There are 18.8 million vehicles registered in Australia, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' last survey. That is a lot of wheels on the road – where are they all going to park?
In their current form, Australian on-street parking sites tend to focus solely on managing the drivers needs once they have found a park. Get out of your car, pay for your space/ticket, and go. But with more vehicles and no increase in the number of places to park, the development of wayfinding technologies are crucial to pointing us all in the right direction.
Intelligent wayfinding improves the customer experience
Recently, metropolitan parking lots have started to provide wayfinding. Drivers enter the off-street complex, and a mix of sensors and lights direct drivers to empty spaces. Saves time, saves frustration, and provides a considerably better service.
Now, Councils can use a very similar methodology to assist drivers find parking spaces in the street, in real-time. No more circling, dead ends, time-wasting, missed appointments – drivers can be seamlessly guided through precincts to available on- and off-street parking via dynamic digital signage and online wayfinding applications.
Solutions like Duncan's collate a vast spectrum of parking machine, loop and vehicle sensor data, and provides highly accurate, real-time information about how many parks are available, how long vehicles have been parked, how many vehicles are in a complex, street block or precinct, and even when more spaces are likely to become available.
Utilising PEMS data, smart city parking management systems update mobile guidance applications and digital signage across the precinct(s) in real-time, ensuring that drivers only need to go where they can actually get a park. This 'integrated intelligence' improves the experience for everyone.
Smart wayfinding reduces 'lost time'
The time drivers spend trying to find a park builds up very quickly. If 50 drivers spend only five minutes each searching for a park in a day, that's over four hours of lost productivity. And many drivers experience a much longer search than that!!
By removing the guesswork from the process of finding a park, digital wayfinding can assist workers to get to work on time, reduces congestion, pollution and frustration, and has a positive long-term impact on the bottom line for surrounding shops.
Embrace smart tech for a better city
To implement a successful parking guidance system, operators need an open architecture management system and highly accurate, tightly integrated technologies in place. Duncan Solutions can consult with you and provide a tailored PEMS solution to suit. It's one of the building blocks of a true smart city – are you ready to get involved?
