WITH more and more people living in cities than ever before, this brings both more congestion and more traffic, that’s why the evolution in how we manage to park in city centres needs to evolve.
Smart parking technology and parking machines have been updated to try and accommodate for this increase in people needing to park in city centres, whether they’re there on a daily basis or whether they’re visiting a friend in the hospital.
We are going to look at the pay on foot parking system, an innovative self-managing parking system that saves us time as drivers and also the company that own the car parks, what the advantages are of these parking machines and what the future of smart parking technology looks like.
How does the system work?
A pay on foot system is a phrase used industry-wide in the parking industry which basically means the system that controls parking facilities through a time-based barrier system. When a car enters the car parking facility an ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) camera will take a note of the number plate and time of entry. The driver of the car then needs to go to one of the terminals on-site to pay for the specified amount of time they need to be parked up for.
With the evolution of contactless payments, these parking machines have adapted to accept such payments as well as credit/debit card and cash. There will also be multiple terminals per floor in the more significant car parks so that drivers aren’t wasting time walking to and from car parking machines or having drivers from an entire storey waiting at a single car parking machine to get their ticket.
Advantages of the system
The most obvious benefit to having a pay on foot parking system is that it doesn’t require any person to be on-site dealing with the administration of the parking facility. The whole system self-manages itself meaning that it saves on both staff and money to the company that owns the parking facility. There is also no need for any parking ticket attendant or enforcement agent to be present as the ANPR cameras will monitor when a car has gone past the hours they’ve paid for so a letter or fine will automatically be processed and sent out to the driver.
This also saves not only the parking company hassle but also drivers. As we’ve mentioned already they don’t have to waste their precious time waiting in a queue to be served by a parking attendant or walk far to a machine, and with the introduction of contactless payments being accepted at these smart parking machines it can only take a matter of seconds to get your ticket printed out.
The introduction of this smart parking machine and technology also means that owners of car parks can manage congestion easily within their car parks. Typically on junctions leading up to the car park, there will display how many car spaces are vacant.
This is updated automatically by the ANPR cameras calculating how many cars are currently in the car park against how many car parking spaces there are in total. This prevents bottlenecks and people entering the car park only to find out that there is no space and potentially blocking up entrances or exits to the car park.
These machines also allow for different tariffs that are flexible to certain user groups, for example, a cheaper rate for someone who is elderly or a discount if you’re staying there all day. This again takes out the need to have some physically there at a till the systems self-management allows for the end user to control this themselves.
Most likely destinations for this system
- Airports
- Sports arenas
- City centers
- Shopping locations
- Hotels
Is it here for the long haul?
For the foreseeable future, it does indeed look like the pay on foot parking system is logically the best solution to parking congestion in city centres. However, moving forward with the evolution of smart city technology and parking we could start to see our phones becoming more involved with how we manage our parking.
Applications are in the planning and being developed to indicate to you where exactly there are parking spaces in city centres, and to save time, even more, you could pay on your phone before you get to the car park. However at the moment, the pay on foot system does let you know if there are car parking spaces vacant, but sometimes this will only become apparent to you when you’re near the car park so by the time that you discover this information you could’ve already wasted time.
At this present moment, the system plays a crucial role in the cycle of smart city technology and its relationship with smart parking technology as we look to streamline how we park even more going forward.
Review
Pay on foot systems have been the industry standard for city centre car parks that require self-management for around six years now and still provide a very efficient solution to what was before a very complicated and frustrating problem. People need to save time where they can more than ever in this world that is moving faster than ever, and this system does indeed provide that time-saving aspect.
It has played a crucial role in the integration and evolution of smart city technology and going forward we can expect to see our smartphones play a more vital role in smart parking technology, showing us real-time what car parking spots are vacant, how far they are away from our destination and what the hourly charge will be the park in that spot.
It is also predicted that we will be able to make payments on our phone before reaching parking spots so that when you’re there, you can directly get out and go about your day.
