| SMART PARKING
Annual Showcase 2020 | Intertraffic World
193
Above: Amano’s
Shop & Stay
project features
fully automatic
identification of
the car park user
via ANPR/ALPR
recognition
secondary services and software
platforms. In parallel with the
emergence of autonomous cars, the
parking of the future, in whatever
form, will also be fully automated.
There will be less or even no need for
specific machines as we know them
now and the need to integrate on
existing or new software platforms
will explode. Operation of parking
garages will become less labourintensive,
and therefore cost-cutting.
Artificial intelligence will be an
essential part of parking 2.0 in terms
of traffic forecasts, route guidance,
accurate reservations, variable tariff
calculation and automatic processing
of payments, including fines or fees.
Far-reaching automation and
integration to other platforms
naturally also means that the twostakeholder
model is no longer
tenable. An example of this is the
hotel industry, in which platforms
such as booking.com disrupted
the traditional two-dimensional
approach by offering added-value
solutions on the shared data layer.
Shop & Stay
Amano’s Shop & Stay project in the
city of Genk in Belgium is a good
example of a municipality acting
according to this vision. Customers
are entitled to stay for 30 minutes
in a well-defined shopping area.
Control and communication are
seamless thanks to ANPR/ALPR, APP
and SMS technology, and customers
can extend their parking time to a
maximum of 1.5 hours by scanning a
QR code when they buy something in
one of the participating shops. We
already know this system to a limited
extent, where certain stores do offer
discounts for parking nearby.
In this case, the project was
initiated by the municipality, which
included other stakeholders – the
shops – with the goal of boosting
local business by solving a specific
mobility issue in this well-defined
shopping area. Expansion to other
zones in the city with other
stakeholders, such as car parks at
stations, cinemas, homes, K&R zones,
P&R zones, business campuses and
hospitals are being developed.
Shop & Stay also strives, by using
technology, for maximum comfort
and minimum overheads, both for
user and provider. Some benefits are:
• Identification: In this case,
identification of either the
anonymous or registered user
will happen automatically, so
there will be no machines when
entering or leaving a car park.
ANPR recognition, a Bluetooth
connection with the driver’s
phone, a connection with a built-in
IoT device or other
form of identification will
allow this process to take place
automatically and without any
barriers, to make it frictionless.
• Motivation: Motivators are the
actions that the user can take to
gain more parking time. In the
traditional two-dimensional
model, this is usually a payment.
At Shop & Stay this is a purchase
in a store near the parking bays.
This model of parking acting
as a facilitator of other services
can easily be extended to other
stakeholders and areas in the city,
and can also be combined with
the traditional model where
necessary. Big data analysis
will result in better models, which
in turn will result in better
facilitating services.
• Overcoming demotivation: The
most well-known demotivator in
a closed car park is the barrier. It’s
simple: if you don’t pay, you can’t
leave. For open, ‘seamless’ car
parks there are often attendants or
guards to stop potential offenders.
In a frictionless environment,
however, barriers and physical
control are replaced by technology
solutions and automated systems
as we already know them, for
example on the highway.
For parking 2.0 to be successful
in the new smart city ecosystem, the
elements of mobility, accessibility
and local services all need to be taken
into account – and taking part in both
the social role and the far-reaching
integration with other platforms are
already strong elements of Amano’s
smart parking solutions. n
/booking.com
/booking.com