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GRAND RAPIDS - it will be a technological first for the city.
When monthly parkers enter the new ramp being built by the Ellis Parking Co. and Kent County next summer, they will be able to keep both hands on the wheel, or one for the wheel, one for a sandwich or whatever.
Why? Because the Ellis Parking Midtown Ramp will be the first parking facility in the region to feature hands-free access. That feature is being made possible through a company called TransCore, a product line called Amtech and a process known as AVI, which stands for automatic vehicle identification.
Ellis Parking General Manager Wait Penrose told the Business journal that the ramp's monthly parkers will have a tag containing a transmitter attached to their car's windshield. When they get close to the ramp, the receiver at the entrance will pick up the signal and raise the gate.
"It's the same system, basically, that they use on the tollway in Dallas," said Penrose. "It's done through a radio frequency. There is a transmitter in the card and that transmits to...