Sensors keep watch on parked cars for research

The sensors send parking data to a central server. Photo / Natalie Slade

Mysterious-looking yellow discs that have popped up in parking bays along a Newmarket street are telling Auckland Transport exactly how long the spaces are being occupied.

The objects, which are about the size of dinner-plates but countless times stronger and bolted to the road surface temporarily in more than 30 bays in Kent St, are high-technology sensors that bounce infra-red pulses off the undersides of vehicles.

Although they could be used for enforcement, the council-controlled transport organisation says it is content to tap into the technology to help with parking planning.

It says it has no intention of replacing parking wardens on their rounds, or using the information gained to alert them to overstaying vehicles.

"This will help Auckland Transport to ensure parking is structured in a way that best meets the needs of people coming into the Kent St area at different times of the day and night," said communications manager Sharon Hunter.

She said the area had been chosen because of a high demand for parking both by day and night, given the popularity of its shops, restaurants and cinemas.

The technology was tried several months ago for the transport organisation and Foodstuffs in parks next to the Remuera New World supermarket.

Parking is often tight there because it is close to shops along Remuera Rd.

The company supplying the sensors, Car Parking Technologies, is based in the Waikato town of Cambridge but most of its self-designed products are exported.

It was listed this year on the Australian Securities Exchange and its share price rose 60 per cent last week after its annual result showed rapid sales growth.

Among its clients are Britain's Sainsbury supermarket chain and Brisbane Airport, and it is negotiating contracts to supply its technology to the Middle East.

It has also fitted out three Auckland Transport downtown parking buildings with overhead sensors that provide instant information to users on electronic display boards about the number of vacant spaces available inside.

Global sales and marketing manager Andrew Perrier said yesterday that the roadside sensors were much more efficient and cost-effective than the traditional method of sending out people with clipboards for parking surveys.

They provided far more data, around the clock and with high accuracy, for Auckland Transport to monitor in real time.

The sensors are made of polycarbonate plastic and whenever vehicles are parked over them, their infra-red pulses are converted into a wireless signal which is fed back to the server by a solar-powered relay device attached to a nearby building.