Taunton Deane Borough Council were looking to develop and deliver strategies to increase visitor numbers to the town. Taunton is a popular visitor and shopper destination; it’s the retail capital of Somerset with an excellent new road infrastructure. Enhancing opportunities for commerce and improving transport were key to the strategy. Therefore Smart parking had been identified as a means to improve customer experience.
The aim of the Taunton Smart Parking is to improve visibility of parking space information for visitors at key locations in the town centre by incorporating technology solutions. TSP required the implementation of a parking guidance system (PGS) and the provision of pay on foot (PoF) ticketing and access control at key town centre car parks.
Most of the 7 car parks in the town centre used pay and display with no entry or exit counting. With over 1800 car parking spaces, both multi-storey and street level formats, providing visitors with easy and stress free parking was pivotal.
HUB Parking Technology was able to provide a turnkey solution for the design, supply, installation, maintenance and civil works for this large scale project. Customers can enter the car park through a barrier with the knowledge of spaces available, pay via credit card or cash and exit through a barrier using a validated ticket.
Interface implementations with the Urban Traffic Management and Control system software enables HUB Parking JMS Management system to provide a multisite platform for all control and reporting routines. JMS offers remote audio control and operators can easily and centrally manage all business processes thus maximising efficiency and minimising efforts. This includes site by site control for all the 7 sites. The log on connection is made by direct web browser access. Remote connections can be made via any 3rd party device with a web connection. The software operates through a simple tile based dashboard and offers monitoring, data analysis, tariff tabling and configuration.
After being appointed in 2018, over several weeks of installation there was minimal disruption, enabling each car park to continue operating, ensuring revenue protection. All sites went live together so the team look forward to regular users and visitors to the town enjoying the new Smart parking experience.