The smart parking lot is a key element in taking urban mobility to a new level. But what exactly are we talking about? While managing journeys from point A to point B has been largely optimized over the last decade, finding a parking option remains a major issue and a leading cause of urban pollution. How can smart parking solve this problem?
What is smart parking?
Like many innovation-related terms, smart parking is a trendy one, and is therefore used to refer to many different subjects.
Parking: a complex ecosystem
Two distinct areas interact strongly within the parking ecosystem:
underground parking
on-street parking, i.e. surface parking
For each type of mobility, it is necessary to organize capacity, pricing, services: conventional cars, electric cars, mobility for people with reduced mobility. It is also essential to focus on each type of customer: hourly customers (visitors), residents, season ticket holders, corporate customers…
Key issues in urban parking
Urban parking is one of the most important political issues of our decade. At the heart of urban mobility, it has a major impact on the carbon footprint of cities, the dynamism of city centers and their merchants, and the general well-being of the city. The transformation of the car’s place in the city also requires a major rethink of urban parking, as for instance in New York. Since the covid-19 crisis, some cities have decided to accelerate the transformation of parking, leading sometimes to drastic decisions.
Three uses of the term “smart parking”
Used on three levels, the smart parking system combines..:
technological innovation in a dedicated underground parking lot:
to open it or to be guided to a seat
improving the parking experience:
via improvements at certain points in the motorist’s journey
improving overall parking efficiency:
with a global vision of the urban parking system
Confusions about smart parking
Smart parking should not be confused with:
Park Assist systems
Parking assistance functions developed by major automakers such as Nissan. Also, IPAS, which stands for Intelligent Parking Assist System, is another example of a system developed by Toyota.
Underground parking lot equipped with automatic machines and ANPRs
Mobile applications for on-street parking payment, such as PayByPhone.
Automated parking control systems
Cars equipped with cameras, also known as LAPI, to automatically monitor parking times and relay information to the authorities or operators in charge of enforcement. This is the case for players such as Streeteo, Indigo and Moovia.
Minute stop terminals
The stop-markers raise awareness of parking times and the need to increase vehicle rotation. For example, Tagmaster deploys kiosks that display the parking time of a vehicle in the city center.
Level 1: Upgrading a multi-storey parking structure with smart technologies
Easy access to a private parking lot via a box or smartphone – that’s the innovation on which the players in this field are relying. Thanks to them, parking capacity increases, thus reducing the strain on parking facilities.
This is the case for operators such as:
In addition to enhance the parking facility, parking lot also becomes smart when the motorist is taken completely in hand until a parking space is found, thanks to red and green lights located above parking spaces.
Level 2: Improve part of the parking experience
Booking a parking space
These websites or mobile apps allow you to reserve your parking space in advance, sometimes at very attractive prices. These include classic parking lot operators such as Laz Parking, Impark (now REEF Parking), SP+, mobile reservation apps like SpotHero,ParkWhiz, ParkMobile and companies operating specific pre-bookable spaces like the one mentioned in the previous paragraph.
On-street parking payment applications
No more parking meters! Payment apps for on-street parking abound, and have won over many cities.
In the USA, the main payment applications are as follows:
PayByPhone, which belonged to the Volkswagen group and has now been sold to Fleetcor
Level 3: Smart parking through improvements to the overall mobility system
The third aspect aims to improve parking by addressing and enhancing the system as a whole: this is the vision of smart parking promoted by the Cocoparks company in particular.
In this vision, the entire parking system is considered:
visibility of a city’s entire parking offer, thanks to a mobile application and dynamic signage
parking management by city parking managers, thanks to a parking management solution
finally, the creation of real-time information on a large scale, thanks to smart detection systems
What impact does smart parking have on the environment?
Parking accounts for 30% of urban pollution. Reducing the time it takes to find a parking space therefore has a major impact on the pollution generated by parking-related flows. This concerns not only the flow of cars, but also logistics flows and the many vans that deliver to the city. We believe that a well-designed smart parking project can have a major impact on the carbon footprint: with the potential to reduce the impact of parking on pollution by 1/3. This means that 10% of urban pollution is at stake.
In this respect, the Cocoparks solution has been recognized by the Solar Impulse Foundation as a particularly effective solution for combating global warming.
Some examples of smart parking projects
Some examples of innovative smart parking projects
The town of Sens has deployed a smart parking system in the heart of the town to improve the daily lives of the people of Sens. A testimonial is available here.
The Metropole of Bordeaux, France allows you to view the availability of parking lots in real time on an open data portal.
The city of Liège in Belgium is releasing an interactive real-time map of parking availability.
The right people for your smart parking project
For a successful smart parking project, it is important to choose the right partner and the right technology. Some integrators, such as Citeos, Eiffage and Spie offer projects and work with technology companies like Cocoparks.
Overly cumbersome technologies, involving the installation of ground sensors, have been tested and have unfortunately sometimes tarnished the image of smart parking due to their lack of reliability.
Lightweight, non-invasive technologies are now available for efficient, viable smart parking projects.
Find out more about Cocoparks’ smart parking offer
Discover Cocoparks’ smart city and sustainable city offer by clicking on the link below:
