Foto: Reimer Selero, Jönköpings kommun
For six years, Jönköping has used a parking guidance system that helps residents and visitors quickly and simply find a vacant parking spot. Experiences are good, and the municipality has noted a clearly positive effect on traffic in terms of accessibility, environmental impact and better utilization of its facilities.
They also share the information with companies in the municipality that offer pay-by-phone parking so that their apps can show the location of vacant parking spots – a truly smart solution.
Reimer Selero is street parking operations manager at the Jönköping municipality technical office, and was the person who implemented the parking management system:
– We´ve had a parking management system since 2013, when it was delivered by Focus Electronic in collaboration with Infracontrol. The system reduce and improves traffic flow and thus also accessibility and the environment in the city center. We saw clear effects as soon as the system was introduced in the form of reduced tailbacks in parking garages and better, more even utilization of them. In addition to showing the way to vacant parking spots with traffic signs, we also provide information on our website and transmit it to Easy Park, SMS Park and Parkster, who use it in their parking apps.
An open solution
An increasing number of municipalities are introducing parking guidance systems to improve traffic flows and the environment. Helping motorists quickly find a parking spot reduces spot hunting traffic, maintains a living city center and prevents traffic becoming a major problem.
In Jönköping, around 25 information signs direct the way to 7 parking installations. Jonas Bratt, project manager at Infracontrol, tells us that the solution works well and is in use in more than 15 cities.
– The parking guidance system counts the number of cars passing in and out and the number of vacant spots in the parking installations. The information is collected by Infracontrol Online, which then displays the number of vacant spaces on the variable message signs located in the traffic system.
The information is easily accessible in Infracontrol Online and thus simple to retrieve and present in a municipality’s website and various parking apps in the same way as Jönköping.
– By making the information about vacant parking spots available through several channels, people can plan their visits to the city more easily and thus reduce their impact on traffic, says Reimer Selero.
Infracontrol Online collects the information from all types of parking systems and provides a complete overview of the entire system.
