Parking Technology- the crux of Smart Cities

Smart cities began to gain prominence in the 1990s when urbanization drew people from rural to urban areas. This increased the pressure on cities to improve the status quo, encouraging them to look at technology for increasing efficiency and promoting economic growth.

A ‘smart city’ is one that aims at improving the quality and living standards of its residents by incorporating information and communication technologies (ICT). At the heart of a smart city lies technology, employed to reduce costs and make it more livable. Today, cities are striving to connect each aspect with technology using the Internet of Things (IoT) and provide intelligent solutions to citizens, ultimately improving living conditions while promoting sustainability and resilience.

Image Credit:Antony Xia

Smart parking in smart cities

A key pillar of a smart city is smart parking management. Get My Parking’s suite of products leverages IoT, sensors, and software to track availability of parking spaces, the number of vehicles parked in parking lots, the duration for which these vehicles have been parked etc. This information is then transmitted to parking assistants and commuters. Sensors are also used for surveillance of parking lots to ensure that only authorized individuals are allowed entry into parking spaces.

Smart mobility for smart citizens

According to an Intel-backed study, every urban resident would save up to 125 hours each year if smart solutions such as smart parking, traffic management, smart health management, smart waste management and smart mobility become a reality.

Let’s look at how smart cities will transform mobility. Smart traffic solutions would help commuters save time by providing real-time traffic information. Smart parking technology would help them identify available parking spaces, facilitating a smooth parking experience. Glasgow has already implemented smart mobility by giving regular information to commuters about public buses, timings, seat availability, time taken to reach a particular destination, next stop etc. Bus operators have fitted sensors in their vehicles, which relay this information to commuters.

Using IoT and sensors to build smart parking

Smart solutions based on IoT, ICT, sensors and location are employed to build smart cities, channelizing data from different pillars of the city – utilities, traffic, waste management – to deliver improved services and governance on the back of advanced analytics and intelligent solutions. For instance, a smart waste management solution can deploy IoT sensors to monitor garbage level in bins. When about to be filled to the brim, an alert may be sent to a pickup vehicle to empty it. Clearly, this would help cities maintain cleanliness with minimal human intervention and maximum efficiency.

Get My Parking’s contribution to creating smart cities

Providing smart parking services to a smart city rests on proper collection and correlation of data in real-time. This requires an integrated platform that serves as one-stop shop for all information. Get My Parking offers a sophisticated product portfolio powered by single IoT platform for parking lot operators, citizens, equipment manufacturers, and city administrations. It offers an interoperable platform that knits together various parking components and meets each stakeholder’s requirement. The integrated IoT platform connects different parking equipment, offering a seamless parking experience across all consumer touch points.

Get My Parking’s integrated parking platform collects and communicates parking data to lot owners and city governments for efficient management and enhanced decision making. By aiding lot owners in improving management of the parking space, Get My Parking’s smart parking suite optimizes occupancy and makes parking a smooth experience for commuters.

Over the years, the concept of smart cities has gained popularity across the globe. With its emphasis on technological solutions, smart cities are likely to revolutionize the way in which people live. The fact that key aspects of mobility (such as unorganized parking) will transform under the smart cities project is likely to lead to smarter governance and management, ultimately resulting in happier citizens.

Shubhankar Gautam
Digital Marketing Manager
Get My Parking