GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Where do I park?
When traveling downtown, it's top of mind. Do I have to pay? Can I park on the street? How much do the lots cost? How's my parallel parking?
On Tuesday, a public hearing was held during a Grand Rapids City Commission meeting on whether Mobile GR — the city's transportation department — should be allowed to use drones to study parking downtown.
Here's the proposed plan:
In partnership with Mobile GR, OHM Advisors will fly drones 300 to 400 feet above the city, taking high-resolution images of the parking areas downtown, specifically within the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) boundary.
Per publicly available documents, the aerial imagery will be collected and analyzed by Quantifly at the morning peak hour, noon, and at the afternoon peak hour.
Mobile GR says the drones will not be used to capture personally identifiable information such as license plates, vehicle identification numbers or bumper stickers, but will rather identify vehicles based on their color and precise positioning within parking spaces.
Then, the imagery will be used to determine how often parking spots and lots are used, how many cars use them throughout the day and how long these cars stay in one spot, allowing Mobile GR to better understand, operate and plan its city-owned parking systems.
Traditional parking studies, according to OHM Advisors, are "more invasive" as they rely on referencing the license plates of vehicles to determine whether the vehicle has moved or not.
Per city policy, any piece of equipment defined as surveillance equipment, including drones, must receive approval from the City Commission following review by the Public Safety Committee.
"No, I don't think this is great. I don't think this is good," said one Grand Rapids resident during the public comment period, which lasted around ten minutes due to low attendance. "How does this help anybody who's vulnerable in the city?"
"They can say it's not going to be used for surveillance, but put [drones] in the wrong hands, bad things are going to happen," said another resident.
The Grand Rapids City Commission will vote on the drone study at a future date.
