Image Credit : All photos have been taken by Barnacle employees.
Project Overview
The Barnacle is a product that aims to provide a more efficient and innovative solution to parking enforcement. Using latest materials and technology, the Barnacle attaches to the vehicle windshield using commercial-grade suction cups that provide 750 pounds of force and obstruct the drivers view. Equipped with an integrated electric pump and GPS tracking, the Barnacle offers a new and innovative solution to parking enforcement.
Organisation
Team
Kevin Dougherty- CEO
Chris D'Antuono- General Counsel
Colin Heffron- Operations
Project Brief
Imagine you are on your way to a very important meeting and you find a parking boot on your car. You now have to wait for a parking enforcement officer to remove the boot and, if your car is to be towed, wait for the tow truck to arrive because a car cannot be towed with a boot on it. As many of us know, this process can take several hours and change the course of your day.
The Barnacle allows you to make that very important meeting. By calling the number displayed on the Barnacle and paying over the phone with a credit card, you will receive a one-time release code. Simply enter the release code into the keypad and the suction cups will release. You then have twenty-four hours to return the Barnacle to a predetermined location. From start to finish, the Barnacle makes this frustrating process quick and easy. What once took hours, can now take minutes.
Project Need
Since the boot was invented in the 1940's, parking enforcement technology hadn't evolved. Not only has the boot proven to be universally hated, it also presents many inefficiencies, environmental hazards and danger for drivers and parking enforcers themselves.
Additionally, the parking boot is heavy, difficult to transport, and dangerous to deploy and remove (in the street with your back exposed). Not to mention, the boot takes up to 10 minutes to deploy. The Barnacle however, is lightweight and 14.5 pounds. The Barnacle is easily transported by car and bicycle, and deployed from the curb in 30 seconds.
From cities, to hospitals, universities, airports, and many more, the Barnacle brings a much needed improvement to a product that has seen no improvement since the 1940's.
User Experience
Safety was one of Kevin Dougherty’s concerns, when designing the Barnacle. He wanted to be sure that parking enforcement officials and agents never have to kneel down in traffic to secure a parking boot, so the enforcement tool was designed to allow them to attach it from the safety of the curb, from a standing position. As mentioned above, a fast 30 second deployment allows the parking enforcement officer to maintain his situational awareness and avoid harm from both angry motorists and oncoming traffic.
We hope the Barnacle will also help change public perception of parking officials, proving them to be city ambassadors, not villains—after all, much of ticket revenue goes right back into public services, like schools. Besides continuing to spread word about the Barnacle, Kevin is working to change the narrative around parking enforcement officials and to educate the public about why parking enforcement matters.
Project Marketing
When Kevin got the Barnacle pilot programs going in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he initially didn’t want too much exposure around them. The goal was to make sure they were successful first. But in September 2016 someone in a pilot city who had a Barnacle placed on their car took a picture and tweeted it. That was the beginning of a viral phenomenon that would have the Barnacle talked about on “The Today Show,” in The Daily Mail, in WIRED Magazine, in the Los Angeles Times, and on the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer, among many other placements, over the next few months. The response was so overwhelming that the Barnacle was soon receiving calls from every major city in the world that wanted to buy or distribute the tool. On “The Today Show,” Matt Lauer lamented that having the boot put on your car is “one of the most humiliating things that could ever happen” and then shared news of the Barnacle, while The Daily Mail told readers to “forget the wheel clamp.” “Modern Family” even wrote the Barnacle into an episode that aired in early 2017.
Project Privacy
As a deterrent, The Barnacle comes equipped with a motion-sensing alarm, which will sound if the vehicle is in motion or the device is tampered with. The suction cups are protected by two layers of plastic fingers, anti-tamper gaskets, and a drill resistant shield. The Barnacle is also GPS trackable and can send the parking enforcement department real-time updates of location and alarm alerts in the unlikely event that a Barnacle is illegally removed or the vehicle is driven.
The Barnacle is also very bright yellow, large, and visible as it goes on your windshield. Unlike the boot, which experiences several compromises, the Barnacle's location, size, and color serve as a large deterrent.
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