IBM has announced the launch of a system designed to
help ease parking congestion, collect more parking fees, and help motorists
find parking spaces more easily in crowded urban areas.
According to PCWorld, the system is being offered in
conjunction with Streetline leveraging their remote sensor technology, combined
with IBM’s analytical software which aggregates the data from these sensors,
resulting in information not just limited as to whether the space is occupied,
but also data from the parking meter, including payment and time
remaining.
IBM provides reports on the data collected, including
a top-line revenue report, an operational efficiency report which looks at the
percentage of time the meters are being used, as well as time-of-day and
geographic analyses.
According to the announcement, cities using the system
will be able to:
- Provide real-time information to drivers to find
parking more easily; - Gather, analyse and act on information about parking
resources and services to optimize revenue; - Analyse real-time information to better model and
anticipate congestion and to more appropriately price parking based on demand
and provide enhanced services to citizens; - Integrate real-time information from on-street and
off-street parking to enable collaborative decision making for rapid response
to events, changes in parking availability and demand.
To coincide with the release of the system, IMB also
released a survey of 8,000 commuters in 20 cities around the world.
The survey found that in the past year, nearly six out
of 10 drivers had abandoned their search for a parking space at least once and
drivers have spent an average of nearly 20 minutes in pursuit of a coveted
spot.
You can view the full results of the IBM survey,
including the cities that rank highly in the Commuter Pain Index, on the IBM site here.