Introduction: The Turramurra Gurudwara, located at 81 Kissing Point Road in Turramurra, New South Wales, is a Sikh Temple. During the evenings and weekends, the devotees come in large numbers for a visit. The temple has 2 carparks, an outdoor carpark which has 9 bays and an indoor one having 18 bays. The management contacted us informing that the parking spaces are not utilized well because people often park their cars on the road. This has caused resentment amongst the local residents because they find it difficult to find a parking space for their own cars.

Background: We at Smart Traffic Systems tried to identify the issues that were causing the problem amongst the local residents. After careful inspection, we observed that during peak hours, people tend to find a spot in the outdoor car park only. Once the outdoor carpark is full, the commuters start parking on the road without even checking whether there are spots available in the indoor car park. Meanwhile, the local residents raised the issue to the council and the outcome wasn’t ideal for the commuters. The road rules were changed to a ‘No Stopping Zone’ at all times and hence, people couldn’t park their cars at any time on the road. The indoor car park was now being utilized more but the situation worsened for the commuters when the indoor car park was full. ‘There is little or no space to turn your car back when you don’t have a parking space’ said one of the commuters and this was one of the main reasons why the indoor carpark was not efficiently used.

Proposed Solution: Smart Parking System specializes in providing parking guidance solution to its clients, and for this case, we felt that it was an ideal system which would solve the ongoing issues at the Turramurra Sikh Temple. We offered the management a system which will monitor all the individual parking bays. Ultrasonic indoor sensors with LED lights were proposed for the indoor car park which shows the occupancy status for that individual parking bay. The LED light on the sensor is green when the bay is free and turns red when someone parks in that spot. For the outdoor car park, wireless magnetic field sensors were proposed which also does individual parking bay monitoring and transmits the information to a gateway (also known as the U-box) over ZigBee. The indoor system is hard-wired and the outdoor system is completely wireless and cloud-based. The system also comes with LED displays which shows information on the availability of parking spots in the outdoor and indoor car park. All of it is backed up by a SCADA based software which gives the management all information on occupancy statistics and control over the car park and other information which will give more insights on the car parks.

Outcome: The Turramurra Sikh Temple management agreed to proceed with our proposed solution and installation of the parking guidance system started in early August. Once everything was up and running, the system was handed over to the management. The feedback that we got from the management was overwhelming. The devotees noticed the system straight away and finding a parking spot was as easy as it can get. Just by following the information on the LED displays, the commuters could find their parking spot with ease. Even when the car parks were full, people straight away knew that there was no point of going in and they can now avoid the hassle of reversing their car out. The features of the SCADA system are as follows:

• Monitoring and visualization in real time
• Control of all sensors (parking reservation)
• Control of all displays (display value, brightness value)
• Evaluation of all data (statistics, trend analysis etc.)

Both the management and the people were very pleased with the system as the system has enhanced the experience of visiting the temple for both the parties.

Conclusions: Smart Traffic Systems is proud of the solution that was offered to the Turramurra Sikh Temple. The aim of the project was successful and we are glad that our customers are satisfied with the results. In today’s world where technology can shape our quality of life in every perspective, finding a parking spot in a car park is a thing of the past. The system tells you exactly where the available parking spaces are so that you can save your valuable time. We are hoping to get more projects done in future which will change the way how people think of Parking.

Smart Parking System