Parking is a major problem in major cities in Sri Lanka, such as Colombo, Kandy and Kurunegala. There are many occasions when we have to drive several kilometres to find an on-street or in-building parking spot. In some places in Colombo, it is very difficult to find a parking slot even at off-peak periods.
To start with, it can sometimes be impossible to find a space - nearly a third of urban congestion can be caused by cars searching for parking. Aside from increasing traffic and emissions, this makes parking stressful, frustrating and a big source of lost productivity. According to research by the British Parking Association, which can generally be applied to most cities, the average driver wastes four days a year searching for a spot - which, on a national scale, equates to millions of hours wasted. This problem can also lead to unmade journeys and a decline in local commercial activity.
Transaction
People are willing to pay a reasonable fee to park and most privately-owned places (hospitals, shopping malls, cinemas etc) charge around Rs.50 for one hour. It is usually a cash transaction. In Colombo, on-street parking is regulated by the Colombo Municipal Council, which has sub-contracted many parking lots to private companies.
In a breakthrough development, the CMC, together with a telecom company and a private car park operator, has installed “smart” parking metres/machines in many areas in Colombo. But as detailed in recent media reports, car owners and drivers who try to use these machines to pay parking fees by cash have encountered a problem. The CMC’s usual charge for warden-operated parking slots is Rs.30 per hour and the same applies to places where the machines have been installed. But herein lies the problem.
The machines do not accept coins and do not give change, so it is virtually impossible to pay Rs.30 if you want to park for one hour. You have to pay Rs.40 (two 20 rupee notes) in that case and if you park 10 times, that is a loss of Rs.100. This problem has to be rectified immediately either by modifying the machines to accept the Rs.10 coins or abolishing the cash option altogether by making payment via the app mandatory. Moreover, I have noticed CMC parking enforcement officials affixing “parking fees violation” notes on windshields of cars that apparently do not display the parking receipt. But the point is, one cannot estimate how long one’s errand will take. Isn’t it better to pay after you come back to the vehicle for the duration of parking ? In fact, this is exactly how the parking wardens and attendants operate. They give the ticket first but collect the money only when the driver returns to the vehicle after his or her errands. The CMC and other local bodies have to address these issues.
Solutions
There should be more innovative solutions for parking. The provision of more parking slots and the implementation of a more effective parking policy are called for. In fact, parking has become a focal point in the discussion on “smart cities” where all the services will be seamlessly connected to each other via the Internet. With the latest mapping and GPS technologies, it is already possible to highlight parking slots right down to the individual bay in real time (on street or in-building) through a smartphone app and reserve one, so that drivers know exactly where they can park even before starting their journey. They can also opt for navigation guidance to the parking bay through the app or through their preferred map service.
Not only does this remove stress for drivers, but it also reduces congestion (by up to 30%) and enables smarter management of parking space. Such systems are in operation in several cities around the world. These app-based systems have another advantage - apps also offer a valuable channel of communication with customers, allowing notifications to be sent and drivers to extend their parking remotely.
On a smaller scale, cities such as Singapore have LED screens every few kilometres which show the number of parking slots available in all buildings in the city in real time. In Sri Lanka, two of the latest multi-storey car parks (Nawaloka and Durdans) have this technology, so drivers already know which floor has vacant slots. This works through a vehicle presence sensor installed in the parking bay, that turns red when a vehicle parks in that spot. This information is instantly relayed to a central computer, which sends it to the display screen. Hopefully, this method will spread to other multi-story car parks in the city. This information could also be integrated into a comprehensive parking app. Through in-ground sensors that detect the presence of vehicles, this system can be extended to land-based car parks. This system too is operational in many cities around the world. Right now, the sensor is somewhat expensive, around Rs.50,000 each, but costs should come down over the next few years as economies of scale kick in.
But, what if you can get down at your designation and let the car park itself ? While totally autonomous cars could be a few years away, there already are cars that can park themselves with or without a driver on board. Car makers are rushing to improve this technology. It was reported recently, that the VW Group, which makes a host of brands including VW, Audi, Bentley and Porsche is testing the technology.
Navigate
With the testing ground being a multi-story car park near Hamburg Airport, Volkswagen is setting the cars off at the entrance and the vehicles use driverless tech to navigate themselves safely around to find a space and park themselves. With the brand looking to introduce the technology in production vehicles at the start of the next decade, motorists would leave their vehicle at the entrance of the car park and, via an app, set their car off to find a space by itself. If the car needs an electric charging point, the vehicle’s sensors will use pictorial suggestions to park in the right place – and while the car is parked, you can have parcels delivered to your vehicle (Amazon is already testing this technology). When you need your car back, it will manoeuvre itself out of the park and meet you at the exit of the car park.
And what if you do not need to park at all ? That is the best option – and many people are already experiencing it thanks to ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft. You just get in and get off at your destination, there is no need to worry about parking.
Autonomous vehicles will take this further, as the cars will likely roam the streets without needing to park at all, thus freeing up car parking space for other developments. This future is coming sooner than you think.