Smart parking in Les Mureaux, France

Les Mureaux

Located near the French capital Paris, the innovative city Les Mureaux successfully introduced smart parking sensors to monitor parking spaces in blue zones this year. Information about the real-time availability of parking spaces is being transmitted to motorists via a large number of variable electronic signs along the streets. This real-time information guides traffic effectively and to improve the utilization of the existing parking capacity in the blue zones. The result is less congestion, safer streets and a more attractive city for visitors and local retailers.

Additional on-street parking bays

Considering that the cost of an additional on-street parking bay is estimated at approximately 15K€, the double for an off-street parking bay, compared to the cost of an installed and fully operational sensor at an existing parking bay reveals a cost saving without equal.

Besides the strictly financial aspect, les Mureaux provides motorists a high quality service in offering real time information by collecting data from the SENSIT double technology sensors and feeding this into the supervision system.

Dynamic traffic guidance plan

Identifying the parking lots to be equipped is the first step towards materializing a project. A dynamic traffic guidance plan was established. Panels were installed at the city entrances, guiding the motorists all along a route to the parking entrance, informing drivers in real time of the number of remaining places.

Additionally, an educational panel was established at the Henri Dunant car park. This panel features a floating text display, clearly identifying the parking spots where motorists are in overstay: beyond 1:30h. As such, without imposing any form of pressure by putting surveillance or law enforcement: issuing parking tickets, les Mureaux obtains a natural increase of the turnover of vehicles per place. Collateral consequence: the activities of the downtown area profit from a renewal of dynamism.

Visio’ParkCity

TTS’ Visio’ParkCity –developed with global city parking supervision in mind– manages, informs and optimizes the search for a vacant parking space. Visio’ParkCity has been rolled out in the following areas: parking de la place Henri Dunant, Rue Paul Doumer, Place Rouget, Rue Carnot, Rue Jean Monnet et Rue Jean Cessou.

Thanks to a performing wireless network of several hundred Nedap SENSIT double technology sensors and a dynamic traffic guidance system, Visio’ParkCity offers motorists a real time overview of the downtown parking spaces, whether they are vacant, occupied or in overstay.

“Above all, the system was able to eradicate the issue of so called glued vehicles , freeing up parking spaces and revitalizing the downtown area.” Benoît Sellier, General Manager TTS Parking Division

Global vision on parking

In 2014, the first phase focused on installations in the downtown area. The city of les Mureaux aims to extend this principle to the neighbouring streets in order to have a global vision on on-street parking, and, to adapt the current regulations according to the parking habits recorded by the sensors. In this second phase, the city of les Mureaux installs sensors in a truck parking space and a car sharing parking in the West of the city.

“I am truly excited that we were able to realize this project in close cooperation with the city of les Mureaux and Trafic Technologie Système (TTS). This project, result of a lengthy joint operation, is one of the first real-life achievements in France, effectively dealing with Smart City needs.” Says Laurent Kahn, Business Development Manager at Nedap France.

The SENSIT system

The wireless vehicle detection system SENSIT not only “sees” whether or not a single parking bay is occupied, it also detects how long a space has been occupied. The status information (e.g. available, occupied and overstay) is wirelessly relayed to a parking officer, working with dedicated software. In order to get to know the real-time status of hundreds of parking spots in Les Mureaux, the SENSIT system was installed by the French company TTS (Trafic Technologie Système).

Nedap is the developer and manufacturer of SENSIT: a network of smart parking sensors which detect vehicle occupancy at every single parking space. SENSIT collects parking data and shares that information with third party parking guidance, enforcement and intelligent transport systems. This smart parking technology decreases search traffic, improves utilization of parking capacity and reduces of CO2-emissions. Nedap currently works with partners and cities worldwide to implement the SENSIT system.