Smart Parking Case Study: A City-Wide Solution for Harrogate

Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Problem

As the world is moving increasingly fast towards autonomous driving future and smarter mobility, the cities are going to see more and more cars on their streets. This mix of new vehicle types and traditional motorists will need to be managed more efficiently.

Parking has always been a wayward field across society: with the increasing urban populations and demand for better living and working environment, finding a free parking place often remained a stressful experience. But the upcoming urban

mobility transformation makes existing parking management practices even more challenging. It is extremely difficult to balance the interests of the many with regards to access to finite and high demand resources without historical data. It is even harder to optimize parking search time and enforce parking rules compliance without real-time data.

But this is how parking operations are run today in most of the cities.

Solution

In Harrogate, Nwave’s solutions partner AppyParking worked with two local authorities, Harrogate Borough Council (HBC) and North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC), with a shared goal to improve the parking experiences for local residents, businesses and visitors.

Our smart parking technology was selected to make parking easier and less stressful for Harrogate drivers as well as more efficient for local authorities. Gone are the days when city centre visitors had to circle around until they find a free space. Instead, a special app enables them to drive to the nearest available spot without wasting time and fuel.

The solution was publicly launched in January 2019 and involved the installation of over 2000 Nwave smart parking sensors and the integration of digitized data, including analytics, payments, and enforcement. The project is set to enable a seamless experience for drivers and provide local authorities with more effective economic strategies.

Our smart parking solution provides access to real-time availability information before drivers even set off on their journey. The Secure Driver Identification(SDI) technology provides a fast and safe way of authenticating the motorists as they park and enables one-click payments for their stays. The parking session ends automatically when the vehicle drives away. All, with just a touch of a button on a smartphone.

The SDI and Parking Occupancy datasets deliver accurate per-space information and rich analytics allowing local authorities to efficiently manage all aspects of parking assets utilization and uncover new sources of income that can be re-invested in other services for their residents.

Benefits

01

Real-time parking availability data means no time and fuel wastage in a search for a free spot which translates into reduced congestion and minimized unnecessary air pollution.

02

Convenient and efficient in-app billing saves time and allows drivers to pay literally with one click. No need to walk to a kiosk or the nearest post sign to check for area codes.

03

Fewer concerns over not being able to find a space brings more visitors to the city center and boosts the local economy.

04

Automated billing cuts payment grace periods and brings more revenue for the city. Customers start paying as they park rather than 10-15 minutes after.

05

Real-time parking occupancy and payment data completely transform enforcement operations – an order of magnitude efficiency improvement at lower operating cost.

06

Opportunity to uncover traffic and demand patterns and optimize operating hours and tariffs. Peak and off-peak rates helping to balance parking space availability at any time.

Read Nwave’s Parking Guidance Systems
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Wireless parking guidance systems are driving adoption with lower implementation costs and configuration complexity.