The need for a Smart Parking System using IoT

Due to the rapidly increasing rate of car ownership, it’s becoming tougher to locate Parking spots in densely populated areas. If you try to search for an available parking lot, it invariably takes up a lot of your productive time, increases the number of cars circulating the roads, and also leads to new challenges to the existing infrastructure. Smart Parking systems using IoT and Sensors can help in finding spots remotely and in real-time.

The rapid increase in demand for parking spaces stems predominantly from two major trends — the increase in car ownership and increasing urbanization.

The IoT-based parking management system will have a positive impact on all stakeholders involved in the process. The system will enable drivers to book parking spaces beforehand, and plan trips and commutes with the lot occupancy in mind. It will help the enforcement agencies to detect and evaluate the gravity of parking rules violations in a matter of seconds.

Parking facility managers will benefit by being able to optimize the use of space and resources within their parking lots, and efficiently strategize and plan the future development of the lot. Community leaders will make the lives of city residents more comfortable by implementing IoT parking solutions.

Role of IoT in Smart Parking management systems

IoT solutions consist of Sensors, Controller-based hardware, communication to servers, etc.

Innovative parking solutions that identify the safety of parking spots

The IoT platform will help in identifying and alerting the drivers regarding ‘red’ zones like bus stops, passenger loading-unloading areas, and parking spots for handicapped people. This will lead to a decrease in the number of parking violations by negligence. Suppose a driver still parks a vehicle in a no-parking zone. In this situation, a connected platform will immediately notify an enforcement department regarding the violator, increasing the odds of penalizing the violation successfully.

Sponsored meter time extension

The connected IoT platforms will notify drivers beforehand when the parking meter expiry date approaches. Such tools will help extend the parking time duration in one click as soon as the driver paid for an extension. Automated parking meter extension systems will, bring down the number of traffic law violation cases and increase the revenue of the facility.

Efficient citywide parking space utilization 

With the help of the IoT platform that includes a network of connected sensors, automated parking planners can collect occupancy data for all parking venues. In order to disperse the number of parked cars equally throughout the city, municipal communities can adjust meter rates and allow parking times using the data provided by IoT platforms in the decision-making process.

How do Smart parking solutions work?

The overview

The installed IoT sensors are able to precisely determine where empty parking spaces are located. This IoT data is transmitted over a wireless connection to a cloud server. The data from the parking lot sent by the sensors is collected and analyzed in real-time to create a map of available spaces and sent to those looking for a parking space in a cloud/ Mobile Application.

IoT-Based Smart Parking System Configuration

The software and hardware requirements for IoT configuration and system architecture are determined by the number of parking spaces in a parking lot. For large parking lots, it’s better to use a gateway and the LPWAN protocol for the sensors.

The Lorawan connectivity standard adoption is a recent IoT trend and also a way to increase the operating hours of an autonomous system by reducing power usage.

Sensors for Smart Parking system

IoT-based Smart parking system uses different sensors that include ultrasonic, electromagnetic field detection, and infrared.

Ultrasonic: The accuracy of the sensing is improved by using ultrasound for measurement detection. 

Electromagnetic Field Detection: This sensor detects small changes in the magnetic field when metal things come close to the sensor.

Infrared: This type of sensor measures changes in the surrounding temperature and detects motion.

User-friendly Features of a Parking management system 

Every system which is made for interacting with the users should consist of user-friendly icons and options so that it becomes easy for the users to navigate through the app.

Interface showing free and occupied parking spaces

An IoT Dashboard (ideally, a cloud-based one) should collect sensor data and process it into concise, understandable insights, visual as far as possible, regarding the occupancy of parking spaces in the facility.

Real-time monitoring of parking occupancy from mobile Application

A useful parking system based on IoT should enable a driver to see how many free slots all parking facilities around town offer in real-time. Probably the most indispensable and must-have feature in an IoT-based parking system is an interactive occupancy map.

API for end-user and management applications

As the parking management tools are vital to the well-being of community members, program developers need to ensure the tool offers third-party integrations and can be implemented into other management and parking lot monitoring tools or software 

User-friendly interface, access permissions for different user groups

It is quite realistic to assume that not every driver is tech-savvy and experienced in handling complex platforms or Applications. To make the process of finding or checking the availability of a parking spot as effortless as possible, app developers should offer a minimalist interface, and use guiding elements — arrows, icons, etc. — to help users move around the application effortlessly. Additionally, an app developer should keep different user groups in mind— visually impaired people, drivers who are over 50 years old, and so forth, when designing the app.

Benefits of Smart Parking system 

Real-time monitoring of parking space

It helps in simplifying the search for Parking spots and speed up the parking process, resulting in less guesswork and reduced unpredictability of looking for an available parking spot, while you are driving.

Also, Parking IoT solutions help find a space for parking in a new town and track the availability in real-time to ensure that a driver’s time is not wasted driving around jam-packed parking lots.

Better control for consumers, businesses, and law enforcement representatives

Smart parking solutions promote safety by notifying drivers when they are about to leave a vehicle in a no-parking area.

Traffic law reinforcement structures will be able to create an efficient framework of parking violation monitoring using the analyzed data since connected systems will offer relevant data on how the areas with the highest violation density, the peak timing for parking violations, and real-time alerts for when a driver parked a vehicle in a no-parking spot.

Optimizing space and time in a tight and busy urban environment

There will be a reduction in the number of vehicles circulating on busy city roads looking for parking spots. As smart parking systems help in finding an available spot more effortlessly, there will be less search traffic in the street. Hence, the traffic jam problem can be mitigated to an extent, allowing city residents to save production time.

IoT-based parking facility management tools will help business owners make the most out of the space available. For instance, a parking management system automatically adjusts the meter fares based on the current occupancy of the facility. At a time of High density of vehicles, fares can be increased. Also, automated meter renewal tools will help parking facilities generate more revenue and attract new visitors.

Foresee the flow of vehicles by analyzing parking routines in malls, business stores, airport

A connected parking management software is a missing cog in the decision-making wheel that brings additional clarity and insight to parking optimization. By collecting real-time driver data every day of the year, smart platforms can determine complex seasonal patterns and trends.

trends in IoT-based smart parking systems:

• Parking demand management and space optimization
• Personalized parking guidance
• Parking reservation systems
• Dynamic parking prices and policy optimization
• Detection of parking zones, fees, and overstay violations.

We, at PsiBorg an IoT solutions Development company, understand the practical problems associated with an inefficient parking management system. With our expertise in IoT, we excel at building the most hi-tech and efficient IoT dashboards and Mobile applications for use cases like IoT-based parking management systems. Do reach out to us to enquire about full-stack IoT development solutions.