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Tuesday , 26 March 2024

Mobile Apps for Smart Parking

Drivers across the nation and around the world are turning to mobile apps, websites and other forms of technology to find and pay for parking with greater efficiency. At the same time, a number of startups are working to simplify the parking process, perhaps marking a revolution in the parking industry. So why, beyond the growth of mobile payments in general, are these mobile parking apps catching on? TrafficInfraTech looks at different categories of parking apps.

How many times have we gone around circles trying to find parking slot for vehicles? A study conducted by IBM in 2011 found that 30 percent of a city’s traffic is attributable to people hunting for parking — with a third of New York City drivers reporting they search for 20 minutes on an average. This search burns about one million barrels of the world’s oil every day.

What if there was a way to find out where there is a parking spot ready, or even better, book it in advance? Smart parking is the first step in the right direction. It involves using low-cost sensors, real-time data collection, and mobile-phone-enabled automated payment systems that allow people to reserve parking in advance or very accurately predict where they are likely to find a spot. When deployed as a system, smart parking thus reduces car emissions in urban centers by limiting the need for people to needlessly circle city blocks searching for parking. It also permits cities to carefully manage their parking supply.

On-street parking management app

An on-street spot is often convenient. There are parking management companies which let user’s pay through their app, receive messages as time runs out, and even extend remaining time with a tap wherever you are. Some of these apps let users pay on site through their phones for spaces in a self-serve lot or in a garage.

As the app users do not have to interact with a kiosk, in certain cases, the license plate is used by parking-enforcement officers or parking-lot staff to check whether the payment is made or not.

MassPark app is one such on-street parking management and enforcement solution from Power Electronics which enhances parking quality and experience. The solution integrates various modules right from sensors, parking signages, parking payments via MassPark app and enforcement tools for on-street parking of the entire city. The solution enables scalability, accountability & enforcement with sustained and increased source of revenue for Municipal Corporations. Vehicle owners can pay for their parking without the hassle of using cash or carrying change. They can pay for their parking by phone, receive reminder text alerts when parking is about to expire and extend their parking from anywhere by phone.

Yashesh-JainYashesh Jain, Vice President – Strategic Marketing, Power Electronics, explained, “With continuous expansion of urban population, finding a parking space and paying for it without any hassle is becoming a rare occurrence. In fact, 30 percent of all moving vehicles in cities at any one time is scouring the roads for an empty spot rather than driving towards a destination, not only causing inconvenience to citizens but adding to congestions and raising levels of pollution. And thus, Municipal Corporations have to come up with intelligent, innovative and cost-effective solutions to combat parking problems. Choosing the right mix of solution for the parking is a challenge not to mention the cost of deployment, maintenance and flexibility. Thus striking a right balance by minimizing costs, ease for the provider and user is key to implement a successful Parking Management.”

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