Smart parking guidance to support smarter cities

As governments worldwide increasingly turn to smart cities and traffic management becomes a primary concern, smart traffic guidance solutions are gaining importance. In this article we look at the market, the technologies involved and the current trends.
Izvor: a&s International
E-mail: redakcija@asadria.com

With the increasing number of vehicles around the world, managing them is becoming more and more complex. Thankfully, the automotive industry has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the recent innovations in technology that has allowed devices to become smarter and more efficient.

With the growth of the vehicle industry, parking has become a major problem. Fortunately, the smart parking industry has come a long way in the recent years. According to a report from MarketsandMarkets, the passenger car smart parking market is expected to reach US$5.3 billion by 2021, growing at a CAGR of almost 18 percent in the ten years leading up to it.

The major factors driving this growth are concerns over increasing urban traffic congestion, limited availability of parking spaces and stricter regulations on emissions. That several governments worldwide recognize the importance of efficient parking management is also helping the market get a favorable environment.

Among the different solutions that make up the whole ecosystem of smart parking, one that stands out is guided parking systems. Put simply, a parking guidance system helps people avoid the time-consuming and stressful process of finding empty parking spaces in parking lots.

But for systems integrators (SIs) who are interested in incorporating this solution to their portfolio, there are more benefits and features to be understood.

Benefits of Guided Parking Solution
According to Harald Schmitt, CEO of the Germany-based MSR-Traffic, there are three main benefits to a strong guided parking solution — reduced time for finding a free parking spot, reducing emissions of cars due to better navigation, and full monitoring of all parking spaces. While this is the solution in a nutshell, it is important to understand how this is achieved. Rebecca Grainger, National Sales Manager at the New Zealand-based Smart Parking Technology, explained how their solution works.

“Smart parking offers various options around guidance for motorists to find available parking locations, as well as individual bays,” Grainger said. “Our app shows real-time location and guidance information from each site our sensors are installed in. The app uses Google Maps, meaning people can plan their entire journey in a user-friendly and economical way. Other guidance we can offer includes on-site variable message signage displaying real-time space availability and direction to available bays. In a multi-level car park environment, we also offer overhead indicator sensors that change color depending on the occupancy status of each bay.”

Grainger added that each of these solutions provides substantial benefits for car park operators, local communities, visitors and the environment, including:

• Reduction in vehicle congestion on busy streets.
• Reduction in pollution levels due to cars circling and idling in traffic.
• Negates the need for cities to employ teams of parking wardens.
• Increase in road safety as drivers are verbally directed to available parking, meaning instances of inattention or road rage are minimized.
• Increase in parking compliance.

A crucial factor to note here is that it is easy to get caught up in understanding the need and want of the customer when providing a solution like this, a look at the bigger picture would help the industry in the longer term. According to Paulius Vezelis, who handles business development at the Lithuania-based company Pixevia, the obvious benefit is the convenience for car owners, but the advantages go beyond that.

“First of all, smart parking guidance saves people’s time. It reduces the time needed to find a place to park, which in turn reduces CO2 emissions, as cars don’t need to go in circles to find a free spot,” he said. “A secondary benefit of smart parking is traffic reduction in the city, because statistically around 40 percent of traffic, especially in the city center, are cars searching for a place to park. Smart parking helps to reduce CO2 emission of the whole city, because the traffic is more efficient and there are fewer cars on the road.”

The Technology Behind the Solution
According to Harald, there are four major components that make up a smart parking guidance system. These are wireless magnetic field sensors, cameras, induction loops, and radar. Vezelis is of the opinion that modern top of the line solutions use only cameras to monitor parking lots and entrances/exits in combination with graphics processing units (GPUs) for information processing.

“You can use older cameras that are installed at the parking lot for security or use simple new cameras,” Vezelis said. “There are several options for video processing: you can set up the GPUs in your server and process the data locally, or stream video from the camera to the cloud and it will be processed there.”

Grainger elaborated further on this, adding that the technological components that go into their company’s guidance systems can, in their simplest form, be broken down into a network of sensors, variable message signage, app and map. These are all programmed and run through the company’s Google Cloud-hosted platform and are made visible to operators via the dashboard of their client software.

Sensors can be in-ground, on-ground, or overhead, apart from car counters and ALPR cameras, Grainger explained further. IoT gateways embedded in every single unit allow numerous devices to connect as well as provide areas of open connectivity. Signage systems display real-time information around space availability and car park capacity and provide directions to encourage traffic flow. Mobile apps that customers can use provide real-time guidance and payment facilities. Smart parking technology also provides a map that can be embedded into websites and allow visitors to plan their journey to a specific location or business.

As with most current technologies, the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in parking guidance systems cannot be denied. Startups such as the U.S.-based Streetline has come up with solutions that leverage the power of machine learning to come up with real-time parking guidance and analytics data.

The Major Features Vezelis points out four major features that AI and camera-based parking guidance solutions usually have:

• Easy deployment – there is no need to mount sensors everywhere or build barriers with dedicated LPRN cameras.
• Cost-efficiency – a single camera can cover up to 100 parking spots and recognize license plates at the same time.
• Increased security – top notch solutions offer security alerts for uncommon behavior in the parking lots. For example, illegal gatherings at night, suspicious behavior next to a car, illegal parking.
• Increased customer satisfaction – AI and camera-based systems not only help to find a free parking spot, but also usually have the “find my car” feature, as the system not only detects occupied spaces, but also knows which car is occupying which parking spot.

