Westminster Council has now installed the in-ground sensors we recently reported on, as well as launching a parking app to help drivers see if an on-street parking space is available on an individual road.

The free app (available here on the app store, and with screengrabs below) is able to display real-time availability for spaces in Savile Row, Sackville Street, Jermyn Street and St John’s Wood High Street in the Westminster Council region.

Other benefits of the scheme are being investigated, including pre-booking of bays, variable rates during off-peak periods, changing the classification of bay types to make them shared use (eg residential or paid), to assist with tackling fraud and misuse, and managing electric charging bays and pedestrianised zones. 

If the next stage of the bay sensor trial continues to be a success, Council will decide if the scheme can be rolled out city-wide. Read more on the Westminster City Council site here.

An article published by social scientist Thomas Erickson compares his experience of parking in two cities. In one, overstaying the allotted time on his meter led to a ‘courtesy ticket’ with no charge as a warning. In another city, a 3 minute lapse led to a $42 ticket, with no reprieve for first offenders.

In his article on A Smarter Planet, he asks what should a smart parking meter do when time is running out? On the one hand, it could contact the enforcement authority to warn them that someone is about to overstay; on the other, it could act as a citizen advocate, warning drivers ahead of time so they have a chance to renew their parking. He also considers whether the size of the fine should be proportionate to the amount of time overstayed.

His point is that as our cities grow smarter, we have a choice about how we can apply that knowledge to how people experience their city, and the social consequences of the systems and policies they support. He concludes by saying that whilst ‘efficiency is important it’s important to think about how to use smartness to design systems that are empathetic, that recognise that we all lead busy lives, and that give people a break when they are running a bit late’.

Nice sentiments for our industry to take heed of and bear in mind. Often parking generates negative experiences and therefore ensuring new systems are designed with the customer in mind is really important in governing positive perceptions for the work that we all do.  Mr Erickson however fails to acknowledge that revenues from parking meters and infringement notices do form a significant component of local government revenue and this needs to be also taken into consideration when planning the financing for improvements to public spaces.

Westminster City Council, in central London, is set to become the first to use in-ground sensor technology to detect whether a car is parked in the space.

According to UK's Telegraph, the three month trial will be run across a number of streets, with plans to roll out the technology to the rest of the West End and the whole of the City of Westminster, by the end of 2014.

The information gathered will be available on smartphones, iPads and tablet devices, telling motorists where they will be able to find an available parking space. It will also enable Westminster to monitor parking patterns, which could see a variable pricing scheme introduced according to demand at different times.

When fully operational, the system will require payment by mobile phone, which will send special alerts to drivers when their paid-for time is running out.

Ultimately cars registered on the system could set up an account which would enable “contactless payment” with another sensor fitted on the bottom of the vehicle.

Ford has announced that it is developing “Traffic Jam Assist”, an intelligent driving feature that employs technology from the already-available active Park Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane-Keeping Aid and the PowerShift transmission to enable a vehicle to automatically keep pace with other vehicles on the road, using radar and on-board camera technology.

It also provides automated steering control to stay in the current lane, maintaining lane position in environments where there are no pedestrians, cyclists or animals, and where lanes are clearly marked.

The developing technology would be able to respond to changing traffic situations ahead and communicate any developments to the driver. Traffic Jam Assist would also incorporate features to help ensure the driver remains alert and in contact with the vehicle controls, even when the system is active.

Ford is currently evolving the Park Assist system – technology that enables parallel parking without touching the steering wheel – to offer hands-free perpendicular parking as well.

New York City is exploring the possibility of privatising the running of its 39,000 parking meters, currently researching mistakes made by other cities and exploring potential bidders.

According to the Wall Street Journal, NYC officials are motivated in part by a belief that a private company could help alleviate some of the well-known frustrations of parking in New York: circling block after block in a search for an empty spot or feeding a meter during dinner.

Part of the city’s motivation lies in a belief that a private company will help with modern innovations, including pay by phone, or a mobile app directing drivers to empty spaces detected by parking sensors. In addition to this, they also feel that a private company might be able to offer savings on labour costs.

New York's meters brought in $149 million in revenue in the last fiscal year, but City officials said it was too soon to say what effect a private operator might have on parking rates or revenues.

