Thinxtra Partners with NZ eParking on a Smart Parking Solution to Remotely Monitor Designated Car Parks

The Problem

Across New Zealand there are about 130,000 people using mobility parking. Research commissioned by CCS Disability Action shows nearly one in five New Zealanders park illegally in mobility spaces while only three per cent of illegally parked vehicles are ticketed with a penalty.

“Misuse of mobility parking is serious for the people who genuinely need it because their access to important services including medical centres, supermarkets and recreational facilities is jeopardised. Mobility parking is designed for convenience and, apart from drivers misusing those areas, businesses misuse those areas too, for storing skip bins and shopping trolleys, receiving deliveries and more” says Elliott

Elliott understood the powerful potential of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology to offer fast, remote asset monitoring for data which is converted to insights to improve decision-making and action. The team chose to partner with Thinxtra to create and deploy its eParking solution.

“Mobility parking usually comes in small numbers, mostly pairs, so we needed a cost-effective solution to let us track what was happening at the car spot without being prohibitively expensive, while giving us the flexibility to scale over long distances. Most IoT smart parking solutions need base stations to run, which introduces challenges around varying signal strength, cost and complexity of installation and ongoing management. We wanted a simple, fast solution to reliably connect to a wide area network, able to scale to as many locations as possible,” says Elliott.

Thinxtra worked with NZ eParking to design a smart parking solution featuring a Bluetooth-enabled sensor embedded in the ground in the centre of a car park space. Elliott’s intent is that when mobility drivers receive a mobility tag or sticker, they also receive a mobility card valid for time periods of up to 120 minutes. Similar in size to a credit card, the mobility card can rest anywhere inside the car.

As drivers approach an IoT-enabled smart mobility car park, the ground-based sensor detects the mobility card inside the vehicle and sends a signal over the Thinxtra 0G Network, powered by Sigfox technology, to a central data management platform.

The Solution

Thinxtra’s 0G Network is a LPWAN low-cost, low-power, long-range wireless network designed to send or receive small messages. The management platform collects that data confirming the car park is in use and, if a vehicle is detected in the car park without a mobility card, an email or text alert can be sent to a Council traffic warden which enables fast action with an infringement notice.

Operators of the smart parking solution access the data captured by the in-ground sensors through a user-friendly SaaS-based dashboard featuring embedded Google Maps. Colour coding makes it easy to see at-a-glance which car parks are in use and simple options to name car parks for smooth management.

The Thinxtra IoT-enabled smart parking solution captures a range of data outside car park usage to help councils and businesses use car parks more efficiently and effectively. For example, how long a car park is in use and how many vehicles use the space in a given time period. The solution also offers online bookings for mobility or any designated parking areas, including visitor parking at offices and residential locations.

The NZ eParking team see growing potential for smart car park bookings as organisations look to offer a safe return to work for
employees in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The in-ground sensor can be fitted with a branded cover to clearly show where specific company parking is available.

“Partnering with Thinxtra was a no brainer. The Thinxtra 0G Network, powered by Sigfox, offers an incredible, readily available network with 94 percent coverage of New Zealand. Thinxtra offers long battery life which lets us create a solution with a sensor lasting 10 years without any maintenance needs. The extensive range of sensing devices, and bespoke device options, gave us the flexibility to create a monitoring device that is Bluetooth-enabled, flame resistant, suitable for extreme heat and UV exposure and can withstand weights of up to 15 tonnes,”  says Elliott.

The IoT-enabled smart parking solution delivers a range of benefits to businesses and councils seeking to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of car park management, including a smooth customer experience for drivers who need to use designated parking areas and maximum use of available car spaces. There are community benefits too. The ability to detect, and act, on illegal car park use of designated parking areas means reduced traffic flows from easier access to parking. Drivers save time, fuel, money and greenhouse gas emissions because needed car parks are more readily available.

NZ eParking’s solution delivers robust data-based insights for councils to find trends in citizen activity to make sure a town’s car
park spaces are maximised for community benefit. Councils also have more efficient enforcement because system-driven alerts enable fast, targeted ticketing for parking violations. Operational costs are cut because traffic wardens no longer need to physically patrol the streets to detect parking violations.

“I’m passionate that mobility parking is available for the people who need it most and Thinxtra made my vision reality. The Thinxtra team are IoT experts with years of hands-on experience, so are quick to answer questions and are creative at designing purpose-built solutions to fit the use case, no matter how unique the requirements. We’re excited about the potential of our smart parking solutions to improve future town planning of smart cities,” concludes Elliott.