New smart parking guidance in Burlington seeks to alleviate traffic during peak visitor season
shortening the search for parking to reduce traffic in the city
In this Urbiotica success story, Burlington implements a parking guidance solution with the objective of improving urban mobility in the most visited areas of the city.
–
Burlington, a Canadian city of more than 180,000 people located on Lake Ontario, has a stunning natural setting for outdoor recreation. For this reason, the town receives visitors year-round, especially on weekends and during the summer season, when tourism and local events increase.
This high demand posed mobility and parking management problems. There was a perception among citizens that there was a lack of parking spaces, which put pressure on the authorities to invest in new infrastructure even though there was no data to justify it.
The city had to meet the needs of residents and tourists at the same time to avoid congestion in the busiest areas and drivers spending too much time looking for where to park, also taking into account details such as the country’s weather conditions when choosing the most appropriate technological solution.
The project in Burlington monitors a total of 1,337 plazas using U Spot and U Flow devices, which transmit data in real time through variable signage panels.
Thanks to the system developed by Urbiotica, Burlington authorities have a better understanding of the actual occupancy status of parking spaces and how drivers behave before making any investments. They are now able to identify peak hours, calculate the average parking time, analyze the use of park-and-ride lots and know which areas are most in demand. In fact, they found that some areas were underutilized and that congestion only occurred at specific times.
With data from Urbiotica’s platform integrated with Burlington’s BI system, managers can monitor space occupancy and turnover on public roads to make data-driven decisions that address the real needs of the population and improve urban mobility.
Of the 1,337 monitored parking spaces, 434 are on public roads with U Spot sensors, while the rest are in Park&Ride parking lots where 11 U-Flow systems were installed. Both devices are suitable to withstand the Canadian winter and the passage of snowplows. The 26 variable signage panels installed are responsible for displaying in real time the availability of parking spaces to avoid unnecessary turns.
Photo credit: Global News.
- Stress reduction for drivers.
- Reduction of congestion and pollution caused by vehicles.
- Improved quality of life for residents.
- Better perception of the city by visitors.
