The parking of the future: problems, challenges and solutions

Parking, smart cities and connected, autonomous and electric vehicles are very important for mobility in the cities

Last April we celebrated VI Circontrol Mobility Expert Meeting in which we invited experts from the sector to talk about the present and the future of parking. The experts that took part in the panel were: Sylvia Rausch, SABA marketing director; Max Kordylas, CEO at Yellow&Co; Albert Sant, B:SM head of parking unit and Anis Samdaie, project manager at Traffic Tech.

After listening to the experts in the sector we want to share with you some of the conclusions:

1. The problem
– Over half of humankind, about 4.000 million people, lives nowadays in cities. On 2030 this figure will raise to 60%. Cities have a big mobility, energetic and pollution problem that lowers live quality.
– A 35% travel during rush hours looking for free parking spots that are hard to find. That’s why parking is very important to regulate vehicle’s flow and reduce atmospheric pollution.
– New autonomous, connected and electric vehicle will show up as intruders in parking that will have to adapt to this new reality.

2. The challenge: cities must turn into gentle, smart and efficient places and evolve to become Smart Cities. Regarding mobility it should imply:
– Improve infrastructures and public transport flow.
– Availability if dynamic systems to guide the traffic towards its final destination, the parking.
– Promote the use of autonomous, connected, electric, smart and non-polluting vehicles to reduce traffic, noise and pollution.
– Get a more effective and ecological parking that allows the driver to find the free parking space quickly, safely and with the minimal energetic consumption.

3. The solution: From mobility perspective there are available technologies that will help to face these challenges:
– Vehicle guidance – with or without driver- in car parks so the driver can park its car safely and quickly.
– Efficient lighting for car parks using LED technology and with smart light reduction, according to the presence of people and vehicles.
– Intelligent EV charging stations able to interact with the vehicle and the power grid according to the energy available.

Circontrol’s Efficient Parking concept includes a set of solutions that meet these goals. That’s why we organized this meeting that allowed us to know the real needs from experts in the sector.