Parking & Access Control

Flexible, demand-based parking charges ease parking problems

April 10, 2012

Innovative parking initiatives on the US Pacific Coast. David Crawford reviews. Californian cities are leading the way in trialling new solutions to their endemic parking problems. According to Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at the University of California in Los Angeles, drivers looking for available spots can cause up to 74% of traffic congestion in downtown areas. One solution is variable, demand-responsive pricing of parking.

Why integrated traffic management needs a cohesive approach

April 10, 2012

Traffic control is increasingly being viewed as one essential element of a wider ‘system of systems’ – the smart city. Jason Barnes, Jon Masters and David Crawford report on latest ideas and efforts for making cities ‘smarter’ Virtually every element of the fabric and utilitarian operations that make urban areas tick can now be found somewhere in the mix that is the ‘smart city’ agenda. Ideas have expanded and projects pursued in different directions as the rhetoric on making cities ‘smarter’ has grown. App

Siemens and Streetline announce advanced parking initiative

April 4, 2012

Siemens Industry and Streetline have announced an advanced parking solution combining smart parking meters, sensors and applications to provide cities with flexible parking options for residents and visitors while reducing traffic congestion in downtown areas. The advanced parking solution makes it easier for motorists to locate and pay for parking by providing real-time data to motorists through a free smartphone application that guides drivers to available parking spaces. The application uses information

Xerox to help revolutionise parking at Geneva airport

March 30, 2012

Xerox has won a contract to replace Geneva Airport’s entire parking management system for its 20 parking lots featuring more than 7,000 spaces, including walk-up pay stations, parking guidance and a global monitoring and management system which will connect with the rest of the airport’s computer systems. As part of a ten-year contract, travellers will be also able to receive information about flight delays, gate changes or customised information when they arrive at the airport parking lot.

Hoeft & Wessel delivers first e-Ticket reader to Danish State Railway

March 29, 2012

The first newly developed inspection devices for e-Tickets, developed by Hoeft & Wessel, have just been delivered to the Danish State Railway (DSB). With a weight of only about 200 grams, the small and ergonomically designed device sets new benchmarks. When e-Ticketing is widely deployed, the conductor´s current mechanical validator will be replaced by electronic ones, which can identify and read RFID tags, writing (OCR) and 2D barcode.

Nottingham orders 200 Metric Aura Elite parking meters

March 27, 2012

Nottingham City Council in the UK has placed an order for 200 Aura Elite pay and display parking meters manufactured by the Metric Group to replace their existing on and off street equipment. Metric, the UK’s only pay and display parking machine manufacturer, says it won the order against strong European competition. The first phase of a delivery programme for installation of the 195 solar and five mains Elite’s for on and off street parking in Nottingham will start before the end of the year.

ParkHelp system deployed in Sant Cugat’s smart city project

March 26, 2012

The city council of Sant Cugat del Vallés in Spain last week inaugurated a revolutionary smart city project to improve the mobility, sustainability and life of the citizens of this town, which is located next to the city of Barcelona.

Vix to support RTIG over air protocol

March 26, 2012

Mobility industry provider Vix has announced a commitment to support RTIG over air protocol. As part of its growing commitment towards Open Standards, the compay says this is an important step to allow ticket machines to send real time AVL updates to the Vix central systems.

NVV to deploy Cubic mobile ticketing solution

March 23, 2012

Cubic Transportation Systems is to provide a mobile service for rail and bus travel planning and ticketing for Nordhessischer Verkehrsverbund (NVV).

SDR a vital tool in assessing speed concerns

March 23, 2012

UK company Traffic Technology has supplied Surrey County Council with its SDR (speed detection radar) above ground vehicle classifier as part of the Drive Smart campaign, a partnership initiative involving Surrey County Council and Surrey Police that targets anti-social driving. Speeding was highlighted as the issue of greatest concern to local residents so all eleven boroughs or districts in Surrey have been supplied with at least two SDRs.