In smart cities, the use of technology, information, and data is promoted to enhance and improve the overall infrastructure, quality of life, and publicly accessible services. Negative side effects of living in densely populated urban areas (e.g. environmental pollution and stress-related illnesses) are to be minimized. Typical features of smart cities include 4 main points:

Smart administration and society

Government services in smart cities are made more accessible to people by making them available online. Processes such as registering a business or filing a complaint are simplified by digital offerings while also adhering to data security and protection regulations.

Online service can help improve accountability and transparency while also allowing citizens to take an active part in local governing processes.

Smart housing

Housing in smart cities should be affordable while also ensuring safety and security for its residents. Open and green spaces, public services, community areas, jobs as well as social facilities raise the housing standard in a smart city and enhance the quality of life in any given neighborhood. Poorly planned areas are redeveloped to improve the housing situation there.

Smart mobility

A central aspect of a smart city is its public transit network. Access to public transportation has increased in tomorrow’s cities. To further reduce emissions, smart cities are aimed towards being more pedestrian and cyclist-friendly.

Creative solutions such as smart parking can further help to reduce emissions and environmental pollution, while also decreasing complexity for drivers in a complicated urban environment. Smart parking data reduces traffic hazards and accidents as drivers are not distracted while desperately looking for a parking space.

It also enables drivers to choose the best options to arrive at their desired destination quickly and efficiently.

Smart parking solutions can thus decrease parking search traffic, as drivers know which streets are fully occupied, and they can avoid circling around. In addition, drivers can make intelligent decisions based on precise parking data and choose to park in the nearest garage for example, or take a scooter if on-street parking in the inner city is not available.

Furthermore, smart cities aim to create walkable neighborhoods, where congestion, air pollution, and resource depletion are reduced to promote interactions and boost the local economy. Road networks are improved to not only provide space for vehicles and public transport but also to accommodate cyclists and pedestrians.

Modern surface parking hubs slightly outside the inner city ring should also provide real-time occupancy data for parking, making it appealing for drivers to park their vehicles there and take alternative means of transport – such as e-vehicles or a bus – for the last miles to reduce emissions in the city center.

Smart infrastructure

The infrastructure in smart cities should be geared towards being sustainable and eco-friendly. In addition, many smart cities aim for climate neutrality. Structures for supplying electricity, gas, and hot water, as well as those for the disposal of refuse, need to be transformed to move towards more sustainable infrastructure.

This can be done by reducing the amount of waste generated and more effective recycling of refuse among other things. In addition, the use of natural resources can be reduced by establishing renewable energies.

Interested in learning more about smart city parking solutions? Click the button below to schedule a demo with a smart parking expert now.

There’s a lot of talk about smart parking these days. But what is Smart Parking exactly?

Smart parking describes parking management solutions geared towards assisting drivers to avoid circling around without information regarding available and occupied parking spaces. Reliable smart parking provides accurate data and immediate guidance, therefore reducing search traffic and vehicle emissions. 

Modern AI overhead sensors on lampposts, covering a large area of all types of outdoor spaces, provide real-time data that can be fed into mobile applications, websites, and local digital signage. In the past, magnetic field in-ground sensors have been used for marked parking bays. 

Real-time insights

Today’s smart parking solutions enable immediate and up-to-date detection of available parking spaces, helping to optimize on-street parking in urban areas or the use of surface parking at shopping malls, train stations, hospitals, and corporate campuses. In these surroundings, smart parking management aids in minimizing unnecessary driving in an already complicated environment while also reducing emissions and a waste of fuel and time.

Smart guidance for drivers, businesses, parking operators, and civic authorities

Smart parking is relevant for four main target groups: the general public, businesses, parking operators, and civic authorities. The average driver spends ten to twenty minutes looking for a parking space, which is not only a waste of time and a serious stressor but also has a negative environmental impact. Smart parking systems provide reliable guidance for drivers, thus simplifying their journey.

