Group 15

Objective (why?)

With an exponentially growing population, urban cities have been facing issues with finding available parking, a problem that continues to get worse as more cars are put on the road. This leads to one of two results, drivers spend an excessive amount of time finding parking, or drivers must cope with parking far from their destination and walking the rest of the way. Parking in cities such as Hoboken constantly deals with these issues, which is why introducing a parking detection system on parking spots can be tremendously helpful. Introducing this system will reduce roadway congestion, enhance parking management, and improve the overall parking experience.

Background (who? where?)

The proposed parking detection system is aimed at parking facilities such as public parking lots, shopping malls, and urban streets. This project is addressed to parking management authorities, property owners, and drivers seeking convenient parking solutions.

Methodology (how? when?)

Before designing the system, a survey must be conducted to ask drivers about their thoughts on the parking experience in their respective cities. After that, we can collect data from various parking facilities such as busiest hours and amount of parking. The purpose of this is to determine the areas with high parking demand that would benefit the most from a parking detection system.

The next step is to evaluate various sensor technologies and decide which would work best for the project. Some things to consider for the sensor are reliability, accuracy, detection range, and cost-effectiveness.

After the sensor evaluation comes the system design, how many sensors per parking spot will be placed, the communication infrastructure for data transmission, and integration with parking management software or applications that will be accessible to drivers.

At this point, a prototype is ready to build which can be tested at individual parking facilities to determine it’s accuracy, effectiveness, customer satisfaction, and performance under various parking conditions (outdoor mall parking lot, multi-level parking garage, underground parking lot, street parking). 

The prototype allows us to receive feedback from data and customers, allowing us to address any technical or operational issues, and properly scale up the project deployment to additional parking facilities.

Expected results (what?)

After testing, our expected result for the parking detection sensors will provide

• Real-Time Parking Availability:

• Improved Parking Utilization:

• Reduced Congestion and Emissions:

• Enhanced Customer Experience:

Costs (how much will it cost?)

Conducting surveys and collecting data from parking facilities is arguably the simplest and cheapest step in the whole project. Since the technology design only involves using an already established sensor and only refining it to work optimally with parking detection, a significant amount of money is saved in this department which would normally cost the most due to various testing and research. App design and data infrastructure won’t be too demanding, since it only involves designing parking layouts for each parking facility and having a user-friendly interface. Prototypes can potentially take the most amount of money since it will require trial and error. Overall the cost of the project is difficult to estimate but could be around $200,000 to $400,000, with each parking sensor thereafter costing roughly $300.

Statement-Restatement Technique:

• • Statement: The problem is the lack of real-time information on parking availability in urban cities.

  • Restatement: The challenge lies in providing drivers with accurate and up-to-date information about available parking spaces to reduce search time and congestion.

Source/Cause Approach:

• • Why-Why Diagram: