CAR PARKING From Street to Smart

Finding a decent space for parking in India is difficult than driving on congested roads. As the number of cars increase, local authorities are faced with the challenge of multiple and/or illegal parking. However, there is some respite on the back of introduction of various policies for tackling the problem of car parking. Also, with automation and implementation of IoT, automated parking systems, a mechanical system devised to park a large number of cars in the minimum space available, are making lives simpler for car owners, though there is still a long way to go.

While the automated parking system or APS is catching up in India now, it has more than a century-old history.

History Of Automated Parking System

While parking vehicles randomly on streets was still the most common practice, the earliest known organised parking was a multi-storey car park that was opened in May 1901 by City & Suburban Electric Carriage Company at 6 Denman Street, central London. With space for 100 vehicles over seven floor it used lifts, rather than ramps, to raise and lower vehicles to parking spaces.

Car parks of this era often had car park attendants to help the general public avoid having to navigate tight corners and parking bays.

The real expansion in car-park design came after the second world war, when car ownership became more widespread.

Designs ranged from under-ground car-parks to double-helix car parks, where cars ascend on one spiral ramp and descend on another, so that they never meet.

Within a few years, automated parking system was introduced. The first APS was introduced in 1905 in Paris, France at the Garage Rue de Ponthieu. The necessity for an automated parking system works on the basis of one's need for a space to park and the undersupply of it.

A 'Paternoster system' was built to park cars, around 1920. It was structured like a Ferris wheel that could adjust eight cars in the space of two cars. The structure became popular as it was easy to operate and occupied lesser space. It could also be incorporated into a building. Concurrently, an APS with the ability to park more than a thousand cars were being installed by Kent Automatic Garages.

Washington D.C. saw the first-ever driverless parking garage in 1951 which got closed shortly. APS captured the interest in the late 1940s-50s in the US. Some of the systems employed during that time are still in use. These systems included Bowser, Pigeon Hole systems, and Roto Park. These systems were faced with frequently occurring mechanical problems and people had to wait for an eternity to get their cars back.

The UK got its own auto stacker in 1961 in Woolwich, London which was also hard to operate. The US regained its interest in APS in the 1990s and got its first robotic parking garage in 2002 in Hoboken, New Jersey. The interest of the US weakened in APS in the 1990s, while there were installations of more technically advanced APS in Europe, Asia, and Central America. Also during that time, Japan built around 40,000 parking bays using paternoster APS.

According to recent data, the US holds nearly 6,000 parking spaces and 25 major APS systems. Simultaneously, an estimate of 1.6 million APS is sustaining in Japan.

Evolution of Parking System in India

From parking vehicles randomly on streets to having an organised automated system, parking has evolved to become a business opportunity for many.

Parking in India is fraught with systemic challenges. It's a common sight, even in developed urban areas, to see vehicles haphazardly parked on the street. But in the past few years, we've seen some progress being made in the Indian parking landscape. From unorganized street parking, we are slowly but steadily moving to organized parking.

Many seem to think the problem is a lack of parking and the solution is to create more parking spaces. In reality, the issue is badly managed parking spaces, due in large part of manual systems. Now, many Indian cities are solving this problem with organized parking spaces that make use of technology. We're seeing a wide adoption of 'smart parking' - digital modes of managing and using parking lots.

This means good news for both parking businesses and their customers. When a facility is completely digitized with sensors, automatic barrier gates, and digital payment modes, the risk of human error and revenue leakage reduces.

Parking businesses are better able to manage daily operations since they are able to get complete transparency and greater control over their facility. In turn, customers get a better parking experience. They don't have to stand in long entry lines because of understaffing at the gate, nor do they have to fumble for change on their way out.

Additionally, with organized smart parking, businesses can respond to demand with responsive pricing. When demand peaks, they can raise hourly rates to accommodate vehicles and ensure optimal space occupancy.

Naturally, this has created a compelling business opportunity for upstarts in the smart parking space. Today, many startups aiming to digitize the entire parking industry have sprung up in India.

"We at Get My Parking (GMP) are trying to connect all parking and mobility stakeholders with a clear mission to digitize the parking industry globally. GMP was founded in 2015 with a vision to make every parking transaction a sub-conscious experience. We digitise and upgrade the parking infrastructure using IOT software to become intelligent mobility hubs," GMP Co-Founder Chirag Jain said.

"The solution 'Enable' essentially allows equipment from different manufacturers to work in tandem with each other, something that hasn't been possible up until now. More recently, We have launched a permit management product called 'GMP Permit'. This is a digital permit management tool that empowers businesses to streamline and manage their monthly and weekly permits. Many other developments are underway as the startup continues building more products to revolutionize parking," GMP Co-Founder Rasik Pansare said.

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