In business settings such as shopping centers and corporate offices, smart parking management can not only help improve the customer experience, thus increasing revenue, but also positively impact productivity. Less time spent looking for available parking spaces means less stressed and more productive employees. Dynamic LED displays used as part of smart parking systems can be mounted on existing infrastructure such as lampposts and are visible to drivers from any direction. They also offer the opportunity to build revenue by adding advertising and informational messaging. 

For parking operators, smart parking can provide valuable input on parking and customer habits, making it easier to enhance the customer experience and streamline parking management. In addition, smart parking enables parking operators to improve monitoring (for example, the appropriate use of dedicated zones such as handicap or delivery zones). Furthermore, the hourly or daily parking rates can be adjusted based on supply and demand.

In many cities around the world, civic authorities are trying to reduce emissions and the environmental impact cars are having on urban areas. By employing smart parking solutions, search traffic and therefore also emissions can be reduced significantly.  

In a larger context, smart parking solutions reduce traffic hazards and emissions, therefore contributing substantially to the quality of life in cities. These concepts are part of smart cities, where IT infrastructure is put into place and used to enhance the quality of life.

Real-life example: Cologne

In the German city of Cologne, smart parking has been put in place to reduce search traffic in one of the busiest districts, Cologne-Nippes. 360 degree LED displays at road intersections inform drivers where they can find parking in any direction and how many spaces are currently available. The data is also fed into a mobile application. Drivers no longer have to rely on sheer luck when looking for a parking spot, saving time and fuel as well as reducing emissions and noise pollution. 

To achieve this, a total of 89 Cleverciti Sensors monitoring approximately 890 parking spaces were installed on existing lampposts together with 27 Circ360™ LED displays, fitting seamlessly into the streetscape. By leveraging artificial intelligence, these solutions and technologies allow for a real-time overview of available parking spaces. 

Also watch the video below in which CEO Thomas Hohenacker explains what he believes is smart parking.

Interested in learning more about smart city parking solutions? Click the button below to schedule a demo with a smart parking expert now.

We are currently in an exciting time for the parking industry and parking managers specifically. Finally, technology is entering a space where, for a century, parking management has remained reasonably stagnant. The best part about it is that this technology is available to a range of organizations, not only the most elite shopping districts or enterprise business customers.

Whether through sensors, intelligent signage, or dynamic pricing, every parking manager can bring new technologies to push their entire parking organization forward. Read the 5 tips below to see how you can evolve your parking management.

1. Give yourself more (accurate) data

Data needs to be accurate and up-to-date to be useful. Parking managers can have a single person walk around the parking lot with a clipboard recording open and occupied spaces. Hypothetically, let’s say they cover the whole lot in an hour, reporting back that 207 out of 305 spaces are occupied, and even writing down which ones – does this help? The short answer: no. By the time that person returns to the office, any number of factors could change and the only information you would have is that in a specific time window, certain spots were now occupied.

Manual tracking is an out-of-date method. Today, technologies can automatically track which spaces are available and occupied, and report that back in real-time, keeping the parking management office always up to date throughout the day. These data are archived and can be analyzed to reveal valuable trends about which areas of the lot fill up first, when that happens, and how signage in the parking lot could best enhance a customer’s experience.

2. Give your patrons more data

Once you have this valuable mine of data, its value increases by sharing it. A business’s leadership certainly has a need and use for it, but the most value comes from exposing these data to the driver. Drivers spend several minutes searching for an available parking space near their desired location, before potentially having to give up and find parking further away (or just give up and go back home to order online). While the futile search is a shame, it’s also preventable. With smart parking guidance linked to real-time parking data, a driver knows upon entering the lot whether a spot is open nearby or not, and exactly where to find it. Whether they get their ideal space or have to drive a little further away, they have the benefit of not spending time, energy, or fuel looking in vain.

When a patron receives helpful, welcoming guidance upon their arrival, they begin their overall customer experience on a very positive note. This first impression helps the customer approach the rest of their experience with a positive, can-do approach, leading to higher revenues and higher return-visitor rates.

