The Shift to Smart Parking

With the driverless Dubai Metro, automated road tolls known as Salik and plans to embrace autonomous vehicles, Dubai is already at the cutting edge when it comes to mobility but refuses to rest on its litany of achievements so far.
Global studies reveal that almost 40 per cent of city traffic, in major cities around the world, is caused by motorists looking for parking. This makes the development of smart parking imperative and experts believe that this single factor could be the game changer in the city’s pursuit of smart mobility.

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) recently initiated its Smart Parking Project to provide smart services to residents and visitors. This included the launch of the RTA Smart Drive App, which provides information about the number of available spaces in on-street and off-street public parking. Parking information is displayed in Arabic and English on digital e-signs on streets to give the latest updates.

Why choose smart parking?

From reducing traffic and pollution to decreased management costs and enhanced user experience, the shift to smart parking promises several benefits. Smart car parks are being widely fitted with futuristic features such as electric vehicle charging stations and smart internal navigation. Among the most advanced features in some car parks are e-valet systems which allow drivers to leave their car at the entrance and have the latest sensor technology guide the car to a space to park itself.

Smart parking also provides the unique option for generating additional revenue, as parking structures can be adapted for other uses when less parking is required. With the deployment of sensor technologies, smart parking will eliminate the need to hire so many parking attendants and security staff, resulting in significant operational savings.

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