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Smart Parking provides real-time parking data to Rye
With a focus on technology to provide detailed data and analysis, Smart Parking and Mornington Peninsula Shire have been working together to provide a smart cities solution in the town of Rye.
Improving the parking experience in Rye
As a tourist destination that receives over 8 million visitors annually, Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula Shire townships are under increasing pressure to provide a better parking experience for both visitors and residents, especially during the Christmas and Australia Day peak.
To evaluate the potential of smart parking to lower travel times and decrease congestion, the Mornington Peninsula Shire chose Smart Parking to help trial a new smart parking approach in Rye, focusing on the busy summer period over December 2019 to March 2020.
The Shire’s aims were to test real time parking data’s ability to make parking in the Rye precinct easier and more convenient and to deliver more efficient parking enforcement and boost retail shopping.
The solution for Mornington Peninsula
Mobilising and deploying within a matter of weeks, Smart Parking installed 454 in-ground vehicle detection sensors and established the IoT gateway using our SmartSpot access points, which were then integrated with project partners J1LED’s LED signage.
Upon entry to Rye, drivers along Pt Nepean and Dundas Street were met with prominent LED signs that displayed real-time parking availability directing drivers to the available parking available in the Rye foreshore, commercial precinct and along the main road.
In addition to a technology proof of concept, the council conducted a ‘proof of value’ trial to evaluate what impact real-time parking data could have on lowering travel times, congestion and improve access to the shops in Rye.
The Shire conducted an independent evaluation using Smart Parking sensor data and multiple driver surveys for the mainly pre-Covid smart parking trial. The independent evaluation reported smart parking data made significant impacts on reducing ‘hunting time’ (the time taken by drivers to find a park), and included:
- Saving drivers over 1,700 hours in ‘hunting time’ from the use of the real time parking availability data displayed on LED signage
- Dropping the average time taken to find a park from 4 minutes 14 seconds to 1 minute 41 seconds in the month of March
- Identifying that the average time overstayed in 2P parking was 2 hour and 16 minutes
Measurable results
Importantly, not one driver surveyed reported parking as 'difficult' after the introduction of smart parking in-bay sensors and LED signage and perceived congestion reduced from 48 per cent to 30 per cent after the installation.
The impact on retail was measured as well, with the evaluation identifying a potential boost to retail spending of $4,078 per day during summer on the main Pt Nepean Road, by using sensor based infringement to mitigate the number of overstayed vehicles during high occupancy times.
To support the goal of improving driver experience Smart Parking Limited partnered with Hopstay to deliver a world first in the form of a smart parking voice bot to help guide drivers. Using Google Assistant’s natural language processing combined with SPL’s openAPI real time data, Beta testers were able to ask the bot for available parking by asking, “Hey Mornpen, where is the best place to park near the Rye Hotel?” This innovation is planned for a full ‘go live’ in 2020/21 to improve safety for drivers and a seamless parking experience.
As part of the ongoing trial, Mornington Peninsula Shire will again partner with SPL to further develop and promote smart parking’s ability to further lower travel times, congestion and emissions for next tourist season in 2020/21.
“Smart Parking Limited were a significant factor in the success of the Shire’s first stage of a smart parking trial at Rye. Their inhouse deployment team deployed the network before the busy summertime period, utilising their innovative solar battery packs to meet tight timeframes. The real time parking availability data helped drivers park quicker, enabled trialing more efficient enforcement and supported retail spending. SPL’s open API culture meant the Shire could initiate a test of a world first voice command smart parking app, placing the Shire as an innovation leader. Their SmartCloud dashboard is easy to use and the occupancy and overstay data gave us sound evidence for data driven service improvements with the implementation of the Rye Smart Parking Strategy.”
Senior Traffic Engineer
Mornington Peninsula Shire Council
Smart Parking and Maia Financial have now made it easy to fund smart city parking projects
Do you need to upgrade your parking service and user experience but don’t know how you are going to fund it? Are your budgets set for the year but you need to identify new revenue streams? Or, maybe you need to promote safe transport options that ensure social distancing such as private vehicles and contactless payment?
Smart Parking have partnered with Maia Financial to help fund your smart city parking project. Click here to find out more.
Councils & Municipalities
Smart Parking has extensive experience working with councils and municipalities across the globe, most of which have a smart city initiative that includes a smart parking system as an integrated component.
SmartCloud platform
Developed in-house, SmartCloud is our sophisticated, powerful and innovative web-based service platform that gathers and processes information.
SmartSpot gateways
These provide an IoT gateway in a single unit, allowing hundreds of different devices to connect and providing areas of open connectivity called SmartZones.
Digital guidance signage
These display real-time information around space availability and car park capacity, as well as providing directions to encourage traffic flow.
Service Packs
Using our SmartCloudAPI interface, our tailored service pack provides you access to real-time information and events on your site.
Vehicle Detection Sensors
We offer a range of sensors to suit the needs of different sites. These robust and scalable devices monitor bays and relay live status information to SmartCloud.
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Smart Parking’s SmartPark system fully integrates parking, guidance, payment and analytics as well as a host of other complementary services and options. This makes the complete SmartPark solution truly a sum of its parts, and an industry leader in the technology and parking sector. To find out more, download our company profile.
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