The French city of Issy-les-Moulineaux, which is part of the greater metropolitan area of Paris, is trialing a new parking system that takes its predictive information from payment meters. The suburb is the first French local authority to try out the new ‘Path to Park’ smartphone application from Parkeon. Free and available, initially under the Apple operating system, Path to Park is able to predict and locate nearby parking areas, and then guide drivers to them, based on powerful statistical calculations. Parkeon is a key global player in the urban mobility sector, with more than 50% of the worldwide network of pay and display terminals, the company has access to considerable volumes of ‘big data’ regarding the habits of city drivers. By structuring these data and carefully analyzing the parking dynamics in each city, each district and each street, Path to Park calculates in real-time the demand for parking in the driver’s current location, so that they can be directed to areas where they are most likely to find a vacant space.
“We would like to test out new digital solutions that makes travel easier in urban environments, and ‘Path to Park’ is one of these solutions,” said André Santini, the Mayor of Issy-les-Moulineaux. “It provides users with even more comfort as it also proves to be a real asset in terms of limiting the impact of traffic caused by motorists who are looking around for a space” Bertrand Barthelemy, CEO of Parkeon, commented, “Being able to adapt to new mobile uses, promoting our global expertise, contributing to better managed urban mobility, and providing a service to local authorities and also users, are just some of the challenges that we meet head-on on a daily basis.” Parkeon currently provides systems and equipment to facilitate parking management and mobility in more than 4,000 cities worldwide. The company says that after Issy-les-Moulineaux, Path to Park will be launched shortly in the Ile de France region and in a dozen or so urban areas throughout the world.