3. Improve your pricing

One of the best ways to improve your parking management is through further optimizing your pricing models, which is only possible once you have the right data. When you thoroughly understand your parking availability and trends throughout the day, week, or month, then you can discover new opportunities for pricing optimization. For instance, dynamic pricing models can vary the price of a parking space depending on demand – adjusted by an algorithm based on up-to-the-minute needs or pre-set prices for specific times. Or, spaces that are in higher demand could have higher pricing. The pricing for a parking area can be adjusted to maximize revenue and ensure that fill rates and revenues are maximized.

New technologies like the ClevercitiCard can even automate the arrival and payment process. A regular visitor can arrive with a ClevercitiCard in their vehicle, be guided to the nearest available space, and automatically charged just for the parking time they used. This service reduces another challenge in the parking industry: the confusion of how or where to pay. If an organization is bringing smart parking solutions to help shoppers quickly find a nearby space, it doesn’t make sense to have them locate a kiosk or double-check signs for hours of operation. Giving data directly to drivers eases their parking difficulties and shows a level of investment in their overall experience.

4. Manage from the cloud

Gone is the day when parking technologies were on isolated systems with no access from the outside world, forcing managers to be on-site to see the data they need, or making integrations with third-party systems complex and expensive. With modern, cloud-first technologies, data are now always accessible: from home or even the beach. When you want to add an innovative third party, you can now do so with a simple API integration – no astronomical costs or extra hardware required.

5. Do better for the community and the environment

Evolution is about the series of steps it takes to improve from a current iteration toward the ideal. Everyone should be more conscious about the impact our daily lives and processes have on climate change or the environment in general. Each individual person would probably like to drive less for the sake of convenience. Cutting out needless driving in the search for parking also diminishes the emissions that negatively impact the environment and contribute to climate change.

There are also two different ways to look at parking search and its impact on the environment: the grander sense of how emissions negatively affect the natural world but also how the unnecessary search for parking impacts people in the direct vicinity. Increased traffic means more noise and lower air quality for the people living and walking near parking areas. By taking steps to revolutionize the parking process, it lessens this impact. People living in these communities may have a more favorable view towards large businesses or districts that implement smart parking for the increase in living quality, and shoppers might find it more enjoyable to stroll in the area, potentially increasing shopping revenue.

With one simple step, you can help the businesses near your parking facility, improve the lives of shoppers and locals, and start making a positive change for the environment. All of these benefits come when you bring your parking organization into the 21st century.

Here we are: the biggest yearly spending event in retail is here off, with holiday shopping efforts in full force. But while consumers battle with their checkbooks, retailers are batting for consumers. You’ve likely noticed that the news is scattered with stories about big box stores closing while online retail giants, such as Amazon, continue to grow. In fact, consumers spent a whopping $126 billion online in the 2018 holiday shopping season.

An NPR poll brings insight to the online versus brick-and-mortar war that has ensued, featuring the top motivating factor to shopping online: speed (quickly followed by convenience). When you think about physically going to a store to shop, these factors are often diminished by one major element: parking. But what if retailers could leverage technology to both decrease the time shoppers spend searching for a space and provide a better customer experience? Could this help push customers to return to in-store shopping?

Our customers think so, based on the following benefits:

Speed

Research shows that finding a parking spot at a shopping center can take up to 12 minutes. Cleverciti’s smart parking technology can change that. Through a combination of real-time detection of available parking spaces and digital signage guiding drivers to open spots, the time required to park can be reduced by 30% or more. In a shopping mall with 1,000 parking spaces, this improvement can result in annual revenue gains of more than $4 million.

A positive impression

As the first and last memory of a shopping experience, streamlined parking is key to creating a satisfied customer. Take it from us: In July, Cleverciti finished installing its smart parking technology at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s Ruhr Park, Germany’s largest open-air shopping center with more than 2,600 parking spots. Known for their devotion to innovation and service, Ruhr Park’s executive team wanted to deliver extraordinary service, convenience, and a hassle-free parking experience for its clients.

