Analysis of Parking Service Management in a Smart City Context
Abstract: The concept of smart cities, which may have seemed distant and unachievable not very long ago, is becoming reality today. Behind the concept of a smart city lies a vast intelligence, namely the Internet of Things. As the population in urban areas grows, the development of smart parking solutions are becoming more relevant and crucial than ever. One of the biggest concerns regarding todays’ way of parking is congestion. Drivers’ are cruising around in search of a parking space which is both time consuming and causes big congestion. In this thesis project, a comparative analysis was conducted between two parking operators in Sweden, EasyPark and LinPark. A qualitative study in the forms of interviews and a literature study was conducted to further investigate and analyse technologies and methods used in smart parking today. The problems that this thesis focuses on are congestion due to poor parking management as well as the smartphone dependency regarding the management of a parking space. Highlighted in this report are key technologies used to track the parking occupancy status, the impact connected vehicles might have on the smart parking industry, as well as how smart parking solutions could help to decrease congestion. The results of this thesis project showed that there are several solutions that could significantly decrease traffic congestion. By aiding the drivers to a parking space, or allowing the driver to pre-book a parking space, the efficiency with regards to time and congestion could be improved. Furthermore, the establishment of electrical and connected vehicles seem to have a crucial impact on the smart parking industry. Parking applications need to adjust their services to be compatible with both types of vehicles. Even though there seem to be many new technologies available and developed, they may not be able to be implemented in the near future. That is why it is important for parking applications to provide a sufficient service with the technology available today. With regards to this, a feature addition was suggested where users are able to filter their search for certain parking spaces, such as filtering by the cheapest or closest parking space. Lastly, a feature for connected vehicles was suggested where the car is able to detect and track which parking operators are operating certain parking spaces.
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