Smart Parking Meters

Smart parking meters offer a broad range of benefits for cities struggling with traffic, noise and pollution. By enabling faster and easier parking, smart parking meters and other smart parking technology help alleviate traffic congestion, increase economic opportunity and significantly reduce the frustration of drivers as they search for places to park.

Smart parking meters rely on technology like Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and cameras that help to identify available parking spaces on streets and in garages. Information about open spots is transmitted to drivers via their in-car navigational system, through mobile apps or using digital signage.

In addition to reducing the aggravation of drivers as they seek parking, smart parking meters benefit cities in many other ways.

• Easier traffic management. By getting drivers looking for parking off the street faster, smart parking meters reduce congestion and allow emergency response vehicles to move throughout the city more easily.
• Greater revenue. More efficient turnover of parking spaces equates to more income for cities. A smart parking system can also improve parking enforcement by alerting officials to imminent violations, helping to increase revenue from parking tickets. And dynamic pricing that charges higher prices for parking spots based on demand and location can also add to parking revenue.
• Fewer emissions. By minimizing the time drivers spend circling city blocks looking for open spaces, cities can help reduce pollutants from vehicles.
• Improved economic vitality. Making it easier to park in downtown/business districts encourages more consumers to patronize shops, restaurants and businesses in these areas.
• Heightened reputation. A city that is known for smart parking meters and other smart city technology is likely to develop a reputation as an attractive place to visit, live and work, attracting more residents, tourists and employers.
• Easier payment. By enabling drivers to use a mobile app to pay for parking, smart parking meters simplify payment for drivers and collections for cities.

How smart parking meters work

An IoT parking system relies on the same technology used by other smart city solutions such as smart streetlights, smart traffic lights, smart waste management and smart public safety initiatives.

• Video cameras and/or sensors (magnetometer, optical, infrared, radar or LiDAR) monitor city streets and parking garages to determine where open spaces exist. Cities may also use algorithms based on crowd sourced information, payment data, cellular location data and other information to predict parking availability.
• A high-performance, high-bandwidth network connects all sensors and transmits data from smart parking meters to an analytics platform.
• Data analytics software aggregates and evaluates data to produce real-time information about available spaces for drivers, as well as a wealth of data to inform parking enforcement officials, city traffic management operations and city officials as they plan for future parking and traffic resources.
• Interfaces such as digital signage, mobile apps and vehicle navigational systems communicate information about open spaces with drivers.

The role of network infrastructure in the success of smart parking meters can’t be overstated. Smart city parking systems require reliable networks that can transmit data without delay – any latency or failure in the system will escalate parking problems rather than solve them. And because smart parking meters and other smart parking technology require a variety of connectivity protocols – wired, wireless and cellular – the right network infrastructure must offer diverse options for connectivity.

Spectrum Enterprise: delivering infrastructure for smart parking meters

As one of the nation’s largest providers of connectivity solutions for enterprises and governments, Spectrum Enterprise is already delivering the network infrastructure that cities require for smart parking solutions. Spectrum will increase capacity and capabilities by investing an additional $25 billion in infrastructure nationwide by 2021, providing cities with a powerful and trusted partner for smart parking IoT technology.

To connect smart parking meters, sensors, analytics platforms and other technology, Spectrum Enterprise provides:

• Connectivity speeds up to 100 Gbps in a two-way, fully interactive digital network that spans more than 840,000 miles nationwide.
• More than 350,000 WiFi hotspots that will soon incorporate 5G and 802.11ax to enable wireless connections up to 1 Gbps.
• Gigabit connections to homes and businesses throughout the Spectrum service area.
• Spectrum Mobile, one of the nation’s largest LTE cellular networks, providing the diversity of connectivity that smart cities require.

Learn more about Spectrum Smart Cities at www.spectrumsmartcities.com.