Entry into privatisation is cautious for a reason; as historically it has been fraught with problems. In 2008, Chicago privatised their parking meters; receiving a $1.1 billion lump payment—used to close a budget deficit—in exchange for granting the investment group a 75-year lease on the city's meters. The deal done requires the city to pay the investors for lost revenue when streets close for special events or when cutoff times are imposed on meters.

New York City officials say they aren't looking for an upfront balloon payment and wouldn't strike a deal that relinquished control over the setting of parking meter rates or policy. Aaron Renn, a well-known urbanist and blogger who has studied the parking issue, says that the parking meters aren’t an asset like a bridge; but primarily a tool for setting policy on the road, dictating where and for how long motorists leave their cars. A contract with a private operator should preserve the city's ability to say how the space along its kerbs is used, managing a precious real estate asset for the best use for all city residents and visitors. 

A council committee in Washington DC has approved a plan to allow city officials to manage the demand for parking spaces by adjusting parking prices, taking inspiration from San Francisco’s SFpark program.

Under the plan, city officials would be able to adjust parking meter rates, length and times of operations, parking fines and residential parking regulations. Called ‘performance parking,’ the program has been tested throughout the city in recent years. The Washington Post reports that the parking plan also directs that money raised by the program be used locally to improve bus services and to foster the use of alternative transportation.

According to the DCdot site, performance-based parking manages the demand for parking to achieve three key elements:

1. Protect resident parking: Higher kerbside parking meter rates combined with more stringent parking restrictions in residential neighbourhoods in the pilot areas help preserve kerbside parking for residents in areas where business or entertainment uses draw lots of visitors.

2. Protect businesses: Performance based meter rates and time limits are designed to encourage brief kerbside parking with high turnover while discouraging long-term parking that would deprive businesses of customers. Visitors with long-term parking requirements are encouraged by the higher meter rates to utilize off-street parking facilities.

3. Promote non-automotive transportation and reduce congestion: Higher kerbside meter rates encourage walking, biking and transit use in lieu of auto travel in congested places.

An online Russian newspaper ‘The Village’ has launched an app and a media campaign designed to try and stop illegal and inconsiderate parking.

Using the app on a mobile phone, the public take photos of the parking offenders, capturing photos of the car and the number plates. Image recognition technology then reads the number plates to identify the driver of the vehicle.

Then, the name of the driver, along with photos of their car, are published to the newspaper’s website, on banners and media placements; as well as allowing people to post the details to their own facbeook pages as well; naming and shaming the drivers; with a message ‘Share to remove’ (the poor parking).

It’s an interesting way of crowd-sourcing and social shaming for poor parking, and will be very interesting to see if it has any effect. We’re not too sure about the name for the application, however – the Parking Douche App. Find out more in the video below. 

Introducing Park4U: an iOS / Android app that delivers ‘assisted parking’ by remotely parking your car.

According to Engadget, the system is currently available on a limited number of Volkswagen-group models including the Touran, Sharan, Audi A6, Audi A7 and the Seat Alhambra. The company is planning to have 38 models equipped with the tech by year's end. See it in action below.

Colliers International, in conjunction with Parking & Traffic Consultants, have released a white paper into CBD car parks in Australia.

The paper, entitled Australian CBD Car Parking – The Next Decade, examines the current trends and the expected future of car parks in Australia. With the number of car spaces in Australian CBDs increasing only marginally from 141,690 in 2006 to 153,400 in 2011, car parking is a finite product, with the supply of car parking expected to moderate over the next decade.

A key finding of the report was that the ratio of car parking to CBD workers is declining, along with the importance of parking relative to other forms of transport. Since 2005, proximity to public transport has remained the most important driver in attracting and retaining staff by tenants when choosing an office location and has steadily increased in importance over time.

Real estate and property yields for well-established commercial car parks are generally slightly above commercial buildings in the same price range in comparable locations, with a slight risk premium factored in to allow for increased uncertainty surrounding changes to Government legislation, casual parking as a discretionary spend which generally diminished in times of economic uncertainty, and a smaller market for car parking assets.

Parking & Traffic Consultants' own Managing Partner, Cristina Lynn, was a co-author to the report. Cristina said that with changes to technology and the cost of car parking on the rise, owners had to become more innovative in the services they provide. The benefits of new technology coupled with greater awareness of customer’s needs should ensure on going profitability and value maximisation for car park owners.

Click here to view the full white paper.