For those who choose to ignore parking penalties, things are set to become a lot more uncomfortable as authorities join forces.
The Innovation Trail at Parkex19 at the NEC, Birmingham on 2-4 April will highlight 10 new products, services and sector-leading advances.
Alerting drivers about individual empty spaces, helping authorities maximise use, an end to Blue Badge fraud, using the car as a credit card, and using machine learning to crack down on offenders – the world of car parking has become smarter for users and operators.
Groundbreaking research
A new parking research project is reaching far beyond parking enforcement and taking in uninsured, untaxed, potentially dangerous vehicles and more.
Conduent Transportation teamed-up with Penham Excel Enforcement Agents and the British Parking Association (BPA) to study whether persistent evaders of PCNs are disproportionately committing additional motorist offences.
The team studied the percentage of persistent evaders who were not registered with the DVLA; had not paid road tax; had no valid MOT; had no insurance; and had council debts.
To collect the data, Penham Excel drove around three English boroughs: Brighton Residential streets, Eastbourne Town Centre, and Sandwell (West Midlands), in vehicles equipped with Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems, capable of obtaining driver history based on registration plates.
The findings point to a large percentage of persistent evaders committing other offences, and Penham Excel is in advanced discussions with the DfT, the Cabinet Office, as well as MPs and ministers, to lobby for the legal seizure of the vehicles of persistent evaders.
This is alongside work going on with police gathering data and intelligence from multiple sources to deny criminals the use of the road.
Others in the Innovation Trail include:
- ParkPredict Control is an all-in-one tool for effective on-street parking enforcement powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to predict where and when the number of violations to on-street parking regulations is highest
- Hozah is a fully automated parking payment system that connects drivers' credit/debit cards to number plate recognition cameras and offers dynamic pricing. No cash; not an app; payments go automatically from driver to operator.
- Just Park: The JustPark solution allows Councils to make any bay a Blue Badge bay. Councils set their own concessions, managed through the JustPark app. The Badge holder registers their unique Blue Badge number to their account. The Badge owner scans in their Badge barcode on their phone camera confirming possession of a badge, then displays it as normal in the windscreen. The Enforcement Officer is informed via their hand-held device and can verify compliance.
- Smart Parking’s system includes a range of vehicle detection sensors that send occupancy data from individual car park bays to the company’s SmartCloud platform.
- SENSIT from Nedap N.V. is a sensor based vehicle detection system that helps drivers find available parking spaces, using on-street sensors
- PayByPhone allows Apple Watch users to add more parking time directly from their wrist without using a smartphone or rushing back to their cars to feed a meter.
- Dragon’s Breath Solar lights up open areas and car parks – without the need for mains power supply
Organised on behalf of the BPA by Transport Network, Parkex continues to thrive alongside Traffex as Europe’s largest dedicated parking exhibition, with all the leading parking companies in the UK exhibiting. This year’s Parkex Event Partners are Phoenix and JBW.
Visiting is free to professionals but pre-registration is essential via this link.
