Parking and transportation wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for women. Every year, March is designated to honor women’s social and political achievements in history. CampusParc is taking a moment to highlight three individuals that have and continue to impact the parking and transportation industry.
June McCarroll is still impacting transportation today. Being involved in a traffic accident where she was almost run off the road by a large truck, later led to her invention of road separation. She even took it upon herself and painted the first white line in the middle of the road. McCarroll dedicated years of her life to road safety and was determined to get her idea passed. Today, McCarroll is credited by the California Department of Transportation with the concept of delineating highways with a painted line to separate lanes of highway traffic. Although it took years for her idea to be accepted, without McCarroll, we wouldn’t have the safety we have today.
“When I gave this idea to an accident-ridden world,” McCarroll said years later, “it was with no thought of honors -- only safety for drivers of automobiles.”
Another historic moment in parking and transportation history is parking spaces designated for females only. Women-only parking spots were first introduced in Germany in 1990 in an effort to improve women’s safety and attempt to reduce sexual assault. Multiple countries like China and Australia later adopted this idea. However, opinions were very divided on this idea. Is it a successful safety measure or a recipe for disaster? Later in 2009, 14 years after being introduced, Seoul decided to eliminate women-only parking altogether.
In today's world, there are many female CEO and founders in the parking and transportation industry who continue to impact how we get around.
Elizabeth Zealand, the founder of Modii, has a unique perspective on transportation and mobility, which has helped her create innovative solutions for parking. With her experience in public transit electronic ticketing systems, such as Opal in Sydney, Elizabeth recognized parking assets as a critical component of the transportation and mobility ecosystem. She brought a digital-first approach to parking when she founded Modii, which has helped the company become a leader in digital mobility.
"The team at CampusParc, led by Sarah Blouch, were ahead of their time in their thinking on parking assets and customer-centricity." Elizabeth said.
CampusParc at the Ohio State was Modii's first client in the US, and they are delighted to continue to innovate with them.
President and CEO of CampusParc, Sarah Blouch, has been an inspiration in the parking and transportation industry for years. Blouch joined CampusParc in 2012, when it was first founded. She has 40 years of mobility industry experience, including 18 at The Ohio State University.
“As with many others who started in this industry many years ago, it was by chance; I needed a job and did not consider the potential career opportunities this industry can offer,” Blouch said. While most people do not view parking a car as a complex effort, it can become quite challenging on a large university campus with many competing needs for scarce resources.
“Making parking easy is still a key goal.”
Sources:
