Case Study: City of Santa Monica achieves 40% parking revenue increase and 99.8% meter uptime with IPS Group, Inc.'s smart meter and sensor solution

City of Santa Monica - Customer Case Study

The City of Santa Monica faced mounting parking challenges: millions of annual parkers, nearly 6,000 meters and only three meter technicians, and cumbersome coin-only equipment that made rate changes and enforcement difficult. To address this, the City trialed new technology and selected IPS Group, Inc., which installed 150 solar-powered single-space parking meters and 150 in-ground Vehicle Detection Sensors that supported credit/debit, smart-card and pay-by-cell payments and fed occupancy and turnover data into the City’s web-based Data Management System.

After the trial the City procured 6,000 IPS Group, Inc. meters and 6,000 sensors (installed in just two months). IPS’s meter‑sensor system and management platform enabled remote pricing, real‑time alerts, anti‑meter feeding and meter reset functionality, driving measurable benefits: meter uptime of 99.8%, credit‑card usage rising from ~30–37% to peaks of 67% (generally up to 57%), meter revenues up nearly 40% (with the reset feature adding ~10%), fewer coin collections and faster maintenance response — with revenue gains paying for the modernization within 12 months.

City of Santa Monica

Anthony Mazeika

Parking Operations Specialist