Creating rewards

In addition to streamlining parking, Cleverciti’s newest technology, the Cleverciti Card, can be used to reserve parking spots in specified areas. Imagine VIP customers being able to reserve a space in advance, which not only maximizes their time spent shopping, but also provides additional data to the retailer regarding the most loyal and top-spending customers, allowing salespeople to know in advance of the arrival of their best customers. For years, brands have created loyalty programs with rewards, bonuses and discounts, and now parking can become part of these efforts.

Utilizing data

Cleverciti’s solution is more than just sensors. Using edge-computing, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT), the technology creates a unified and intelligent platform that provides customer and behavior data to retailers — something retailers are always craving. From the location of each parked car, to parking violations, to how long each shopper spends in the store, this information can help retailers learn about customer behavior, measure effects of marketing campaigns and plan more effective traffic patterns.

Reduced footprint

Consumers are starting to use purchasing power to get their messages and opinions across to businesses and brands, and we’re seeing this prominently when it comes to reducing emissions and global warming. A report by Nielsen found that 66% of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable goods, so it is likely that they will also pick a shopping center that has actively chosen to reduce its carbon footprint.

Smart parking technology directly relates to this effort: when shoppers spend less time searching for an open space, they’re releasing fewer emissions into the air and therefore cutting down on pollution. Cleverciti’s mission to creating a sustainable environment can be key to showing consumers that retailers care about more than just the bottomline.

Brick-and-mortar retailers are at a tipping point when it comes to winning back the hearts of consumers, but this effort is all about providing a better experience for the consumer than their digital counterparts. Cleverciti’s smart parking technology can create a more efficient, rewarding and sustainable experience for shoppers while also providing mission-critical information to retailers to continually improve the guest experience.

To learn more about how Cleverciti’s technology can help your business, connect with our teams here.

Cleverciti is proud to announce the newest technology in our smart parking solution: The Cleverciti Card, the first system to seamlessly combine indoor and outdoor parking guidance, including single space occupancy detection, in a single platform.

Smart parking just got a whole lot easier (and smaller).

Cleverciti Card is a credit-card-sized “active card” that sits in the windshield of a driver’s vehicle and communicates with the Cleverciti System in garages, on-surface parking areas and on-street parking to deliver an integrated, frictionless payment and parking option for drivers. The addition of the new product makes Cleverciti the first indoor AND outdoor smart parking solution, perfect for any organization that wants to provide a more streamlined customer experience, including shopping centers, corporate parking lots and cities.

The Cleverciti Card brings a swath of new capabilities to customers, including:

Parking Location Services

The Cleverciti Card sends geofenced push messages to drivers to help find the closest parking spot, saving time (and fuel!) by minimizing driving in needless circles looking for a spot. The data collected through the entire Cleverciti system and now the Card, gives the driver real-time data to make parking simpler.

Operator Identification

The new technology allows the parking operator to view the exact position of a vehicle, as well as the identification of each user and their permit, reservation and payment status, via the Cleverciti Cockpit, the live management dashboard. All of this information not only empowers the parking operator to make educated decisions based on real-time data, but also provides historical analysis to better understand the end user’s behavior.

Permit approval

Because of the new data being sent to the parking operator via an individual’s cars, the Cleverciti Card can act as a digital permit, replacing physical permit cards or windshield stickers. The incorporation of the new technology can also minimize entrance and exit traffic in parking lots and garages.

Streamlined payment

In addition to the Cleverciti Card operating as a digital permit, it can streamline payment for parking. The technology can replace outdated payment boxes for cities and take digital payment for pay-to-park such as Park & Ride transportation locations. By mitigating the need of payment boxes and garage attendants, organizations can better utilize manpower and assets to focus on the future instead of fixing technology of the past.

Cleverciti currently has over 56 installations in 20 countries around the world. Its comprehensive suite of smart parking solutions is an ideal choice for organizations focused on a forward-thinking approach to customer service that also seeks to streamline parking and increase the revenue potential of their parking assets.

