A Public Parking Management System for Zurich

The management of public parking spaces is a sophisticated task for the municipality offices in every city. Currently, there is not a system in place in the city of Zurich where the complete parking process is implemented. The affected departments use multiple tools for certain specific tasks. In addition, many jobs such as adding, removing or suspending parking spaces are performed manually without the support of an information system. This context leads to the status that the parking process for public Parking Authorities (PA) generates much administrative effort, costs and decelerates the management process. This master thesis proposes an information system to support PAs with the management of public on-street parking spaces. The three components of the proposed system, the Parking Space Marking System (PSMS), the Parking Area Management System (PAMS) and the Parking Inspector’s (PI) controller application, are integrated in the parkITsmart Parking Monitoring and Management System (PMMS). To enable PAs to manage their parking spaces in an efficient manner, a database with the parking space data and additional information such as the price structure and a time schedule need to be in place. Since there are still cities who do not have a central database with all public parking spaces collected, one component of the proposed information system is the PSMS. This system enables the PAs to collect and digitalize parking areas either by themselves or with the help of the public through a crowdsourcing approach. To facilitate the process to control parked vehicles from a short distance of several meters, the PI controller application from the PMMS was extended with the iBeacon technology. Assuming each parked vehicle is equipped with an iBeacon transmitter, the PI is able to control the vehicles by walking by a series of parking spaces. Moreover, to manage and optimize the digitalized parking space data from the PSMS, the third component of this thesis was developed as the PAMS. This system enables the PAs to add, delete and modify parking space related information such as the price or the permitted time to park. In addition, it provides reports to optimize the density of parking spaces in certain areas and presents an overview of PI related indicators. The three implemented components were integrated in the parkITsmart environment. Additionally, the results of the performed evaluation indicate that the implementation of these components increase the performance and efficiency of the parking management process.