The latest Inside Intertraffic podcast has been published focussing on parking, as three experts from SWARCO, White Willow Consulting and Etelätär Innovation explain different aspects around making the process of parking more efficient through connectivity, payment processing, equipment and an innovative new crowdsourcing solution.
Leading Intelligent Transport Systems consultant Andy Graham from White Willow Consulting points out that most other transport involves some sort of ability to book in advance, yet parking is more often than not a case of turn up and hope to find a space.
‘If you think about it, it’s a very stressful thing to do as well, particularly as there’s getting towards the last few spaces,’ he explains. ‘It’s a cause of angst and anger. So it’s a good thing all round if we can fix it.’
Andy also suggests parking can be used as a traffic management tool He uses the phrase “immobility as a service” suggesting that by changing the way parking is delivered and priced, you can influence when and where people drive in a city.
The concept of directing people to a particular space is picked up by Tom Buck, Solutions Manager for parking and e-mobility at SWARCO. He told host Paul Hutton about data sharing mandates that will be used to make parking more efficient, ‘So I drive to the city using my Sat Nav… I can actually say, hey, in my destination, there are three car parks, give me the latest live information from those car parks,” he says. “This comes out of projects that are happening in the Benelux countries, but also sharing between if I’m driving from Germany to Holland, for example’
In a fascinating interview, Tom also tells host Paul Hutton about some payment solutions, electric charging in car parks, the continued need for equipment and about an exciting driverless parking solution SWARCO is currently working on.
The final guest, José Papí – the Founder & CEO of Etelätär Innovation – tells Paul about his new innovation called upark! where users share information about spaces they are about to vacate. The system works by someone clicking an app to let people know they are about to drive away, and then people nearby looking for a space are notified, ‘it’s very simple, once you open the platform to just say, I am about to leave,’ he says ‘Only to drivers that are around you, and then once there is a match made, you wait for it, and then the other person will take your spot. And why is this crowdsourcing? Because you have generated the parking spot, and the person that takes your place will reward you with a symbolic payment.’
