In today's blog, we feature an In the Spotlight interview with Rob Matthews, Vice President of Sales & Business Development.
As curbside safety and enforcement become increasingly important in cities worldwide, companies like MPS are developing innovative solutions to address these challenges. In this article, we’re resharing our recent In the Spotlight interview, where Rob discusses how the SafetyStick solution is helping cities tackle illegal parking in critical areas, improve pedestrian safety, and support more effective enforcement.
The Invention and Expansion of the MPS Solar SafetyStick®
Q: To start us off simply - what is the SafetyStick in the simplest terms?
Rob Matthews:
SafetyStick is a bollard-shaped device that we install on the sidewalk next to areas where people should not stand, stop, or park. Places that are clearly identified as no parking areas. Places where it's not just against the law to park there. It's dangerous.
The SafetyStick turns on when someone occupies one of these spaces. It takes a timestamped picture, typically after 90 seconds, once someone arrives in one of these locations. It then keeps taking pictures until the person leaves.
So someone might park there for a few minutes, or someone might park there for hours. We create a timestamp that can be shared with parking enforcement, law enforcement, or anyone else who is interested in enforcing these areas.
Q: There’s clearly a strong focus on safety, enforcement, and security. Is that the core idea behind SafetyStick? And where does the name come from?
Rob Matthews:
We wrestled with a lot of different names for the product, but we landed on SafetyStick because, as we started to learn more about the issue of people parking in illegal areas, we realized that it’s not just a nuisance - it’s really a public safety issue.
Organizations in the United States, like the National Safety Council, the Governor’s Highway Administration, and the Vision Zero Network, have conducted and published studies showing a link between people parking in areas like bus stops, bike lanes, and crosswalks, and injuries to pedestrians - even fatalities.
In 2023, upwards of 7,000 pedestrians were killed in crashes on the street. It seems impossible that this could still be happening in 2026, but it is.
Q: Where do you typically see this being deployed today? Who are the main users, and in what environments does it have the biggest impact?
Rob Matthews:
We’re seeing a lot of traction from cities and towns, and from colleges and universities, especially in places where there’s some density, where a lot of people have to cross the street, and where clear sightlines are important.
Some of the most densely populated cities in America are our customers, including Somerville, Massachusetts, and places in New Jersey like Guttenberg, which is the most densely populated city in New Jersey. Places where there’s a lot of competition for parking and where pedestrian safety is really critical.
We share information with leaders in parking, with leaders in law enforcement, and with people who are overseeing Vision Zero initiatives in various cities. These tend to be the people who become the champions of our product in their cities and towns.
Q: When we look at enforcement solutions, there are quite a few players in the market. Where would you say MPS really stands out, and what makes your approach different?
Rob Matthews:
The parking industry meters and so forth have been around for over 90 years in the United States, and as long as there have been meters, there has been enforcement.
What we’ve done is expand enforcement into areas where people should never park - places that are a nuisance and places that are dangerous.
What sets us apart is that we’ve not only introduced a new approach using static photographs, but we’ve also patented that approach. We’ve created a solar-powered device that nobody else has in the marketplace.
As far as we know, there’s no one else enforcing illegal parking in no-standing, no-stopping, and no-parking areas the way we are. As far as we know, there’s no one else using a sidewalk-mounted, solar-powered device. And as far as we know, there’s no one else with the connections we have into state databases for the purpose of looking up registered owner information and sending violations, once approved by cities, to those violators.
So we think what we’re doing is unique. A lot of our customers, when they write resolutions to sole-source our product, often say in the first sentence that they want to work with MPS and install the SafetyStick because it is a unique, proprietary device that is not available from anyone else in the marketplace.
I feel like I’m bragging a little bit here, but we’ve really done our homework when it comes to the engineering, intellectual property, and patent side of the product.
Q: You mentioned earlier the progress you’ve made. Looking back, when did you really feel that this was working and getting traction in the market?
Rob Matthews:
You can make the best dog food in the world. You can make organic dog food. You can use the best meats, the best vegetables, and put the best label on it. But until you put it on the floor and the dogs eat it, you don’t know if you’ve got a product.
We introduced this product a number of years ago in Bridgeport, Connecticut. They had a problem with people parking in front of fire hydrants. We installed SafetySticks there, and we changed behavior. We stopped people from parking there. We deterred them from parking there.
Sadly, this is a problem that persists throughout the United States. In the last six months, there have been a handful of fatalities in big cities like New York - in the Bronx and Brooklyn - because fire hydrants were blocked.
That’s how we knew we had a product that people wanted and that it could make a difference in the world. From there, we expanded that idea of enforcing hydrants to the other areas I mentioned earlier: crosswalks, bike lanes, bus stop - any place where people tend to park illegally and where crashes can happen.
Q: As a final question, what’s next for MPS and the SafetyStick? Where do you see things evolving from here?
Rob Matthews:
We’re constantly inventing and adding new patents to our portfolio. We intend to roll out products that address problems that have been persistent in the market and that no one else has really been addressing.
Double parking is a big one. Handicapped enforcement is another. We’re also looking at putting the cameras we use in SafetySticks onto poles and looking down the street with a product that we’ll hopefully be introducing through a press release, and with the participation of your publication, called Street View.
So that’s a bit of a preview of where we’re going, and we’re pretty excited about it.
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This discussion offered a closer look at how Municipal Parking Services is responding to some of the most persistent curbside enforcement issues facing cities today. From improving safety around fire hydrants, crosswalks, and bus stops to developing new tools for challenges like double parking, MPS’s work reflects the growing role of innovation in parking and mobility. Stay tuned for more conversations with the companies and leaders influencing the future of the industry.
About Municipal Parking Services (MPS)
Municipal Parking Services Inc. (MPS) is a pioneer in AI-driven enforcement and compliance technologies. Since 2013, MPS has leveraged its unique platform to deliver cloud-connected parking and safety solutions that reduce illegal parking, increase compliance, and improve safety outcomes. MPS solutions use embedded AI to automate license plate recognition, dynamic pricing, zone monitoring, and enforcement, creating safer, smarter communities. The company partners with leading safety organizations, including Vision Zero, IPMI, IACLEA, and IACP. Headquartered in Austin, Texas. Learn more at www.mpspark.com.
About Parking Network
Parking Network is the leading information source for parking. We connect professionals through our online and offline channels. On our online platform parking.net, we publish the latest news, product showcases, job openings, and tenders related to parking. On our platform, you can access the most complete industry and parking professionals directory. Offline, we host niche-specific networking events such as the Airport Parking Network Event.