“With the Cleverciti Card, we can now offer a new level of parking guidance through the integration of permit and payment features for outdoor and indoor parking, without the need to install expensive infrastructure, such as single space sensors. We have placed the sensor, permit and payment functions into a single application, providing a truly seamless and comfortable parking experience for drivers,” said Thomas Hohenacker, CEO and Founder, Cleverciti. “Companies can now manage corporate parking in a highly efficient way, and organizations with the desire to manage multiple users, including valet parking, have now complete control over their parking assets.”

For more information about the Cleverciti Card, click here.

A shopping trip to one’s favorite retailer should be full of excitement and fulfillment; whether gathering the week’s groceries, picking out new outfits or searching for upgraded appliances, a successful outing is typically an enjoyable time.

But because shopping can also be stressful, customers are always hoping to arrive at a location that provides a hassle-free experience. This can be impacted by a number of factors, with one occurring before even entering the facility: parking. It probably wouldn’t take long for someone to think of a store in their city that gives them a major headache when it comes to navigating its parking situation and finding an open spot in a timely manner.

Because there are often large amounts of people trying to enter and exit the establishment at the same time, it’s understandable that parking might be complicated — but it doesn’t have to be. Retailers can ensure a seamless parking experience for customers by leveraging intelligent solutions that simplify the parking management process and increase satisfaction.

Deploying these systems can enable parking managers to enhance operations through 4 key areas:

• Parking displays, such as Cleverciti’s CIRC360™, an omnidirectional floating LED sign, can be mounted on light posts to show live parking information and messaging. Customers can feel comfortable when they spot this kind of sign, knowing that the retailer cares about their parking experience and their ability to immediately access the facility.

• Innovative technologies that leverage the power of interconnectivity, edge computing, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) can deliver real-time identification of free and occupied spaces within outdoor parking areas.

• Drivers are dynamically guided to the free parking spaces through an LED sign’s intuitive communication platform, easing the search while reducing environmental impact.

• Signage, such as CIRC360™, provides the opportunity for shopping centers to display marketing messages and paid media sponsorships that drive branding and visibility, as well as emergency notifications and public safety alerts to keep drivers informed.

Parking operators can also take advantage of smart parking solutions to increase revenue by gathering intelligent data on parking habits and trends, allowing the facility to use its parking space more efficiently and adjust pricing according to occupancy dynamics.

When customers contemplate a trip to the store, they’re likely to consider both the time they’ll be able to shop and how long it will take them to find a parking spot — and the latter should not end up taking over the equation. Parking operators at retailers must reduce the complexity of this process to improve the parking experience for everyone involved.

By providing a powerful combination of precise parking data and instant local guidance in a single solution, Cleverciti helps shopping centers ease their parking challenges and improve customer service. Learn more here about how shopping centers in Slovenia, Chicago and Germany benefit from Cleverciti’s technology, and find out how parking at your establishment can be transformed.

LAKE FOREST, Ill. – May 14, 2018 – Leading parking technology provider Cleverciti today launched Circ360™, the industry’s first 360-degree overhead display that provides real-time digital traffic flow information and advertising space for open-air parking lots.

“The Circ360™ LED displays are ideal for venues like shopping malls looking to enhance the overall customer experience,” said Thomas Hohenacker, founder and CEO, Cleverciti. “The Circ360™ turns the daily headache of parking into a simple service that retail property owners can offer their tenants and guests.”

The accurate and reliable Circ360™ is an omnidirectional floating LED sign that displays live parking information and messaging from retailers in 360 degrees. It can be mounted on existing lampposts of any size within 15 minutes. The displays are ideal for a range of dynamic on-street and open-air digital signage applications, including local parking availability, advertising, smart city data, security notifications and more.

“Shoppers spend 10 to 12 minutes on average searching for a parking space when they visit a mall,” added Hohenacker. “This results in significant lost revenue for retailers because customers may spend less time shopping or potentially leave out of frustration.”

Now in daily operation in more than 19 countries worldwide, Cleverciti’s high-precision overhead parking sensors and innovative Cockpit management software empower cities and property owners to manage parking in a more intelligent and efficient way. Cleverciti helps reduce traffic congestion and emissions, while dramatically improving the parking experience for consumers. It also helps grow revenues for cities, airports, malls and numerous other businesses.