Netherlands-based parking technology company Nedap has completed the deployment of Croatia’s first smart parking system, with 1,500 on-street spaces now connected to a system in the country’s second-largest city.
The city of Split is located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea and is a popular destination for tourists. On- and off-street parking in the city is managed by the public entity Split Parking, which initiated the project that has been completed by Nedap in close cooperation with the Croatian companies Ericsson Nikola Tesla, Profico, and Infoart. Following a successfully implemented pilot project, Nedap deployed its Sensit sensor-based vehicle detection system at a total of 1,500 parking bays in three paid parking zones across the city. Real-time vehicle occupancy information gathered by the wireless, bay-mounted, Sensit units from spaces at 43 different locations in Split is transmitted to the central system through a wireless network of relay nodes and data collectors.
For the Smart Parking Split project, the other partners’ roles were:
Ericsson Nikola Tesla, a local division of the Swedish Ericsson Group telecommunications company, acted as the system integrator and was responsible for the city-wide implementation of the ICT network; Split-based company Profico developed the centralized software for the management system; Infoart, which is the leading provider of mobile payment solutions in Croatia, created the smartphone application that is available for all mobile platforms, and integrates new and existing systems for on- and off-street parking from Split Parking.
Besides an improved parking experience for citizens, Split Parking intends to make the city more attractive for visitors and tourists. The smart parking system will also be used to offer a better service to specific user groups, such as disabled people and tourist coach operators.
“During the pilot phase, Nedap’s Sensit was proven to be the leading sensor-based vehicle detection system for on-street parking applications,” noted Marko Bartulić, director of Split Parking. “Split has a total 7,000 parking spaces divided over three paid parking zones. Combined with 92,000 registered vehicles and being a tourist hub, a smart approach for both on- and off-street parking is extremely important. The first goal is to improve the overall parking experience for our citizens, so we introduced a brand new mobile parking application. The app integrates all parking in Split and can be used by motorists, helping to find an available parking space effectively, and ensuring a smooth-running mobile payment process. The interest for the app is huge: in just three days, more than 6,000 people downloaded the application.”
