Skip to main content

Bosch trials park and ride app with city of Stuttgart

Verband Region Stuttgart (Stuttgart regional association) and Robert Bosch are to launch an pilot active parking lot management project to provide drivers with real time parking information via an app or online. Fifteen park and ride facilities to be equipped with Bosch occupancy sensors to identify unoccupied parking spaces on a minute-by-minute basis and communicate this information in real time via the VVS Transit and Tariff Association Stuttgart app and website. Eleven cities and communities in the
December 15, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Verband Region Stuttgart (Stuttgart regional association) and Robert Bosch are to launch an  pilot active parking lot management project to provide drivers with real time parking information via an app or online.

Fifteen park and ride facilities to be equipped with Bosch occupancy sensors to identify unoccupied parking spaces on a minute-by-minute basis and communicate this information in real time via  the VVS Transit and Tariff Association Stuttgart app and website. Eleven cities and communities in the northeast of the greater Stuttgart area have agreed to support the pilot project. They will provide internet connections and electricity for the park and ride facilities, most of which are owned and operated by local municipalities. Verband Region Stuttgart will support this project with funding from a state-wide program aimed at transforming Stuttgart into a model of sustainability.

Verband Region Stuttgart believes the six-month trial, which begins in January 2016 will help to encourage drivers to use public transport. Regional director Dr Nicola Schelling, says: “By incorporating the latest technology in this project, we’re improving service in the region.”

“With our sensors, we’re making the parking spaces part of the internet of things. We’re taking the search for free park and ride spaces off drivers’ shoulders. By doing so, we’re reducing the congestion associated with the search for parking and minimising environmental impact,” says Dr Dirk Hoheisel, a member of the board of management of Robert Bosch.

Occupancy levels will also be examined and analysed to see whether the real-time information on free park and ride spaces actually encourages more drivers to use public transport.

Related Content

  • Commuting habits come under scrutiny
    March 28, 2017
    Cities have a moral responsibility to encourage the smart use of transportation and Andrew Bardin Williams hears a few suggestions. Given the choice of getting a root canal, doing household chores, filing taxes, eating anchovies or commuting to work, nearly two-thirds of Americans said that they wouldn’t mind commuting into work—at least according to a poll conducted by Xerox (now Conduent) over its social media channels at the end of 2016.
  • New York City pilots park by phone
    April 25, 2013
    New York’s Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg recently announced two pilot programs that will allow motorists to pay for parking remotely and view real-time kerbside parking availability all via an app on their phone or online. In the first pilot, motorists can pay for metered parking via a smartphone app (PayByPhone), the internet or by telephone for 264 spaces along eighteen blocks in the Bronx, as well as at the New York City Department of Transportation’s Belmont municipal parking field. The new technology will
  • US 511 system, the future of traveller information?
    April 23, 2013
    What started out at the turn of the millenium as a simple dial-up travel information service has grown out of all recognition in the digital age. Pete Goldin surveys the development to date of the US 511 traveller information system. In a little over a decade, 511 has gone from its original intent – a collection of recorded messages accessible via phone for pre-trip planning – to a network of dynamic traveller information services provided by states and cities throughout the US, offering access to a wide v
  • Virtual traffic management centres, a new direction in traffic monitoring
    January 30, 2012
    David Crawford picks up a new direction trend in traffic monitoring The surprise winner in the Traffic Management Centre (TMC) category of the recently-announced 2011 OSMOSE (Open Source for MObile and SustainablE city) Awards for European innovations in urban transport, is the Danish city of Aalborg - which doesn't have a TMC. Alternatively, one might consider its 'virtual' TMC as a signpost for the future in medium-sized cities.