Mobile network operator Deutsche Telekom has signed a deal with the city of Bonn to install a network of sensors that will alert drivers to available parking spots and enable them to pay for their space using their mobile phone. The smart city solution will also “include connections to public transportation”, the carrier says.

“The closely meshed network will allow drivers to advance book parking spots in gated areas such as multistorey car parks. The solution will help alleviate traffic congestion in the inner city and reduce emissions,” Deutsche Telekom says.

An initial pilot of the Park and Joy app is scheduled to start in 2018 with “a large proportion” of the city centre’s managed parking spaces due to be networked by the end of 2019. Multistorey car parks and private parking spaces will then also be added, along with connections to public transportation. A video shows how the system works:

“The app saves drivers the time they would need to find a parking spot and to walk to and from the ticket machine,” Deutsche Telekom says. “Availability forecasts for free parking spaces enable drivers to plan their trips down to the minute. Car park operators can enhance utilisation of their facilities and gain access to a platform with a broad reach.

“Over the next two years paid parking spots in the city center of Bonn will be equipped with sensors, so that vacant spaces can be displayed in the app in real time. The sensors indicate whether a parking space is vacant by communicating through a narrowband Internet of Things solution.

“In addition, other sources of data can be used to calculate the probability of a parking space becoming vacant — for example information from parking ticket machines or from various parking operators. Swarm data from the mobile communications network can also be used for these probability computations.”

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