Parking lot monitoring system

A method of monitoring and managing parking in a parking lot having an entrance and an exit, the method comprising:

• sensing a vehicle entering the parking lot;
• capturing image data of the vehicle entering the parking lot and transmitting the image data to a remote networked computer system;
• recording a time of entry for the vehicle entering the parking lot and transmitting the time of entry to the remote networked computer system;
• determining an identification of the vehicle entering the parking lot;
• sensing the vehicle exiting the parking lot;
• capturing image data of the vehicle exiting the parking lot and transmitting the image data to the remote networked computer system;
• recording a time of exit for the vehicle exiting the parking lot and transmitting the time of exit to the remote networked computer system;
• determining an identification of the vehicle exiting the parking lot;
• determining that a parking violation has occurred due to a parking time period expiring without the vehicle exiting the lot prior the parking period expiring;
• communicating notice of the parking violation to the remote networked computer system.

A method of managing parking for a parking lot, the method comprising:

• capturing image data of a vehicle entering the parking lot;
• recording a time of entry for the vehicle entering the parking lot;
• determining an identification of the vehicle entering the parking lot;
• initiating a grace period following the vehicle entering the parking lot;
• receiving a selection of a parking time quantity by a user by the user providing an input to a kiosk;
• calculating a total parking fee in response to a selected amount of parking time;
• receiving payment for the total parking fee;
• stopping the grace period upon receipt of the payment for the total parking fee;
• capturing image data of the vehicle exiting the parking lot;
• recording a time of exit for the vehicle exiting the parking lot;
• determining an identification of the vehicle exiting the parking lot;
• determining that a parking violation has occurred due to calculating a parking time exceeding the selected amount of parking time;
• communicating a notice of parking violation to a person associated with the identity of the vehicle;
• and
• receiving updated parking rate parameters from a remote computer system.