Smart Parking is an indispensable element of smart cities and contemporary urban design. Smart parking has proven to be an important asset and revenue stream to many facilities including shopping malls, universities, hospitals and large residential areas. There many important benefits that can be extrapolated from a successful smart parking implementation including:
Facility Access Management
Using a smart parking solution enables the facility management to control vehicles access to entrances and exits. Smart parking solution allows the use of white list and a black list of vehicles using a variety of available technologies such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), RFID Card, Proximity cards and ticketing system. Additionally, management can decide to segment the parking space to multiple zones to enable the utilisation of these zones for different purposes.
Improved driver Experience
Parking guidance systems which are part of smart parking enable drivers to access the parking space, find a parking spot and pay for the parking in quick and convenient fashion which overall will improve the facility experience.
Better traffic management
Smart parking will lead to less congestion in the parking space by assisting drivers locate available parking quicker, fewer cars will be driving around looking for spaces and less stress on the environment.
Revenue opportunity
There many ways to generate income from a smart parking including: paid parking, variable rate options, loyalty program participation, valet parking, lost ticket and parking violation fines.
Parking Profile Development
Using the business intelligence data the can be collected from the smart parking system will enable the build-out of comprehensive parking profiles for individual lots or multiple parking assets. These profiles can help identify short-term trends as well as longer-term insights to help lot managers make better decisions in terms of use and maintenance of their parking assets.
Reduced operational costs
A smart parking solution will automate and streamline the manual activities associated with traditional parking such as operating the gate barrier, issuing tickets and payment. The process of checking for vehicles in violation is more efficient and cost-effective than manual monitoring.
Improved Safety
Improving safety by providing real-time data to parking lot employees and security to help with violations and in cases where suspicious activity may be present.