Smart parking has become a major trend in cities across the world. According to experts, aside from easier navigation, the data generated by sensors and devices can be analyzed and help cities improve service and quality of life for residents.
Smart parking has become a major trend in cities across the world. According to experts, aside from easier navigation, the data generated by sensors and devices can be analyzed and help cities improve service and quality of life for residents.
Smart parking is often associated with helping drivers find spaces easier, and this is indeed the case. Sensors including ultrasonic and magnetic detectors can detect the entry and exit of a vehicle in a particular space and relay that information to the driver via his device or the city signage system. Video, meanwhile, also plays an increasingly important role: Cameras can now be sensors detecting space availability, while ALPR can identify vehicle license plate number and be used for payment purposes.
But besides these benefits, a major advantage of smart parking is the analysis of the data generated from these sensors. “This includes the number of entries, average occupancy, number of cars parked, peak hour traffic, total turnaround time, average turnaround time, occupancy hot spots,” said Manu Tayal, General Manager of the IoT Center of Excellence at Happiest Minds Technologies.
“In the era of IoT, big data and Internet economy, data flow is very important. For smart parking, without license plate data, the parking records would not make much difference. For the video detection smart parking, the parking and payment data could make difference in at least three aspects,” said Jieruo Zhang, Parking Solution Manager at
Dahua Technology. “First, it guides the drives to park and leave, which could improve the turnover rate of the whole parking lot. Second, it provides customized parking services, such as reservation or VIP spots management, generating more added value. Third, with stable user number and payment flow, the parking APP could be a popular portal to drivers, which may attract other vehicle applications, such as car wash and vehicle rent.”
For city governments, how smart parking helps streamline operations is obvious. For example, a city can reduce the number of meter maids who issue parking bills or invoices from vehicle to vehicle, as payment has been made smarter. Also, people who violate parking rules can be identified quicker and punished accordingly.
But a real value of smart parking is the data that can help the city make related planning and future development decisions, for example what are some of the places where vehicles are abundant yet parking spaces are limited. This way cities can decide whether to building more garages or whether to increase parking fee in a particular section.
“It’s all about the data,” said Jay Liu, Senior Manager for Intelligent Identification and Transaction Business at Acer. “If the city wants this area to have a higher turnover rate, for example I don’t want someone to park there for four to five hours, I can raise the parking fee in this area, and this is all analytics. You can find out which roads have a higher occupancy rate at which time, and adjust rates accordingly.”
And this can ultimately translate to more revenue for the city. “Devices are key to generating real time and real world data about parking occupancy, highways speeds, origin/destination studies and much more. Our system has grown city parking up to 172 percent and grown merchant receipts up to 11 percent as more people come downtown if downtown is more accessible. We are just beginning the collective smart city journey, but parking is a very real place to start,” said Kurt Buecheler, SVP of Marketing and Business Development at Streetline.