The Oceanfront community in Virginia Beach is using a solution from eleven-x, a digital parking technology provider. It has transitioned more than 1,000 parking spaces in its “resort area” to a system which uses restructured parking rates and discounts for residents to help reduce congestion, encourage more parking turnover at curbside, and gain new data related to parking demand and other metrics.
“By making these changes we expect to see a turnover in the prime oceanfront spaces, specifically the on-street area,” LJ Hansen, director of Public Works for the city of Virginia Beach, Va., told the City Council during a Nov. 25 meeting to discuss the proposal. “We’re expecting to gain a lot of insight into how our residents are parking or using the system.”
The new plan, which the City Council approved Dec. 9 and will fully take effect April 1, will provide Virginia Beach residents with $50 annual digital vouchers that include credits to be used for parking payments in city spaces in the “Oceanfront service zone.” Residents can reload the vouchers once a year at a reduced rate.
“We think that represents a very good value for the residents. It demonstrates the council’s commitment to affordability,” Hansen said at the meeting.
Eleven-x, which deploys a network of wireless, pavement-mounted sensors to detect the presence of a vehicle, will collect real-time occupancy data, to provide messaging for digital signage, user apps and internal parking management, all as part of its eXactpark system. The project’s initial phase has launched and involves collecting data on about 1,000 parking spaces, to gain a deeper understanding of parking behavior, company officials said.
“With eXactpark, the city is setting a benchmark for how parking technology and data-driven solutions can create meaningful improvements for residents, visitors, and the community as a whole,” Dan Mathers, eleven-x CEO, said in a statement.
The new parking rate structure is expected to generate more revenue for the city’s garages, John Crawford, city parking administrator, told the council — in part, by pricing the garages more attractively for longer-term parking; and keeping more of the street spaces available for shorter timeframes, which better serve businesses.
“We wanted to try to get something to help people to want to go down to the beachfront to support the businesses,” Crawford said.
Council members generally embraced the proposal.
“This whole idea will be good for all districts. … Now we have an incentive for them [residents] to come down to the Oceanfront,” Councilmember Amelia Ross-Hammond said.
Eleven-x has been used by other jurisdictions in Virginia. Some 4,200 spaces in Arlington County, near Washington, D.C., are outfitted with its technology. The three-year project launched in 2023 as part of the Performance Parking Pilot.
