Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Department of Procurement, 600 Fifth St., N.W., Washington, DC 20001

D -- AUTOMATED PARKING FEE COLLECTION POC Ernie Hamilton, (202) 962-1040 The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is exploring various options to fully automate parking fee collection operations. WMATA is seeking information and descriptions of demonstrated and reliable technologies, products, systems or services that meet this objective. WMATA's daily parking program currently consists of 40 facilities (32 lots and 8 garages) with a total of 32,794 spaces, expanding to 47 facilities and 45,794 spaces by 20001. Facility sizes range from 194 to 3364 spaces. The rates are fixed now ranging from $1 to $2.25 daily. Rates vary and are changed frequently. Current revenue is in the range of $11M - $12M annually. Fees are collected manually, by a cashier attendant, upon entry or exit, depending upon facility. The hours of collection are fixed, subject to change (six facilities have pay upon entry from 5 to 10 A.M.) and (35 facilities have pay upon exit from 3 to 10P.M.). Fees are collected Monday and Friday. A programmable vehicle counting and data telemetry system is in place to monitor the manual collection operation. This system counts alll vehicles entering and leaving the facility in all lanes, stores the data in memory device at the sites. The data is subsequently transferred via modem to a single central processor using ASCI text files that are addressable using standard PC based software (specifically Paradox database software and Lotus 1- 2-3 spreadsheet). Each day the total number of cars entering each lot is transmitted to the single central processor, which is a LAN computer system in WMATA's Headquarters parking office. Gates, barrier arms, detectors, and loops are used for entry/exit control at each of the facilities, during the collection hours previously described and are left in the up position, for free entry/exit at all other times. The daily count data is also used to control the LOT FULL sign(s). To accomplish the automation objective, WMATA desires to eliminate the cashier attendant; retain the existing vehicle counting and control functions; eliminate cash availability at the parking facility exit/entry points; implement the use of universal fare media, such as the farecard and go-card technologies, for parking as well as for riding the metrorail, and operate a closed parking fee collection program that is compatible with the Metrorail hours of operation (5 A.M. - 12:30 A.M., Monday - Friday, Holidays excepted). In addition, the system must be capable of issuing and controlling a monthly rate parking program; collecting multi-day charges; identifying non-metrorail riders; and storing and tabulating real time vehicle count and revenue data, for a minimum of seven days, on-site for information gathering and report generation. All on-site information shall be stored on a central processor hard drie using ASCII text files that are addressable using standard PC based commercial software (Paradox database software and Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software). On-site data must be capable of being automatically retrieved by WMATA's Headquarters Parking Management LAN computer via modem. Any products, equipment, or systems presented must meet the following performance standardss, as a minimum: Gate control equipment - 20,000 transactions between jams or failures. Fare handling equipment - 10,000 transactions between jams or failures. All equipment/systems must have a minimum of 99.5% availability. Parking meters and master meters are not under consideration. Interest parties are invited to provide functional statements, product specifications, sales data/literature, and such other information that may be available to Ernest V. Hamiliton, Parking Operations Branch, Room 3D11, WMATA, 600 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20001, telephone 202/962-1040. Technical questions may be addressed to Ron Habegger, telephone 202/962-2028. This notice is for information only; no solicitation exists and this is not a request for proposals. Firms interested in responding to this notice must do so in WRITING, POSTMARKED WITHIN 90 CALENDAR DAYS FROM THE DATE OF THIS NOTICE. (0107)

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