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According to ITS America’s Market Analysis, almost 30% of congestion in urban areas is caused by drivers cruising around looking for parking space due to a dearth of parking innovations. Not only does this mean that there is excess traffic on the roads, but it also results in oil wastage as well – one of the world’s fast-depleting natural resources. Read more about smart parking innovations.

Smart parking solutions are designed to reduce this uncertainty in finding parking space, payments, etc. When the number of cars on the road is only increasing every day, these kinds of solutions are desperately required. Here are the top 11 revolutionary smart parking innovations:

1. Wireless sensor technology: To provide real-time parking data to drivers, the Internet of Things is foremost in importance. Smart parking companies have installed more than 10,000 wireless devices worldwide, and many of these systems can include guidance when visitors try to find space in your company’s car park or at any other public space.

2. Valet parking: In some airports like Dusseldorf, Germany, drivers may have the pleasure of experiencing the latest parking technology and having their car picked up and parked by robotic valets, like Stan who is manufactured by Stanley Robotics, a harbinger of future parking.

3. Parking apps: Apps like PayByPhone and Park Right are integral to smart parking systems and allow you to pay for your parking, along with extending the duration if you are going to stay for longer than intended. Some of them may even tell you where you can find parking spaces.

4. Fully-automated garages: In Boulder, Colorado, a fully automated garage is being installed when cars can be scanned with lasers and parked by robotic valets. Then, they are transported by an automatic dolly to multi-level storage racks. This means that this garage can hold up to 4 times as many cars as normal.

5. Self-parking cars: With the coming of the newest technology in cars, Audi and the city of Somerville in Massachusetts have partnered to work on self-driving and self-parking cars. The advantage to these is that the driver can get off right next to their destination while the cars can park themselves, reducing congestion.

6. Multi-level car parking: Intelligent car parking systems need to integrate multi-level parking so more cars can be accommodated in a single car park. These include parking ideas like lifts and sensors to guide your car and can contribute to some of the biggest parking lots in the world.

7. Advanced innovations park & pay: Many car park gates now open as soon as you tap the contactless payment card. Newer gates are now being designed so that a QR code can be scanned by your mobile and you can pay using mobile payment options.

8. Green parking: Green parking means environmentally-friendly parking, and this can mean being eligible for pre-booking a parking space only if you have an electric or hybrid car, is required to have at least 2 people in the car as proof of car-sharing, etc.

9. Smart meters: In the newest generation of parking lot solutions, smart meters installed in a car park make people not need to come back to the meter to pay their due – instead, they can easily pay it remotely through an app.

11. Better city planning: As sensors catch a massive amount of data on the vehicles being parked all over a large city, this data can then be used to plan cities better and figure out exactly how many and what kind of parking spaces are necessary for it.
12. Virtual personal assistants: Eventually, the virtual assistants that guide drivers to their destinations may be able to guide them to the nearest empty parking space as well using real-time data.