44.6% - is the increased payment rate of motorists parking in the Nippes district of Cologne. Since Cleverciti implemented its state-of-the-art smart parking guidance system in the city of Cologne last year in collaboration with energy provider RheinEnergie, the project has received a lot of positive feedback - and now the first concrete results are in to prove the success of Smart Parking. While the original goal was to reduce parking search traffic in order to reduce CO2 emissions and at the same time increase the quality of life for residents, the statistics also show that installing a smart parking system increases willingness to pay and can therefore have a direct financial benefit for the city.

COLOGNE’S SUCCESS STORY WITH SMART PARKING

As Germany's fourth-largest city, Cologne is not only one of Cleverciti's most prominent installations, but also one of the most comprehensive intelligent parking guidance systems in the world. In order to reduce search traffic in the lively district of Nippes and thus improve the quality of life for residents and attractiveness for visitors as well as reduce climate-damaging CO2 emissions, all 800 parking spaces along the streets around Neusser Strasse are detected with Cleverciti's modern overhead sensors with regard to free and occupied parking spaces. The information is then displayed directly on-site at 27 central intersections via Cleverciti Circ® LED displays. Drivers thus receive real-time information on the location and number of available parking spaces. The concept of luck to find a parking space is a thing of the past and is replaced by data-based directional guidance. The Cleverciti Sensors do not collect any personal data in the process. The system has been active since June 1, 2020. In October 2020, the parking system was supplemented by a mobile app called "ParkPilot Cologne". This provides information on the parking situation in Cologne-Nippes before arrival, including the availability of special parking spaces such as e-charging parking spaces. At the same time, you can be navigated directly to the next available parking space or to the optimal parking space for the destination you enter. Once you arrive at the parking lot, you can pay the parking fees by selecting a mobile payment provider within the app itself

With the project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, the city of Cologne and RheinEnergie have taken a major step toward Smart City and Smart Mobility using forward-looking technologies.

Read the full case study here.

INCREASED PAYMENT RATE = REAL FINANCIAL BENEFIT

The first figures are in! And they are indisputable proof of the positive effects of a modern smart parking system:

• The payment rate in Cologne-Nippes among those who have to pay for parking (excluding drivers with residents' passes or other permits) increased from 38.6% to 44.6%

Since the deployment of the smart parking system, the payment rate has increased significantly - proving that a smart parking system can be a significant financial benefit for any city.

INCREASED UTILIZATION OF EXISTING PARKING SPACES = MORE REVENUE

In cities, available space is regularly in short supply. The goal must therefore be to make the best possible use of existing resources. A parking guidance system can be used to locate the last available parking spaces. The good news is that the increase in willingness to pay for parking has been accompanied by an increase in utilization:

• Utilization of parking spaces rose from 85% to 92%.

AMORTIZATION OF INVESTMENT IN ONLY ABOUT 2 YEARS

Based on the study results, in Cologne-Nippes, 520 monetized parking spaces with a fee of EUR 2 per hour result in an increase in parking revenue of 100,000 Euro per year (approx. 200 Euro per parking space) for the city of Cologne.

It is noteworthy that for this positive increase in revenue, no new parking spaces had to be created and no price increase was necessary. The key change in the area was the introduction of the smart parking system, which, thanks to Cleverciti's sensors and displays, navigates people to the nearest available parking space and makes optimal use of the available parking spaces.

• The increased revenue means a payback period of less than 2 years for the investment in the Cleverciti smart parking system.

The cost of the system includes operation, monitoring and remote maintenance by Cleverciti.

ADDITIONAL POSITIVE EFFECTS FOR THE CITY

As mentioned before, the original goal of the cooperation between the City of Cologne, RheinEnergie and Cleverciti was to reduce parking search traffic in the Nippes district. Was it successful? It certainly was:

• Over 145 test drives on December 20 and January 21 showed an impressive 45% reduction in parking search time

This involved comparing trips with information about the location of available parking spaces with purely random directional decisions without information at three locations. The results show the benefits of information and the potential for reducing parking search traffic and thus CO2 emissions simply by providing data, without any prohibitions at all. Since nearly 30% of all car traffic in cities is due to parking search, this is a crucial step towards a greener city.

Sustainability is one of the most important issues of our time. Cities that embrace a sustainable future now will be the winners of tomorrow.

Every smart city strives to become climate neutral. With the help of the latest technologies, cities can take an important step in this direction.

Smart parking plays an essential role in the way to smart mobility and infrastructure. If at the same time there is more revenue for the city from parking fees, all the better!

Smart parking - the essential piece to your Smart City strategy.

📥 Download the Ultimate Smart City Parking Guide here