Photo montage: Focus Electronic AB
It’s going to be easier to find a vacant parking space even in Jönköping. Around 25 signs will show the way to vacant spots in seven of the major parking locations in the city center. Signs and
parking areas will be connected to Infracontrol Online, which will control and monitor everything via GPRS. The aim of the new parking guidance system is to help residents and visitors quickly and simply find a vacant parking space and thus improve the environment and traffic flow in the city.
Per Hasselqvist, Operations Manager at Jönköpings kommuns Parkerings AB, tells us that this will reconcile a living city center and the vehicular traffic it generates with a continued good environment:
“Today, finding an available parking space is no simple matter. By giving road users proper directions, reducing the number of vehicles searching for spaces and leading traffic where we want it to go, we make a real contribution to improving traffic flow and the environment. And we make life easier for residents and visitors at the same time.”
Tried-and-tested, future-proof solution
A dynamic city center both presupposes and generates vehicular traffic, which may lead to congestion and harm to the environment. So how can we achieve a living city center while also reducing traffic? One good solution to this dilemma
is to help motorists find vacant spaces quickly and easily. This is something they hope to achieve in Jönköping and the city is now introducing a parking guidance system in the city center.
Jönköping municipality has selected Infracontrol Online as the general host service for the control and monitoring of its parking guidance system. One of the reasons was to have the freedom and ability to connect any signs and local counting systems they wanted to in the future. This provides future-proofing even when technology advances quickly.
“For this we chose Focus Electronic as our supplier for signs, counting systems and installation work,” says Per Hasselqvist. “The system will initially cover seven of our larger parking installations and around 25 electronic signs, but we naturally have the ability to add more once we achieve full operational reliability.”
Another reason we chose Infracontrol Online was because it is a service and we avoid the long-term expense and hassle of owning, running and administering the control system itself.
Per Andersson, Product Manager at Infracontrol, says that the solution chosen in Jönköping is tried-and-tested and in use in more than 10 cities today. He explains briefly how it all works:
“The parking guidance systems counts the number of vehicles passing in and out of the parking installations using magnetic loops in the entrances and exits. 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. All communication takes place via GPRS/3G.”
Flexible solution
One of the biggest advantages with Infracontrol Online is that the service is easy to adapt to changing needs. Wireless communication and simple configuration functions make it easy to remove or add more signs and parking installations whenever needed.
User functions are also simple and flexible, according to Per Andersson:
“All user functions are easily accessed via the internet or smartphone. This applies to operations monitoring, which transmits alarms to personnel if something is not working as it should, and also for setting system parameters such as the number of available spaces in a facility.”
