Problem
Large cities cannot withstand the growth rate of the number of cars. Perhaps, every resident of the city who has a personal car faced parking problems. Often you can see spontaneous parking in forbidden places – too close to pedestrian crossings, on sidewalks.
Drivers, in turn, often do not pay for parking services themselves, leave vehicles on roadways, sometimes in several rows, which complicates traffic, creates traffic jams, leads to time loss by law-abiding drivers and passengers of public transport, significantly pollutes the air.
There are also problems of the high cost of infrastructure in the form of parking meters, the need for their collection and maintenance. A certain part of the funds paid for parking vehicles does not reach the budgets of cities due to the human factor.
Monitoring violations of parking rules was entrusted to the police. However, due to the high workload and a large number of related tasks, such control was selective and not very effective. In addition, parking fees were not the responsibility of the police.
According to studies conducted on the city streets of Kharkov:
- about 80% of all parking cars use the carriageway, partly on the carriageway and sidewalk – 15%, completely on the sidewalk – 5%;
- The share of cars parked with traffic violations reaches 45% (the average number of violators in the city is 130 cars / km)..
In general, this situation harms not only drivers, passengers and pedestrians, but also residents of adjacent territories.
European and world experience shows that the human factor is not the cause of this situation, on the contrary, the main problem is the imperfect rules of parking vehicles and the lack of full legislative regulation in this area.
E-Parking
E-Parking is an automated parking control and payment system developed by LotGroup, a Kharkov engineering company. Its main task is to provide the city administration, as well as city drivers with a convenient and modern tool for managing, controlling and paying for parking services.
The basis for the development is many years of experience in cooperation with municipal authorities in the field of infrastructure projects, automation of public transport and the transport industry.
The E-Parking software product includes three critical blocks, each of which responds to the needs of a specific audience:
- For drivers – the system is a driver’s mobile application that allows you to quickly and easily pay for parking services, track the location, schedule of parking lots, receive notification of violations and communications from the system administration;
- For parking inspections – the system includes an inspector’s application that allows you to easily and conveniently record violations, create evidence base, issue notifications of offenses directly on the street, as well as generate orders at inspectors’ workplaces;
- For city authorities – full access to the settings and reports of the system is implemented using the system administration panel, which allows you to manage and control the operation of the system, generate the necessary reports and keep abreast of what is happening.
Automated payment control system for parking services (APCSPS) is one of the components of the Smart City system.
The system includes the driver’s mobile application, the inspector’s mobile application, and the system’s admin panel.
Data transmission in the system is carried out via mobile networks (3G, 4G) using data encryption using the SSL standard.
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the system
System Admin Panel
The admin panel is a web resource through which the system is managed.
Admin Panel Start Page
It provides the ability to enter and mark on a map of parking areas, the rules for their use, as well as tariffs.
Parking and Zone Management
At the same time, the admin panel allows you to add personnel to work with the system.
System User Management
The administrative panel allows you to configure the recorded violations, add inspectors and monitor their work.
Also, using the administrative panel, access to reporting on the operation of the system is provided.
System reporting
The administrative panel can be located in the cloud, or on the local server of the customer, depending on the needs and legislation.
Driver application
The driver application allows you to pay for parking in one click, using automatic location of the user.
Parking Payment Screen
Billing Information Screen
A bank card is added to the driver’s application once, and is used in the future for parking payments.
The application provides access to the history of car payments, information about fines and evacuations.
Penalty Reporting Screen
For the convenience of payment, the driver’s application has a function of automatic renewal of parking, working on the principle of „click and forget.“
The driver’s application allows you to get information about the fine, in case of imposition, as well as the evacuation of the vehicle with the address of its location.
Inspector Application
The inspector application automates the work of controlling payments and parking violations.
In automatic mode, the inspector’s application scans car numbers, checking for each payment on the system’s server.
License plate scan
In case of non-payment, the inspector’s application automatically generates a fine order, as well as carries out a photographic fix of the violation. The order is then printed on the connected portable printer.
Decision
The application is built in such a way as to prevent errors in the work of the inspector, by means of an unambiguous and convenient interface with the presence of hints for work.
System reporting
The cloud server of the system allows you to access the reports on the operation of the system, to control and monitor the system.
Billing Information Report
The payment report provides comprehensive information about all payments in the system, with the ability to filter by date, zone, payment method.
Among the reports there is also a report on recorded offenses, with a full display of the recorded situation.
The report on the actions of inspectors provides information on the performance of personnel, and allows monitoring the performance of the inspection.
Comparative characteristics of the system
Compared to existing parking payment systems, APCSPS has many advantages, below are comparisons with the most common systems, namely SMS parking and payments through a parking meter.
Compared to SMS parking, APCSPS has the following advantages:
- Allows faster and easier to pay parking for drivers
- Automates payment control by scanning numbers
- Creates a more innovative image of the city
- Does not require commission payment to mobile operators
Compared to paying via parking meters, APCSPS has the following advantages:
- Lack of cash turnover, and therefore lower collection costs
- No need to place physical equipment on the streets, which reduces the capital costs of the system
- Automate payment control by scanning numbers
- Minimization of equipment maintenance costs
System payment model
The implementation of the system is free for the city.
To deploy the system, the city needs to provide server capacities for the system server to work. They can be both local and cloudy.
Setting up the system is carried out by employees of municipal authorities, after training by the system supplier.
Payments for parking through the system are credited to the bank account specified by the city.