Guided into space

spaceGuided into

Above right: The challenge of parking is as old as the automobile itself – Henry Ford experienced it when using his first ever car, the Quadricycle, built in 1896 Main: Today, smart parking can help EV drivers to find charging points Parking is too often a secondary consideration for urban traffic managers, particularly in the developing world, where cities are growing at an exponential rate. But, by applying the latest advances in technology, systems can become safer, more efficient and more sustainable

Words | Prabhat Khare, transportation consultant and senior industry veteran of Tata Motors, Honda Motor Company and Ashok Leyland

Parking issues date all the way back to the early 1900s, when automobiles first started to gain popularity. Interestingly, one of the main attractions of automobiles was that they could be left unattended when not moving, unlike any other mode of transport at that time. Henry Ford once described the reactions he received while out driving his first Quadricycle. The Quadricycle (first built in 1896) was considered somewhat of a nuisance in public places where horse carriages were in use, because it scared the horses. It also blocked the traffic. “If I stopped my machine anywhere in town, a crowd was around it before I could start up again,” he said. “If I left it alone even for a minute, some inquisitive person always tried to run it. Finally, I had to carry a chain and chain it to a lamppost whenever I left it unattended.” The issue of automobile parking had begun.

With time, as the number of automobiles on roads increased, there became a serious need for unmanned, compact and sometimes automated parking systems. Efforts to create primitive automated parking began as early as 1905, when Paris, France, became the first city to try out an automated parking system,

Above & Below: Automated parking systems are an impressive way to save urban space, but their cost means they remain relatively rare which consisted of a multistorey concrete structure with an internal elevator. It was nearly another 50 years before the first driverless automatic parking garage opened in Washington, DC, in 1951. Throughout the 20th century, as technology evolved, better, safer, more compact, and more efficient parking systems were developed. Slowly automation was brought to parking systems.

Smart automation

In many current automated parking systems (APS), an electro-mechanical system is used to optimize the area and/or volume available for parking cars. In multistorey parking garages, APS can stack cars in various configurations. These systems may use a variety of subsystems to pick up vehicles from the entry point and transport them to parking bays. They can later reverse the process when retrieving these vehicles for their owners.

These APS are also known as automated parking facilities (APF), automated vehicle storage and retrieval systems (AVSRS), car parking systems, mechanical parking, and robotic parking garages.

But fully automated parking systems remain something of a novelty and are now being overtaken by smart parking technologies that utilize numerous different intelligent technologies including floor-embedded smart parking sensors, infrared cameras, location sensors and counting sensors. These are linked with in-car technology or smartphone applications, harnessing the power of the Internet of Things (IoT) to guide drivers to available parking, and even allow for reservation of spaces and payment in advance, making parking an altogether more streamlined and seamless process.

This kind of real-time information means that all free parking spots can be dynamically ‘talking’ as a single entity to all approaching vehicles. Once the driver decides on a particular facility, the smart parking system ‘pulls’ the vehicle to an available bay.

Naturally, such complex systems have cost implications, but may become more affordable to create as the price of electronics diminishes over time. They can be seen as integral to future smart cities driven by IoT infrastructure, utilizing that infrastructure to drive economic growth and enhance quality of life. Indeed, smart parking systems promise manifold benefits to various city stakeholders. If the same footprint can accommodate more vehicles, cities can update building codes and land-use policies to reflect a reduced need for parking areas. This will make cities cleaner, greener and inherently more amenable to people instead of cars.

Look smart, save space

As so many vehicle miles are wasted looking for parking, smart parking systems could save millions of liters of fuel. Such systems also provide the best routes to parking in any area of

Above: Smart parking sensors in car parks can feed data to facility managers and drivers on where spaces are available the city. Thus, smart parking improves the utilization of existing parking spaces, leading to greater revenue for parking facility owners.

It also plays a major role in reducing emissions. Smart parking programs are now being deployed in many cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Stockholm, Beijing, Shanghai, São Paulo, and several cities in the Netherlands. In most of these smart parking systems, low-power sensors and smart meters track the occupancy of parking spaces throughout the city.

Developing smart parking solutions within a city requires standardized data and management, mobile phone integration, hardware and software innovation, and coordination among various stakeholders, such as parking facility owners, municipalities, transportation authorities, customers, and software developers. Coordination between all these entities is integral to making a smartphone-enabled, multimodal, fully integrated transportation solution a reality. The technical enablers and multi-stakeholder coordination effort behind the development of a local smart parking solution create a launchpad for full transportation system integration.

Smart parking can transform urban landscapes, making them more amenable to people rather than cars. With the advent of smart parking and more mobility alternatives to personal vehicles, there will be less need for surface parking. By updating building codes and land use policies to reflect the reduced need for parking, cities can drive down building costs and encourage more varied development options. Ultimately, urban spaces can become greener, cleaner, more compact, and more inherently walkable, bikeable and serviceable by a multimodal transportation system.

Smart thinking

India (see: A country in need of smart parking, below) is an extreme example that shows how important parking is to our mobility systems. Any country that has a complex, dense mobility network needs a well-planned, focused approach to parking solutions.

A fully integrated approach to smart parking is the ideal replacement for primitive and unorganized parking systems. These smart parking facilities can also become integrated electric vehicle charging hubs, meaning that they serve a dual purpose.

It is important that policymakers understand the importance of intelligent and smart parking areas. Smart parking helps mobility planners to optimize city space, reduce emissions and enhance quality of life for all. A smart city starts with smart parking. n

A country in need of smart parking

Despite India having some of the world’s best automotive brands on its roads, the country’s parking system is in chaos. A deadly combination of too many vehicles and unorganized parking systems creates danger and disorder, as well as many other socioeconomic issues in public places. With outdated, unplanned manual parking systems lacking any kind of discipline, the general tendency of people in India has been to park their cars anywhere they want to. This approach causes traffic jams, unsafe parking, automotive damage and accidents.

Haphazard parking areas have spread across Indian cities. These are a serious social issue that not only lead to congestion on the roads, they also eat into pedestrian pathways, green belts and bodies of water, contaminating the land. This single-level unplanned parking also leads to different modes of transportation fighting for space on the roads. All of this chaotic parking wastes people’s time and discourages them from visiting places like shopping malls or amusement parks. Customers end up spending more time parking and retrieving their vehicle than on the activities they actually want to do.

Another critical issue is related to parking charges. Currently, most parking spaces are owned and operated by unregulated entities who make up their own rules. Automated car parking systems would overcome the problem of mismanaged parking spaces, providing security to people parking there. They would also be more time efficient, more environmentally friendly, and could recover other unaccounted losses caused by the existing system.

Even though many multilevel parking facilities have popped up in India recently, the approach has been much the same, with a lot of wasted space. Effective and efficient parking can only be managed when it is created using technology-based solutions to optimize the available space. With sensors and software, smart parking solutions can provide efficient use of limited space, easing operations for parking operators and drivers with a real-time map of tracking of parked vehicles.