City Of Aspen, Colorado, Installs Genetec's AutoVu IP License Plate Recognition System To Monitor Parking

The city of Aspen, Colorado, at an elevation just shy of 8000 feet, is a popular ski and snow destination resort. It draws a large tourist population every year, including a number of world-famous celebrities. Though the city, a four-hour drive from Denver, is home to a mere 5200 residents, it holds a bed base for 25,000 and imports around 13,000 workers per day. With all of this activity, parking in Aspen is at a premium, and there is little space left to build.

Tim Ware is a veteran of the city's parking enforcement team, having served as the Director of the Department for the past 18 years. The Department oversees around 850 commercial onstreet parking spaces in the city center, a 340-space public parking garage and around 3000 residential parking spaces. Most of the commercial on-street spaces in the downtown area are managed with a pay-and-display system, with the remainder located in small pockets of unpaid spaces with time limits between 30 and 60 minutes. The parking garage is gated, and therefore mostly self-regulating. The greatest challenge to Mr. Ware's team, however, has been monitoring the residential parking spaces.