Skip to main content

Smarter parking project kicks off in Pisa

The search for a free parking spot will soon be a thing of the past in the Italian city of Pisa thanks to the launch of a smart city pilot project to test an intelligent parking system and analyse historical traffic data via a big data services. The system will help motorists in Pisa to find a vacant parking space more easily, as well as pay for it via their smart phone. The city has joined forces with Deutsche Telekom and its partner firm Kiunsys to install the new smart city service. Sensors on the f
June 25, 2014 Read time: 3 mins
The search for a free parking spot will soon be a thing of the past in the Italian city of Pisa thanks to the launch of a smart city pilot project to test an intelligent parking system and analyse historical traffic data via a big data services. The system will help motorists in Pisa to find a vacant parking space more easily, as well as pay for it via their smart phone.
 
The city has joined forces with 4194 Deutsche Telekom and its partner firm Kiunsys to install the new smart city service. Sensors on the floor of each parking spot detect whether they are vacant. Several data units collect the information and send it over the mobile network to the city's server infrastructure. The information is then displayed on indication panels which guide drivers to a free space. The solution is also integrated into Pisa’s existing Tap&Park app which drivers can choose to download to take them directly to a free parking space and even pay for it via the app.

With a thriving tourist industry, three universities, an important hospital and the main airport of Tuscany, Pisa attracts around 90,000 vehicles per day on its roads.

"The new parking system integrates seamlessly into our intelligent transport system," says the mayor of Pisa, Marco Filippeschi. "It eases the flow of traffic and helps to cut CO2 emissions."

Pisa has been working for many years to implement a smart mobility policy as part of its Sustainable Energy Action Plan. Filippeschi underscores its importance, saying that: “the pilot project is a big stride for Pisa towards improving its traffic situation over the long term. Indeed, drivers looking for a parking space make up some 30 per cent of inner-city traffic. So the easier it is for them to find a spot, the less traffic there will be.”
 
"We firmly believe that the right way to becoming a smart city is to have open standards and take a collaborative approach," says Jürgen Hase, vice president, Machine-to-Machine at Deutsche Telekom. "That's why we are particularly pleased to be part of this joint project with our partner company Kiunsys and the City of Pisa – a leading member of the European ITS standardisation network POSSE."
 
Pisa already uses a range of Kiunsys modules including the Tap&Park app for mobile payment of parking charges, 30,000 PisaPass RFID parking badges and INeS Cloud management software. As a result, the city has already been collecting traffic-related data which will now be analysed as part of the pilot project. The partners hope to gain a deeper insight into how the traffic infrastructure is used, which will benefit traffic planning in future.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ParkNow and BMW solution takes Intertraffic 2018 Innovation Award
    March 20, 2018
    A smart parking solution which directs city drivers to the likeliest available spaces based on historical and real-time traffic flow data has won the overall prize at the Intertraffic 2018 Innovation Awards. The On-Street Parking Information (OSPI) feature in BMW cars, coupled with an in-dash payments system from ParkNow, guides drivers to the area in which they should have the best chance of parking and then allows them to pay for it.
  • Smartphone - the next technology for charging and tolling?
    January 25, 2012
    With all the debates over the most suitable future technology or technologies for charging and tolling, is it not time for the industry to look at what the rest of ITS is doing and bring a rank outsider - the smart phone - closer into the fold? By Jack Opiola, D'Artagnan Consulting LLC
  • Inrix expands analytics access
    April 23, 2013
    Data technology company Inrix used the 23rd Annual ITS America Annual Meeting and Exposition to announce a partner program that expands access to the company’s analytics and historical traffic archive. Launch partners Transpo Group and Fehr & Peers, transportation planning and engineering services firms will leverage Inrix analytics and historical traffic data to help transportation agency customers conduct congestion management studies, inform system planning and better measure performance of their road ne
  • Managing road hazards is key to £90,000 competition
    March 22, 2024
    England's National Highways has chosen nine companies to receive innovation funding