Grainger classifies the features into two, in terms of the benefits to customers. “First, the benefits to the consumer include having clear and accurate signage displaying real-time occupancy status of car parks,” she said. “This enables greater efficiency, as when parking in a multi-storey car park they can bypass entire floors if there is full occupancy, and once they get to a level where there are free bays they can see exactly which bays are available by looking at the overhead guidance system for a green light. Another benefit to the consumer is the proven fact that a well-run car park with good lighting and a working guidance system is a deterrent to antisocial behavior.”

The second area of benefit is to the operator, as using the sensor data gathered by the cloud-based platform they can create business rules and site planning to increase efficiency of the car park as a whole.

Challenges and Difficulties
in Implementation Grainger said that the main difficulties her company encounters that can hamper installations are generally due to site terrain, location or weather conditions. This can include cities with an exceptionally hilly terrain, sites on locations such as wharves that can’t have holes drilled in them, or areas that experience large snow falls.

“However, after over 15 years of specializing in the development of parking equipment, smart parking have a range of sensor options to choose from, so most, if not all, site requirements can be met, and challenges overcome,” she added.

Vezelis pointed out that, in general, it’s quite easy to install and start using a camera-based smart parking system that uses AI.

“Just connect existing cameras to, for example, Pixevia’s cloud and you are ready to go,” he said.“Sometimes difficulties arise if the parking lot has unusual surroundings or shape. Installing such a system can be more challenging in parking lots that have a very complex shape with lots of corners and small pockets of one or two parking spots. Trees are a hurdle, too — if there are many trees in the middle of the parking lot, additional cameras might be needed to see what is behind the tree. Otherwise, these additional cameras would not be necessary.”

Speaking more on the consumer behavior, Schmitt indicated that the market should be aware that low-priced products are not going to provide high-quality results.

“You get what you pay,” Schmitt said. “Means, many customers try to get the cheapest solution. When it does not work, customers think that smart parking systems are not working well enough. In this market, one should buy high-quality products from a supplier who also supports in planning and engineering.”

Then there is the fact that the solution itself is in an evolving stage. Greg Mason, VP of Technical Sales at TIBA Parking Systems, said that at present the main point to note is the proprietary costs. These are still in the phase and period of the evolution of the proprietary software in small batches, which makes them expensive.

“I think the silo effect of the proprietary software lowers the return on investment (ROI) from the people purchasing it,” Mason said. “So, what happens is a negative feedback in today’s market. You have high costs, with low ROI. And because of this, the hardware production becomes limited. We need to get to a higher place, where there is better ROI, based on shared information and shared data, which will increase sales and increase demand.”

What Systems Integrators Should Know
Knowing who to partner with in the industry would go a long way in making sure SIs establish a strong presence in the market. Needless to say, technical skills that are used in the security industry, especially with regard to cameras, will come in handy in this sector as well.

“First of all, they should focus on finding a good partner, who understands the challenges of such systems and has real-world experience in deploying them,” Vezelis said. “The second step would be to start pilot projects with their clients as soon as possible to show them that it’s not rocket science and can be very beneficial for the parking lot owner. Additionally, skills and knowledge of camera types, IR lighting, camera positioning, and video streaming are highly beneficial.”

To sum up, the growth potential of this field cannot be denied, especially as this could be seen as an integral part of smarter cities.

There is a debate between cameras and sensors but ideally, a combination of the two should work best.

What’s Trending: Cameras or Sensors?

Experts vary in their opinion. Perhaps this is characteristic of a sector that is still young and growing.

At such a stage, it would be difficult to identify specific trends spread across markets in different regions. Paulius Vezelis, who handles business development at the Lithuania-based Pixevia, for instance, emphasized the importance of cameras over sensors.

“The main trend right now is to use the camera-based smart parking system. No more sensors on the ground at every parking spot,” Vezelis said. “Probably the biggest change in the market came from improvements in the artificial intelligence field. Progress there led to greatly-improved capabilities of neural networks to understand and use data from simple security cameras for smart parking applications, such as guidance or number plate recognition. In the past, you needed specialized cameras at the entrances to detect the car numbers or dedicated occupancy sensors at each parking spot, but now all this can be done by using a couple of simple security cameras.”

Harald Schmitt, CEO of the Germany-based MSR-Traffic, on the other hand, pointed out that the use of optical-based sensors is becoming less popular compared to ground-sensors, not just because of improved accuracy levels but also since the former throws up privacy data concerns that are becoming more and more relevant of late.

“Single space detection with wireless (magnetic field) sensors is the biggest trend,” Schmitt noted. “Due to many years of experience, this technology is the best in the market with the highest accuracy. Cameras, for example, generate problems due to the new ‘General Data Protection Regulation’ (GDPR). Also, optical sensors can be influenced by light, darkness, snow, etc.”

Beyond these, it is important to note that the concept of smart parking guidance systems is also being driven by the rise in initiatives such as smart cities. In fact, Rebecca Grainger, National Sales Manager at Smart Parking Technology, said that current smart parking trends on the rise are the digitization and influence of smart cities. This makes sense as people are getting more and more used to connected devices and are naturally demanding more convenience in every aspect of their lives.

“Consumers are becoming much savvier and are engaging more than ever with technology options that make their day-to-day life easier,” she said. “Parking is a huge component of this, in fact, up to 30 percent of all motorists on a city street are actually looking for a parking spot. We have responded to this by not only having our app and guidance help people swiftly find a suitable park, but also by designing our technology to be scalable and intuitive. Using our cloud-based dashboard, parking bays can be remotely set to different time limits and parameters.”

Grainger gave an instance where their solution was implemented. “A good example of this is in Adelaide, where a main city street suffering from heavy congestion had its parking bays changed to short-stay paid parking, while parking bays two streets back were set to longer times and were free. People were able to see this on the app, and there was an almost instant reduction in congestion on the main road, as people would park and walk.”