Smart Parking Expo | Smart City 2024 | Billing Marmot Device

新聞活動
Nov 5, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Mar 26

2024.03.20 2024 Smart City Expo TAIWAN SECOM ESG Forum

Smart Parking: Taichung City's Road to Innovation

The 2024 Taipei Smart City Exhibition took place from March 19 to 22. The Taiwan Secom ESG Forum invited Taichung City's Transportation Bureau Director, Yeh Chao-fu, to share insights on Taichung's management experiences under the theme "Building a Better City: The Fusion of Smart Parking and Urban Aesthetics"

Transportation Bureau of Taichung City Government share Taichung's experience

Among the challenges in urban traffic management, the issue of roadside parking stands out. Director Yeh Chao-fu of the Taichung City Transportation Bureau highlighted that since 2019, Taichung City has launched a series of pilot projects, including the installation of geomagnetic sensors in roadside parking spaces to provide real-time parking information to the public. Over time, this initiative was continuously upgraded, and by 2021, the geomagnetic sensors were integrated with ticketing operations, significantly improving ticketing efficiency and increasing the turnover rate of parking spaces. These measures ensured the optimal utilization of parking spaces. Due to the success of the geomagnetic sensor project, Taichung City was invited to participate in The 14th Asia Pacific Transportation Development Conference and The 35th ICTPA Annual Conference, where it showcased its smart parking achievements and received widespread international recognition.

Director Yeh further explained that this year, Taichung City planned to expand the "Smart Parking Zone Initiative," which included gradually installing geomagnetic sensors in parking spaces and implementing various types of license plate recognition systems. (high-mounted, medium-mounted, and low-mounted devices) The goal was to deploy 21,000 geomagnetic sensors and 6,000 license plate recognition devices in Taichung by 2024. Through technological innovation, the city aimed to collect and integrate parking data, establishing a smart parking center to provide more convenient and high-quality parking services.

Director Yeh emphasized that the deployment of smart parking equipment not only provided new solutions to parking challenges but also highlighted the importance of integrating these technologies into the urban environment, potentially becoming a new feature of the city’s landscape.

Billing Marmot Image Recognition Equipment

Director Yeh said, “Intelligent device users can't feel its presence in urban development”.

Director Yeh explained that the core value of smart parking lies in facilitating the public to find parking spaces while minimizing traffic disruption. In collaboration with Taiwan Secom, the primary focus is on how to utilize technology to make on-street parking spaces smarter, including functions such as vehicle identification. In terms of urban aesthetics, the focus is on avoiding the abruptness of the equipment, such as embedding the equipment into the road surface or sidewalk curb without affecting the landscape. Information on remaining parking spaces will be made available for public enquiry, so that they can decide whether to drive or take public transportation to their destinations.

Director Yeh said that that smart parking needs to be considered for urban development so that it can be virtualized in the city and parking functions can be present without affecting the cityscape and development. The key is to allow the smart parking function to exist, but without affecting the city's aesthetics, so that the cityscape is not affected.