The Future Cities Parking Management Platfrom

Wherever you go in our cities, parking is a problem. Citizens spend too long looking for it, wasting time and fuel whilst pumping out CO2 as they search. Cash-strapped City authorities worry about maximising the operating surplus from their valuable parking assets, whilst minimising congestion on their already crowded streets. And it is all set to get worse. The 44% forecast increase in traffic volume, by 2035, will lead to a 170% increase in congestion (source DfT). And with the expected increase in numbers of electric vehicles (EV) needing charging points, and an aging population demanding more ‘blue badge’ spots, the complexity of managing different types of parking slot will only add to the pressure and complexity. What is needed is an on-demand mobility solution that helps the citizen find the right parking spot in the minimum of time, whilst at the same time allowing city authorities the necessary visibility and control mechanisms to influence driver behaviour in a beneficial manner. The Ethos Parking Project Phase 2 is designed to demonstrate just such a solution. Building on the successful TSB-funded feasibility stage, Ethos has assembled a collaborative team of SMEs, each of whom offer proven leading edge technology, covering the fields of open data, linked data and parking sensor networks. The challenge the project will address is to integrate these separate technologies for the first time, in order to deliver a ‘multi city, sensor agnostic, open data parking platform’ that will enable a range of different services to both citizen & local government. The citizen will be able to access the parking landscape for a given city or locality in real-time (for example via their favourite smartphone ‘app’), enabling informed decision making ahead of arrival -especially important for special spots, such as with EV charging. As a result, stress and traffic will go down, & time spent on productive activity and air quality will improve. City authorities will, on the other hand, be able to see the status of their parking assets in real-time, & be able to use dynamic pricing to alter driver behaviour, for example to use park & ride vs driving to the city centre (in response to the status of congestion & parking saturation), or to ensure the full utilisation of less popular parking facilities. Moreover, this information can be published through multiple channels, resulting in a better informed public (& as an aside, reducing the number & cost of processing Freedom of Information (FOI) requests). Finally a scalable multi-city platform, offered as Software as a Service (SaaS), avoids each authority procuring it’s own solution, removing duplication of costs in a time of constrained local government budgets. The commercial arguments are strong too, with previous pilots having demonstrated a 5% increase in revenues for operators, when smart parking technology is deployed, which when coupled with the low cost of implementation, delivers an immediate & significant return on investment (ROI). From the citizen perspective, the plan is to offer the data in open format, enabling a valuable new service via their favourite applications (Sat Navs, Mapping applications etc.), with no advertisements, free of charge, encouraging mass uptake. In summary the Ethos parking project has the potential to make significant improvements to a city’s quality of life, environment & economy.