Berlin deploys scan cars to assess public parking use

How many public parking spaces do exist in a city and to what extend are they occupied? Finding an answer to this essential question would require a significant amount of people to count and map parking spots across the city.

Berlin is using modern technology to speed up the process by deploying up to four scan cars inside the area of the S-Bahn ring. In a first step between now and the beginning of June, the vehicles will record the overall number of on-street parking spots. Afterwards, occupancy rates of the parking areas will be measured by the same vehicles until the end of this year.

The aim of the local department for Environment, Mobility, Consumer and Climate Protection is to investigate the effects of new parking zones in particular and to obtain relevant knowledge for optimised future planning of parking space management in the city centre of the German capital. The entire investigation is part of a project, which is financially supported by the German Federal State as part of the support programme ‘Digitisation of municipal transport systems’.

The vehicles will record the roadside while driving, while utilising high-resolution cameras, laser-based LiDAR scanners and GPS antennas to draw conclusions about the parking time and the traffic generated during the search for a parking space. The data processing and complete anonymisation of recorded persons and vehicle registration numbers in image data already takes place in the vehicle and cannot be traced back.

You can find further information in the press release of the responsible local authorities of Berlin (in German).