Tech Report

1. Existing Car Park Mechanisms

The three types of mechanisms used for car parks currently would be the smart parking system, Parking Guidance and Information System (PGIS) and automated parking. 

Figure 8

Smart parking system

Note. Figure 8 shows how the Smart parking system works in a HDB car park. Housing & Development Board, 2022

As Figure 8 demonstrated, the smart parking system includes functions such as camera capturing vehicle plates for registration without scanning the In-vehicle Unit (IU) card reader, light sensors to indicate occupancy of the lot and payment made using the Housing Development Board (HDB) application. This saves time for drivers as they would not have to waste time finding empty lots and waiting for the gantry to read the IU for payment charges. 

Parking Guidance and Information System (PGIS) works similar to the smart parking system utilising the function of light sensors to indicate the vacancy of a parking space. The information from the sensors would be programmed to reflect onto the LED displays outside the car parks. This allows drivers to make decision making processes upon reaching their parking destination as they would not need to search for lots in an already fully occupied car park and can proceed to other nearby car parks.

Automated parking features a lift with a computerised system which parks the vehicle at an allocated parking lot when drivers drive it up to a specific bay. This allows more parking as land is used more efficiently and it can be created at existing sites with space constraints. 

Ideally, the car park should allow drivers to have access to the available parking lots virtually instead of having to travel down physically to find out there are no parking lots. 

2. Summary of Ideals

An ideal parking lot application should have status consolidated into one interface, easily port reliable data over from overhead sensors, programmed to be user friendly and is made up of smooth softwares and virtually able to provide reliable information about the availability of lots. 

Evaluation

This section of the report will go through the evaluation of the proposed solution, implementing the car park availability application in CapitaLand. Despite having more benefits than disadvantages, there are still possible challenges which need to be considered before the actual implementation of the application. 

Figure 12

URA Update Frequency for car park Availability

Note. Figure 12 above shows the update frequency for car park availability. URA.gov.sg

As there are many existing applications which have similar features such as SGCarMart, which constantly receives feedback such as technical glitch or not updated features such as car park rates or even new car parks. This would mean that with physical upgrades, CapitaLand must also be readily refining both the features and changes within the car park such as renovation within a specific area or expansion within car parks. These amendments within the Car Park have to be reflected into the application itself. 

The status is strongly dependent on the update frequency (see Figure 12), meaning that with faster refresh rate, the more reliable the status is. Compared to Breeze which has a update frequency of 30 minutes (see figure 13), ParkingGoWhere has significantly shorten the updating frequency to 3-5 minutes. However, it can be improved better to 1 minute as used by HDB for their Car Park availability status (see figure 14). 

Figure 13

Breeze’s car park availability feature

Note. Figure 13 shows Breeze’s car park availability feature, using Junction 8 as an example. Breeze.com.sg

Figure 14

GovTech’s updating frequency for HDB car park availability api

Note. Figure 14 shows a screenshot on the update frequency of GovTech’s api for HDB car park availability. Data,gov.sg

Even with these challenges, the application is still a method for more satisfied consumers without having to queue for the parking lots and having to book the lots in advance. The desirability, feasibility and viability for this application still holds. The team would also look into exploring and creating innovative programs which might work better than existing ones.

Concluding Statement

This section of the report summarises the entire report. It will cover the purpose of this report, the parking lot application, its value and the desired outcome of this report.

This report outlines our response to a call for a design proposal aimed at improving the current car park availability process designs. We examined the limitations of the existing systems in terms of functionality and features and recommended improvements based on our findings in the methodology section. Our research revealed that drivers are only able to find real-time parking lot availability through road-side electronic information panels for shopping malls (LTA, 2022).

To reduce traffic congestion within car parks and their surroundings, we propose a parking lot availability application that includes light sensors, programming software, and a parking mechanism. In the proposed solution section, we explain how the application would collect data from light sensors, consolidate it on the server, and make it available to users. By implementing this solution, we hope to increase visitation rates, reduce traffic congestion in and around CapitaLand car parks, and integrate inter-mall businesses.

However, we acknowledge that the proposed application has a limitation: its refresh rate is rather slow, taking between 3-5 minutes. We plan to explore innovative programs to improve this refresh rate significantly.

If CapitaLand adopts ParkingGoWhere, consumers would enjoy a more satisfying trip as waiting times for parking lots would be reduced, resulting in a more straightforward travel and an increased likelihood of revisiting CapitaLand. This would, in turn, increase revenue for CapitaLand malls due to a reduction in congestion, attracting more consumers and increasing their chances of return.