What does Parking 4.0 mean?
Similar to the term "Industry 4.0", Parking 4.0 is an intelligent networking of a wide variety of components with the help of information and communication technologies. More precisely: new technologies make processes more efficient, and thus also more sustainable.
For parking, this means that both parking itself and parking management for operators will be made more convenient. Parking 4.0 no longer sees parking space as a mere parking area but links the topics of urban mobility, e-mobility and traffic control, thus creating a hub that can bring together the future mobility mix ( "Mobility Hub" ).
What are the advantages and innovations of Parking 4.0?
Parking 4.0 attempts to solve the current problems in the field of mobility with regard to parking management. These include a lack of parking space, the difficulty of switching from car use to other forms of mobility, parking technology that is susceptible to faults and time-intensive parking management.
Networked parking
With the help of license plate recognition, barrier-free parking enables parking without a parking disc or parking ticket. When entering and exiting the car, the license plate number of the vehicle is scanned to determine the parking time. The parking transaction can then be conveniently paid for in the app. Barrier-free entry and exit prevents backups and eliminates the need for maintenance-prone barriers. The digitization of parking processes also enables the integration of e-charging and interfaces to other mobility services can be integrated.
Mobility Hub
Parking 4.0 leads away from the classic car park to mobility hubs. This means that parking areas are becoming hubs for parking facilities, sharing models and connections to public transport.
This ensures both a parking infrastructure for cars and the integration of micro mobility fleets. The e-car charging infrastructure becomes an elementary part of the area. Through this innovation, parking areas make a major contribution to more sustainable mobility.
Flexible use - from employee parking to night parking
Many parking areas, especially in retail, are not always used to capacity outside of peak hours or are completely empty. A good example is office or supermarket parking lots that are empty outside of operating hours. These empty periods could be used for resident parking, for example, thus reducing on-street parking and parking search traffic.
Why can we talk about the future of parking with Parking 4.0?
Many challenges in mobility can be solved by using parking space more efficiently. More efficient use is made possible, for example, through networked parking. Parking 4.0 offers many different approaches to make smart parking possible and thus to make parking space efficient and sustainable in the long term.
Image source:
Claudio Schwarz
