From Matt Furniss
Lead borough councillor for infrastructure and Conservative ward councillor for Christchurch
I am writing in response the questions that are being raised about the sensors that have been placed in on-street pay and display parking bays.
The sensors are part of a trial for a parking management system, which uses the latest technology to provide information on the availability of parking in the town centre.
The information from the sensors on-street is combined with information about the availability of space in the main town centre car parks, and from new vehicle counting systems at Onslow, Merrow and Artington park and ride sites. This provides a complete picture of parking options.
The system, once developed, will help to inform and guide people to locations where there are available parking spaces and deter them from travelling to areas where there is no availability and congestion.
It is also intended for the system to be able to use previous parking patterns to predict and inform drivers, before they set-off, where there is most likely to be space when they arrive.
The system will also help inform transport changes planned in the town centre going forward.
Ethos Valuable Outcomes Ltd. is delivering the project. Ethos has been investing heavily in research and development to solve urban challenges, and has secured a government innovation grant to build the Future Parking system for a trial. Guildford was chosen for the project and Ethos is working with Guildford Borough and Surrey County Councils.
The trial is being paid for entirely from government and innovation funding. The equipment has been installed and will be maintained at no cost to the local taxpayers.
This is an exciting, innovative and forward-looking project, which investigates how up-to-the-minute technology can reduce congestion and improve the experience of people coming to Guildford.
It has the potential to help people avoid busy areas and assist in delivering the Town Centre Masterplan’s vision of a vibrant and less congested centre.
This website is published by The Guildford Dragon NEWS
Contact: Martin Giles mgilesdragon@gmail.com
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Martin Elliott
April 6, 2016 at 3:19 pm
Wouldn’t it have been easier to have publicised this before anything visible appeared in the parking spaces?
Letters to the press could have been answered straight away.
But that’s not the way in Guildford. Why can’t we have openness and transparency as promised in the council’s codes of practice?
A Atkinson
April 6, 2016 at 6:02 pm
How will the system tell the driver?
We believe that data from the sensor will be sent to a central system that will, in turn, inform other information systems, such as the car park display boards and publicly accessible websites, for the use of drivers. Ed