IoT for Smart Parking

As population growth continues to create new challenges for urban areas, many cities are turning to smart parking solutions with Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to solve one of the most frustrating aspects of city life: finding a place to park. Within the parking industry, IoT has applications for smart parking in off-street, on-street, municipal, and private parking scenarios.

Many cities are moving toward smart connected parking, which aims to relieve the burden on drivers, cities, and the environment. By implementing IoT technologies, real-time vehicle detection and the location of available parking spaces is making several benefits more easily attainable:

• Search time is reduced, improving the motorist experience

• Shorter search times increase urban mobility, reducing greenhouse gas emissions

• Parking revenue increases, as dynamic pricing can be introduced, adjusting prices in line with demand

• Parking enforcement becomes more efficient and less reliant on enforcement officers

Smart parking will have an outstanding impact on all stakeholders involved in the process. Drivers will be able to book parking spaces beforehand, plan trips and commutes with the lot occupancy in mind. Reinforcement agencies will be able to detect and evaluate the gravity of parking rules violations in split seconds.

Here are a few additional benefits IoT offers in the parking sector:

• Sponsored meter time extension

• Innovative parking solutions that identify the safety of parking spots

• Efficient citywide parking space utilization

Technologies that enable smart parking require a secure and supportive wireless connectivity solution in order for the operator or deployer of the machine to be able to manage their fleet of stations. Rather than simply providing a connection to the internet, OptConnect bundles that with an entire suite of managed services that provides greater IoT connectivity uptime and less stress and worry for the operators since every necessary component is taken care of.

To learn more about OptConnect’s connectivity solution for Parking & EV Charging, please visit https://www.optconnect.com/solutions/parking-ev-charging.