OWLCard cards until the gate would open. The sliding method was a tedious process, and officials from the Office of Parking Services said the new process would prevent issues with the magnetic strip on the IDs and limit wait times for drivers in line.
Temple University senior and commuter, Geno Meminaj, said the technology makes life much more convenient and is a definite upgrade from the old swipe method.
“I love it,” said Meminaj. “It’s really fast. You tap and go as opposed to last semester where you had to slide it back and forth.”
The Office of Parking Services is working to implement the technology in other garages on Temple’s campus.
“What we’re working on currently is we’re looking into renovating the Liacouras Garage,” said Director of Parking Services, Karen Sherlock. “It is 25 years old at the time. So, when we renovate it, we’re going to put new parking equipment in there, and that will start working as soon as we complete our renovation.”
Some of the new renovations for the Liacouras Garage includes updating the roof, removing bars on the sides of the facility, and placing the tap and go system in this garage.
As part of the next phase of improving the tap and go system, Sherlock said Parking Services is working with their parking vendor to implement the use of mobile devices in the garages. Students will eventually be able to tap their Apple device to the card reader to enter and exit both garages. However, there is no timeline set for this stage of the project.
Temple Update will continue to follow the latest on the renovation for the Liacouras Garage and the timeline of when the new technology will be compatible with Apple devices.
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