Investing in concepts isn't the same as investing in results. City planners, designers and project development teams who work together to implement new parking strategies across their municipalities must see tangible, measurable results in order to justify their investment in 'smart city' technology.
Many alleged 'smart city' parking solutions are effectively vapourware.
Unfortunately, many alleged 'smart city' parking solutions are effectively vapourware – conceptual ideas for technologies that don't yet have the accurate, intelligent, integrative features that are required to instigate change across the congested civic parking environment.
Duncan Solutions' intelligent, integrated parking platform helps Councils and Authorities introduce change and achieve real, result-driven outcomes.
What is an intelligent parking platform?
Duncan now integrates information from every aspect of the parking, monitoring and enforcement environment into a single intelligent parking platform called 'PEMS'.
PEMS (Parking Enterprise Management System) is an incredibly powerful reporting and analysis tool that combines real-time data from parking machines, vehicle sensors, infringement issuance devices, pay by phone/guidance applications, loops, licence plate recognition cameras, and other parking payment and monitoring technologies, and enables engineers, managers and administrators to analyse and address parking and associated traffic issues that have plagued cities for years. These include:
- The high volume of drivers looking for parking during peak times who significantly increase congestion
- Driver frustration when they are unable to find parking near where they need to do business or shop
- Inconvenient payment methods, and the absence of warning systems that alert motorists when their parking session is about to expire
- Inefficient compliance methodologies that inhibit effective enforcement and discourage turnover
- The overall lack of parking space availability, and the inability to distribute it fairly and equitably to all stakeholders
No other platform empowers Authorities to tackle these problems via a single, comprehensive back-end management system. Other 'smart parking' technologies require two or three different reporting programs to be implemented – this disparate approach does not deliver a cohesive solution and is clumsy and highly inefficient.
Duncan's intelligent parking platform consists of a range of hardware components and software applications that can provide accurate, real-time data to relevant stakeholders. It is scalable and can include a mixture of the following technologies:
- The Parking Enterprise Management System (PEMS) for powerful analysis & reporting
- The Autoissue digital infringement issuance solution for enforcement
- Pay By Space/Plate, Pay & Display, Pay By Phone, digital wallet, online portal payment options
- Vehicle detection sensors for monitoring
- Mobile licence plate recognition cameras for on-street compliance management
- Fixed licence plate recognition cameras for ticketless flow in/out off-street parking management
- Guidance via pay by phone applications, Parkopedia, Google, 3rd party mapping tools, & digital signage
- Off-street guidance sensors and loop equipment
All devices are integrated with, and can be managed from, the Parking Enterprise Management System. PEMS is changing the game by facilitating a single central repository for this rich business intelligence.
With Duncan's intelligent parking platform, cities can access the future of parking now
The capacity to analyse dynamic data from large numbers of integrated parking and monitoring devices via a single user interface allows Authorities to exert a level of control over their parking occupancy, guidance, accessibility, compliance and vehicle turnover that has been impossible to achieve until now.
By synthesising and transmitting data from each of the parking, monitoring and enforcement tools across the civic environment, drivers can be guided to empty spaces (in on or off-street locations) via mobile applications and digital signage, given a range of convenient ways to pay, reminded when their parking is about to expire, and encouraged to reconsider their travel priorities into congested areas at peak times when parking is at a premium (and is either unavailable or offered at a higher price).
Compliance teams also benefit from PEMS 'intelligent parking' integration – the provision of real-time information from meters and payment applications, vehicle sensors, licence plate recognition cameras and other capture points introduces significant efficiencies throughout the enforcement process as it ensures that only those vehicles that need to be inspected are displayed.
Officers in the field can analyse the highly accurate data on the go, and it empowers them to make confident decisions at each step of the regulatory process. Coupled with pre-populated data provided by the council or organisation (proven digital enforcement processes, type of offenses, codifications, geolocations, LPR proofs, pictures, plate number, time, etc.), Autoissue gives enforcement teams a greater degree of efficiency and accuracy than ever before.
To invest in results, talk to the Duncan team.
All of these improvements lead to increased turnover, better compliance, less congestion, changing driver habits, and a significantly improved user experience.
As the internet of things and smart city concepts start to become a reality, and 'dumb' devices associated with amenities like rubbish collection, irrigation, lighting and public transport begin to communicate to the wider world using sensor technologies, a single intelligent platform that analyses and reports on each component's data is still a pipe dream. For smart city parking, it's now a reality. To invest in results, talk to the Duncan team.
