- Sensors will alert drivers to free parking sports via an app
- More and more cities want to make the hunt for parking spots stress-free
Bonn is bidding farewell to the tedium of finding a parking spot. The city government and Deutsche Telekom are about to speed up and simplify the process of finding and paying for parking. Deutsche Telekom's Park and Joy app will enable drivers to get an overview of available parking spots in downtown Bonn and pay for them direct from their cell phones. Wolfgang Fuchs, city manager of Bonn, Peter Weckenbrock, director of Bonn’s public services, and Anette Bronder, head of T-Systems' Digital Division and Telekom Security, signed the corresponding agreement on Thursday.
The pilot project is scheduled to start in 2018. By the end of 2019, a large proportion of the city center's managed parking spaces are to be networked, so that drivers can reach their destinations faster and more conveniently. In the following phase, multi-story car parks and private parking spaces are to be integrated into the network as well and the Smart City solution expanded to include connections to public transportation. The closely meshed network will allow drivers to advance book parking spots in gated areas such as multi-story car parks. The solution will help alleviate traffic congestion in the inner city and reduce emissions.
„I am happy that we will put this joint project into action here in Bonn,“ says city manager Wolfgang Fuchs. „We all live in a more and more digital and connected world, and as a municipality we want to contribute to make services more comfortable and better for our citizens and visitors alike. The city manager adds: „Smart Parking is an important element of our digitization strategy, and I would be glad if this pilot project would become a success.“
"All drivers wish they could park their vehicles without worry and stress. We offer an app that makes parking a breeze: find your parking spot, book it and pay for it – it's that simple," says Anette Bronder. "We can offer city governments and operators of private car parks a platform for optimal parking management that can be used across Germany."
„The digitization moves on step by step. We as the central mobility service provider for Bonn want to take the lead in re-shaping mobility in Bonn and the surrounding region,” says Peter Weckenbrock, director of SWB, the city’s public services company.
Sensors take the stress out of parking
The app saves drivers the time they would need to find a parking spot and to walk to and from the ticket machine. Availability forecasts for free parking spaces enable drivers to plan their trips down to the minute. Car park operators can enhance utilization of their facilities and gain access to a platform with a broad reach.
Over the next two years paid parking spots in the city center of Bonn will be equipped with sensors, so that vacant spaces can be displayed in the app in real time. The sensors indicate whether a parking space is vacant by communicating through a narrowband Internet of Things solution. In addition, other sources of data can be used to calculate the probability of a parking space becoming vacant, for example information from parking ticket machines or from various parking operators. Swarm data from the mobile communications network can also be used for these probability computations.
Smart parking – an interesting proposition for many cities
Drivers in Bonn are not the only ones who will benefit from smart parking management. A whole range of cities across Germany has already concluded corresponding agreements with Deutsche Telekom, including Hamburg, Dortmund, Moers, Duisburg and Darmstadt. As Bronder points out: "The networking of vehicles and the digital management of traffic flows are key areas in which we, as digitization specialists, can provide support." That's one reason that Deutsche Telekom will be presenting its retail solutions at IFA 2017 in Berlin (September 1–6) and its B2B solutions at the IAA New Mobility World in Frankfurt (September 14-17).