Smart sensors which tell a website when parking bays outside the city centre are free is set to be trialled in Brighton and Hove.
City councillors are being asked to approve a pilot of up to 300 sensors installed in on-street parking bays, with data mapped on the internet – and potentially on smartphone apps.
The site will also include data from other sources such as the city’s off street car parks and real time bus timetables to give motorists the quickest option of parking their car and getting to where they want to be.
A report to the council’s environment, transport and sustainability committee suggests sensors should be fitted outside the central area, to flag up spaces in less-busy roads. It is anticipated the scheme could cut traffic jams and pollution by reducing the need for drivers to cruise around looking for spaces.
Committee chair Councillor Gill Mitchell said: “It could be worth looking at since it would not cost us anything.
Because of Brighton’s popularity and the increasing numbers of cars on UK roads, looking for a parking space here is very frustrating. It also adds to traffic jams and air pollution, which is already at critical levels.
“So if drivers can see at a glance where spaces are free it will make their lives a lot easier, the air cleaner and help unclog the roads for other more sustainable modes of transport such as buses, cabs and bikes. Everybody wins, no matter how they choose to travel.”
Costs of the trial, estimated at £50-100k, would be met by the national innovation agency Innovate UK, backed by the government. Installation would be by a private company, Ethos VO, which has already been given £1m by Innovate to develop its “future parking platform”.
Similar technology is already in use in Westminster and San Francisco. However Brighton & Hove’s would be novel in being linked to other transport modes.
Transport officials are also keen to see whether sensors in a small proportion of bays – perhaps 20 per cent – would provide an accurate picture of general availability in an area. If so it would radically reduce installation costs.
Proposed trial sites include:
- Madeira Drive
- Preston Park Station
- Withdean
- Princes Avenue (near Hove Street)
- London Road
- First to Fourth Avenues in Hove
Selected pay and display, disabled and loading bays may also be included.
Other sites may be added depending on the availability of sensors following detailed design work.
Locations are proposed on the basis of
- Probable space availability, outside of the city centre
- Local businesses which may benefit – motorists who would otherwise drive all the way to the city centre may use local shops
- Well-connected locations to catch a bus or walk
- Physical layout advantages, for example, where there already individually marked bays.
If the committee approves the trial, it is hoped to start running for a year from March 2016.
Sounds great – using technology to help encourage visitors coming to the city.
Of course the Greens would probably have banned such an approach as they’d think it would encourage more cars – the same way that they were against park-and-ride.
It’s great to have a new pragmatic approach being taken.