Between looking for possible parking space and being stuck in traffic, you have another option - driving to the ensured open parking spot with confidence and no worries. That is many drivers in Shanghai have newly experienced since this China biggest city set up an intelligent system for on-street parking in January 2017.
Let’s meet Mr. Xia, a Shanghai citizen. He is going to do some errands in the city center. “Let me first check if there are available parking spots”, Mr. Xia says, he then opens the parking monitoring app on his smartphone. “You can see the real-time parking occupancy in it. See? There are several open spots near the building I’m going to. Let me send a request.” One click, request parking spot. Now Xia has a spot reserved near his destination.
“If the app shows there are no available parking space, then I’ll go by subway”, Xia smiles while driving, “Now I can choose the best way to commute. That’s super convenient.”
Of course, drivers need to fill out his information (name, phone number, vehicle registration plate) first on the app. But still, everything seems easy.
When Xia arrives at the parking lot, the fee collector Mr. Li approaches to Xia’s vehicle. He photographs to identify the plate with a Chainway handheld computer, and then registers this plate number under this parking spot on the parking management system on the handheld device. After an eyewink, driver’s app shows that the parking spot is taken and sends Xia his parking details, including time, location, and rate.
One hour later, Xia comes back and pulls out his car. Li immediately upgrades this change to the handheld computer. Fees then are calculated automatically. Both Li and Xia’s handheld devices receive information of this parking session. Xia taps his public transport card on Li’s handheld computer. Done, charges are paid and parking ends. Xia drives away contently, with the feeling that he needn’t have to worry about on-street parking problems in Shanghai any more.
Li, on his side, praises this system as well. In the past, parking fees were collected manually by fee collectors. They had to remember each occupied spot’s parking hours and calculated fees mentally after the driver came back. Sometimes dispute would occur when driver disagreed with the fee. Now with Chainway C4050 handheld computer, “I record each spot’s availability on the parking software and the system will calculate the fee automatically. This thing (Chainway PDA) isportable and easy to operate”, Li smiles, “this is smart.”
There are an estimated 600 million cars in the world, a figure that's rapidly growing, especially in China and other emerging markets. They all need to park somewhere. The land is limited, so how to make the best possible use of available parking space is the key. With handheld computer and smart parking management system, parking has never been so easy.
For motorists, they are informed effortlessly by their app about parking vacancy figures. When parking space is widely available, they can secure a parking spot within walking distance to the desired location. Otherwise, they use public transport to commute.
All parking data is transmitted to the central database of the local government. Based on this data, officials can make sensible decisions on parking prices and regulations in different parking lots to make the best possible use of city resources. Intelligent parking data collection simplifies traffic management and helps track illegal parking activities.
Real time parking data draws a clear picture of where available parking spaces can be found, while providing an overview of the improper usage of any non-parking areas. As a handheld computer provider, we can help you collect smart parking data for smart parking management.
Work with us, let your city be smarter!