Skip to main content

Wireless parking sensors aid traffic reduction

According to research carried out by Keypoint Consultancy on behalf of Winterswijk town council in the Netherlands, the search for a parking space in the town has reduced significantly as parking spaces are better utilised since a new parking guidance system was introduced earlier this year. Research carried out in 2008 by Keypoint indicated that the town was affected by the increasing parking pressure and reduced accessibility at peak times, causing considerable inconvenience to residential areas and redu
November 28, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

According to research carried out by Keypoint Consultancy on behalf of  Winterswijk town council in the Netherlands, the search for a parking space in the town has reduced significantly as parking spaces are better utilised since a new parking guidance system was introduced earlier this year.

Research carried out in 2008 by Keypoint indicated that the town was affected by the increasing parking pressure and reduced accessibility at peak times, causing considerable inconvenience to residential areas and reducing the residents’ quality of life.

As a result, Winterswijk town council developed a new approach to parking in the town centre.

Parking bays in three car parks were fitted with Sensit wireless parking sensors supplied by Dutch technology company 3838 Nedap, with the aim of alleviating parking pressure at peak times and to improve accessibility to the city. The study concluded that the parking sensors, combined with the new parking guidance system, have had a clearly beneficial impact on reducing search traffic in Winterswijk.

Nedap’s Sensit is a network of wireless parking sensors that detect the occupancy of each parking space. The system provides real-time parking space information, which can be used to guide traffic to available parking spaces, improving traffic flow, reducing emissions and improving traffic flow and car park usage.

Signs along the access routes to the town centre provide drivers with real time information on available parking capacity and guide them to available parking spaces.

Keypoint analysed the car park utilisation rate before and after the system became operational.  The experience of motorists was also analysed. The research showed that the system reduces traffic searching for parking spaces at peak times, increased occupancy levels are achieved, available spaces are more easily located, and the improved utilisation reduces the need for additional parking spaces.

Researchers established that 89% of motorists found the guidance system helpful and user-friendly, while 23% of respondents chose a car park based on the current information displayed on the signs along the access route. This influence rate is high compared to rates of 10% to 15%, found in studies conducted in other cities in the Netherlands.

Related Content

  • Smart Spanish city trials cell-based traffic management
    November 7, 2013
    David Crawford reports on an urban electronic nervous system. The northern Spanish city of Santander – historically a port - is now an emerging technology showcase attracting global attention as a prototype for a medium-sized smart city of the future. In a move to determine the optimal use of available data, it is creating a de-facto experimental laboratory for sensor and mobile phone-based urban traffic management and environmental monitoring innovations.
  • Carrots are proving cost-effective in Netherlands
    October 3, 2018
    There are lessons to be learned from congestion avoidance schemes in the Netherlands. David Crawford welcomes some new thinking in road pricing. Highway operators worldwide are being urged to learn from Dutch experience in using financial carrots rather than sticks to encourage drivers to avoid contributing to congestion. A Netherlands/UK group makes a convincing cost/benefit case in a new global survey of road pricing technologies, economics and acceptability. Representing the Rijkswaterstaat section of
  • Automating enforcement of environmental zones
    July 27, 2012
    Amsterdam City Council has chosen to move away from manual enforcement of its environmental zone, which is intended to keep highly polluting goods vehicles out of the city centre, and is installing an automated, ANPR-based system. The signs are not much to look at: white with a red circle and the all-important word Milieuzone ('Environmental zone'). But these signs mean that Amsterdam's city centre is strictly off-limits to polluting goods traffic. At the moment compliance is monitored by special wardens wh
  • Be-Mobile guides Belgium parking 
    December 10, 2021
    Guidance system is expected to reduce search traffic