There are many advantages to living in large cities and towns. The main ones are access to amenities, cheaper cost of living, and more opportunities to socialize with people. However, one common problem found in cities around the world is parking.
It can be a nightmare to find somewhere to park when you live in a busy urban area. Residents often have to circle the blocks they live on tens of times before they can find spaces. The parking challenges faced by urbanites around the world are being resolved by technology, and here’s how:
Limited Parking
Limited parking is one of the main challenges faced by residents of large cities and towns. Struggling to park your car can be very stressful, especially after a long day at work. Fortunately, finding MCG parking, or parking anywhere else in Brisbane has never been easier. It is possible to find out if a particular garage is full by visiting its website. Most garages also now have digital signs out front, which tell visitors if they are full or not, and how much availability there is.
Dynamic pricing is also being used to discourage people from driving into cities and towns and taking up parking spaces for non-essential or casual visits. City planners are optimizing public transport networks along with parking systems, so visitors take public transport if their trips are non-essential.
Traffic Congestion
Traffic congestion is a big problem for residents of cities. The last thing anybody wants is to get caught up in traffic when you are in close proximity to your home. Unfortunately, people who live in cities have to deal with excessive traffic buildup because many drivers are actively searching for parking spaces.
Cities are beginning to invest in AI-powered signs, which can be used to direct drivers to parking garages with available spaces. Many garages are now fully automated, too. Automated garages speed up the parking process. Drivers don’t have to worry about getting caught in long queues leading up to and away from parking garages, because manual garage operators are moving too slowly.
Payment Systems
Payment systems perform better than ever. In the past, parking garages were notorious for inefficient payment systems, which delayed entering and leaving garages. Up until a few decades ago, people had to see a ticket guard to be able to enter garages. Now, machines distribute tickets and make it considerably easier for people to get into and out of garages. Some garages have completely eliminated the need for tickets by investing in online payment systems. Cameras capture the license plates of all parked cars and issue fines and tickets if they have not paid online.
As well as offering online payments, many parking garages now offer QR codes, too. People can scan QR codes when they enter car parks and pay for their parking with a single tap. Many car parks still have physical ticket machines, however. This is for people who continue to use coins and notes to pay. It is worth noting that, in the near future, the use of physical ticket machines is likely to be phased out in favour of more efficient, digital payment solutions.
Parking Enforcement
Technology has made it easier than ever for city councils and law enforcement departments to enforce parking regulations. A big problem a lot of city-dwellers had to deal with in the past was people parking illegally, usually after dark, which made it very difficult for parking enforcers to ticket them. Most parking enforcers work ordinary eight-hour shifts, which means that after five in the afternoon, they are off for the day.
Now, cameras are set up all around cities to catch people responsible for parking illegally. Automatic license plate recognition software can be used to automate fines. License plates are checked against databases and the addresses that show up have fines sent to them. People are aware of parking enforcement rules and the technology that enforces them, and illegal parking has dropped massively in areas where cameras are located. If you catch anybody parking illegally on your street, the best thing you can do is report them to the police.
Security Concerns
One of the biggest problems for people parking their cars in heavily built-up urban areas is theft. Not only are cars much more likely to be broken into if they are parked in a city or town, but they are more likely to be stolen, too. Car theft is a very difficult thing for law enforcement to track. Once a car has been taken, if it has no internal GPS system, there is very little they can do to get it back, unless it turns up elsewhere and is reported.
Nowadays, however, law enforcement has access to cameras, which make it possible for them to track the movements of car thieves across cities. They can also use automatic licence plate recognition software to track cars. Whenever a stolen car’s license plate is picked up by a camera, the police will be notified. Parking garages also have alarms, round-the-clock security, and sometimes even dog patrols to deter and stop criminals.
Lack of Accessibility
Finally, modern parking technology, and the large amount of money invested by city councils into more efficient parking infrastructure, has made it a lot easier for people with disabilities and mobility issues to get around large cities. In the past, people who were confined to wheelchairs had a very hard time finding places to park. This was because many parking garages only had stairwells and not elevators. An absence of elevators meant that people often had to either wait around on the first floor for spaces to come up, or leave altogether.
Nowadays, people with mobility issues can actually use applications to find parking garages with specialized disabled spaces. This eliminates the need for them to go to various different garages in search of somewhere to park. Apps also tell them which garages are handicapped-friendly.
Common parking challenges are, as this post shows, being effectively addressed by modern technology. If you live in a large town or city, make sure you find smart garages to park your car in. Smart garages can protect your car from theft, and make your life much easier if you have mobility issues. Many smart garages have their own apps, where you can find out if there are available spaces with the click of a button.
