TrafficInfraTech Magazine Linking People Places & Progress
Convenient parking with easy payment
Unless a driver frequently pays to park in a parking lot in an area he/ she is visiting, it will be difficult to find out how much it is going to cost and what lots to try. Many have lost hours circling blocks to find best available spot during a peak time.
But now, with the help of a parking app, a user/driver not only can find this information conveniently, but he/ she has an option to pay parking fares electronically — no fumbling with cash or having to find an ATM nearby. In many cases, user can even get in-and-out privileges and discount on their parking fares.
Gurgaon based Parkzap Labs helps finding live parking availability information of connected sites, provides parking tariffs for different parking lots in the vicinity of destination point and gives cashless user experience using e-wallets for paying parking fee. Parkzap also has a patent-pending solution to facilitate ticket-less exit and entry.
For parking owners, Parkzap provides ability to connect with their visitors, upgrade their parking lot equipment by connecting the existing equipment to the Parkzap’s cloud. This not only is a lower cost method to enable e-payments, but this also provides more transparency to parking lot owners and extra convenience to visitors. Other than enabling electronic payments, Parkzap Cloud provides daily collection reports, advanced analytics, and better security related information.
For equipment providers, Parkzap provides ability to upgrade their existing equipment by using their Cloud API, which not only enhances features of their existing equipment but also lets them focus on their core competency without worrying about managing the cloud and the App.
Pranay Sharma, Director, Parkzap Labs, added, “We believe end-users cannot download 100 apps for 100 parking lots. So, we want our app to be neutral bridge connecting 100 different equipment with end-users. Finally, Parkzap is an optimum solution for Smart cities with Parkzap App and Parkzap Cloud supporting both off-street and on-street parking”.
However, Sharma feels that most of the big equipment vendors have their Headquarters outside India, so integrating their systems becomes a very slow process. This according to him is the biggest challenge. None the less, Parkzap is quite confident as it just completed its first integration with a company which enables smartphone based parking management solutions. Their first integration is powering valet services at DLF Place mall, Saket in New Delhi and they are currently in process to enable e-payments for the complete parking.
Innovative and user-friendly technology
The growth of automobiles and shrinking of spaces has created acute shortage of parking space. The cars circling for parking space create traffic congestion that translates to extensive amounts of wasted fuel and carbon emissions affecting the environment. And thus, innovative technology and sustainability are in high demand for the parking industry and the green or sustainable solutions are the need of the hour.
Central Parking Services (CPS) has introduced an online app known as Park4sure that enables the customers to reserve their parking space and pay as well using the telephone, Internet etc.
The guests need to, to begin with, register their relevant details like name, e-mail id, mobile number, car details online. Once the registration is complete, they can book for a space in the facility, be a mall or others indicating the entry time along with the duration of time of stay, the vehicle number etc. The customer can also pay the charges by debit/credit card and net- banking.
Pre-booking a parking space is just a click away. The system is user-friendly and takes away the stress out of finding a place to park through a revolutionary system that allows the guests to pre-book and pay well before they leave their home or office.
“As a value add, all guests who pre-book are provided with premium valet service in all our parking lots. It is so simple, efficient, convenient and ensures effective management of traffic congestion, reduced pollution at the lot entry, and also enhances the customer delight”, said, R Swaminathan, Member Board of Advisor, CPS.
Pre booking ensures greater peace of mind as the guests need not run around in the lot searching for a space as it is guaranteed when they arrive the facility and they can enjoy their full time in shopping or in dining or the movie they have planned. Also they experience the convenience as no more lining up to pay on exit or at a pay machine.
Despite expanding use of mass transit, biking and car-sharing, as well as growing interest in both urban and suburban walk ability, automobiles will continue to be a major source of mobility. Consistently over the past decades people have driven their cars to work, shopping, social meet etc every day, and that cars are need to be parked and it will remain an issue that affects everyone in the community. How do we park cars in ways that maximize efficient use of natural resources and minimize environmental harm is an issue to be definitely addressed.
Swaminathan further added, “We recognize this and encourage our professionals to contribute to sustainability through environmentally-conscious parking design, management, and operations that work together to promote smart growth, reduced carbon footprints and energy efficiency.”
Parking management technology around-the-world
As the numbers of cars in cities grows relentlessly, it is the same story everywhere around the world. Smart parking pilot programmes are being deployed in major metropolis like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Stockholm, Beijing, Shanghai, São Paulo, and the Netherlands. Users can access occupancy data to determine the availability of spots and then pay for them with their mobile phones. In addition to lending convenience and environmental benefits, smart parking improves the utilization of existing parking, leading to greater revenue for parking owners. Los Angeles saw a return on its investment in smart parking within three months.
France based Parkeon has built a system called Path to Park, an app available on iPhone and Android, that helps to reduce the time spent by France based Parkeon has built a system called Path to Park, an app available on iPhone and Android, that helps to reduce the time spent by motorists looking for a parking spot. Path to Park digests all of the real time parking data collected in the City and as a result, develops and refines its predictive model to calculate the availability of on-street parking spaces. The application displays the probability of finding an available space on each street. It also provides turn-by-turn guidance to the 
user’s destination.
When on-street parking is unavailable, the system can guide drivers to surrounding off-street parking locations in the city. In addition, Path to Park can display availability and pricing information.
Similarly, Parknav provides real-time on-street parking availability data 24/7 for all streets in a city. It covers all types of on-street parking (including free, metered, and permit) and is the only scalable on-street parking solution that surpasses an accuracy of 80%. Currently, Parknav has over 1.5 billion recorded parking events and is available in the United States for the top 40-metro cities as well as Germany for the top 30-metro cities.
Parknav currently serves over 100,000 users on its free mobile application. The app, for both iOS and Android, provides users with 24 of these cities (20 cities in the United States, 4 cities in Germany). Features of the app include a four-colour system (bright green, dark green, orange and red) to highlight where there is open and available on-street parking in real-time, turn-by-turn directions (android) to guide user on the optimal parking route to find parking, and the ability to save/find their parked vehicle.
“We have received incredible feedback and support for our solution from our users and customers”, said Jeremy Leval, Director of Product at Parknav. “Our goal is to provide the most intelligent, most informed, and safest driving experience for drivers looking to find parking in the world’s most difficult to park metropolitan areas. We are also proud to have been independently rated the No.1 parking app in Germany by the Frankfurter Allgemeine (MeineFinanzen).
