The economic benefits of Smart Parking Systems®

The case of Treviso
Economic benefits
Collective benefits

In this article we share the economic trend of the receipts in the municipality of Treviso following the installation of our smart parking technology. We have often mentioned the advantages and the economic benefits of Smart Parking Systems®, but we have never done it so in detail.

Treviso is our spearhead, our first structured installation, a reality in which we have always discussed, and we can still do so, with a prepared and attentive municipality that undertakes courageous and far-sighted choices.

The case of Treviso

Treviso represents an important case because it has benefited over time from a significant increase in receipts from paid city car parks, with benefits ranging from greater economic availability to reduced traffic and pollution within the historic centre.

✔️ The management of parking inside the municipality of Treviso was already experiencing an excellent situation in 2009 and was monitored and supervised by an extremely attentive mobility department.

✔️ In 2009, in fact, the average receipts/parking space already amounted to € 1098 per year, more than double the national average which still stands at around € 500/year/parking bay.

⚠️ The real problem of the municipality was therefore not the economic aspect, but mainly the excessive traffic and the scarce availability of parking in some urban areas. For this reason, it was considered appropriate to use smart parking technology to affect urban mobility linked to parking.

✔️ Since 2010, Treviso has therefore embarked on this technological path together with Intercomp, installing Smart Parking Systems® in the historic centre, with the long-term goal of improving mobility, air quality and services for citizens.

✔️ Already a few years after the installation of Smart Parking Systems® it has been possible to realize how the improvement objectives towards mobility, the environment and services have already been achieved. But it becomes equally surprising to find an economic increase in constant growth, up to +60% in 6 years.

⭕️ This growth is not determined by the increase in fines, but by a decrease in tax evasion and a better use of the service, without weighing heavily on citizens, who instead see an increase in services and can live in a city with regulated traffic in an extremely efficient way.

⭕️ The percentage of parked vehicles and drivers who pay for parking has therefore increased: this is also due to the introduction of the new TrevisoApp, which allows complete management of parking by the user, including guided navigation at the free closer parking space inside the area of interest.

Economic benefits

The economic benefits of Smart Parking Systems® represent an important opportunity for every municipality: with an increase in revenues it is possible to develop new services for citizenship, improving mobility, road infrastructure and the urban fabric, while establishing a virtuous circle who can represent the real key to transforming a city into a smart city.

✔️ In a historical period in which the municipalities must necessarily manage the best available resources, investing in a system that can guarantee important and secure revenues is not a factor to be neglected.

✔️ For this reason, the case of Treviso is emblematic from this point of view, with its constant increase in receipts over the years favoured by the efficient use of Smart Parking Systems®.

Success in paid parking: 4.5 million receipts

Treviso, record financial report for the blue stalls inside the historic centre: “The system works”.

“These figures show the effectiveness of the system: there are more cars in the streets and squares of the city. In addition, drivers pay every time and evasion is reduced”.

Corriere del Veneto

Collective benefits

Smart Parking Systems® offers enormous advantages that can involve all those who, through different ways, use the system:

municipalities;
parking managers;
parking controllers;
users, basically all of us.

➡️ We can speak of benefits for the whole community as the system is able to reduce the number of cars in circulation in search of a parking space, therefore traffic and pollution. But there are other very interesting aspects that are not normally mentioned but that greatly influence the perception of the well-being of all of us.

In this regard, here are some data provided by the EPA (European Parking Association).

Wasted time

The search for a parking space very often requires a large amount of our time, which on the contrary we will be able to invest differently:

we lose from 10 to 39 minutes/day;
we lose from 60 to 237 hours/day;
we lose from 2,5 to 10 days/year.

Environmental costs

It is estimated that at least 30% of urban pollution is determined by the traffic of cars in circulation in search of a free parking bay, with increasingly higher environmental and social costs. This is a topic to be kept in strong consideration and with which we have been living for a few years now.

Negative consequences

Searching for free parking places can cause a lot of stress and can also involve unpleasant consequences in our daily lives:

44% of people said they missed an appointment;
20% of drivers confessed to have argued with other people.

Economic costs

Looking for free parking places also entails significant economic costs:

about 98 euro/year extra are inserted in the parking meters and not used;
around 310 euro/year/car of diesel are spent on the search for free parking bays.

Greater awareness by citizens favours virtuous behaviours that increase social equity and, as found in Treviso, greater liveability in areas such as the historic centre, reducing wild parking and pollution caused by so-called parasitic traffic (vehicles seeking for parking).

Furthermore, limiting the pollution present in our cities is certainly an objective that has always been intrinsic to the development of Smart Parking Systems®, which has made sustainability an essential parameter since its creation.