Sensor-Based Stall Occupancy Monitoring: The Town of Oakville

During the fall of 2021, the Town of Oakville’s Information Technology Services and Parking Management teams engaged with eleven-x in a collaborative effort to deploy the eXactpark wireless smart parking solution in their popular downtown retail and dining district.

Solution

As part of an initial deployment phase, 1,200 wireless SPS-X sensors were installed in spaces throughout the paid parking area in the Town’s bustling downtown core. The patent-pending and award-winning SPS-X sensors powers the eXactpark Smart Parking solution by providing real-time status capabilities and historical utilization data collection on each stall within their parking inventory. The usage data collected is accessed by Oakville’s parking management team for analysis and is compared against actual payment received data (from all revenue streams) for the same period. The revenue streams include permits (allowing for staff deductions), a mobile payment app and parking meters installed throughout the defined area to accurately understand any compliance trends.

Specifically, the data comparison is used to determine:

• Actual utilization of the parking assets
• Payment and Compliance by visitors and staff aligned with various bylaws and regulations
• Identification of parking spaces which are underutilized that can be more available/accessible to drivers
• Where additional enforcement is required to ensure payment and bylaw compliance

Benefits

Using the eXactpark solution, the town is able to utilize a data-driven approach to ensure a positive customer experience and optimized operations which includes:

• A data-driven approach for scheduling and directing enforcement staff
• Adding targeted digital signage and messaging for visitors.
• Providing utilization data to the Town’s parking consultants for an ongoing commercial parking utilization study and planning efforts
• Increased parking revenues via increased paid parking compliance
• Next steps – add wayfinding and signage

The Town of Oakville is located along the shores of Lake Ontario, in Ontario Canada and is home to over 200,000 year-round residents as part of it’s community. Residents, combined with a steady influx of visitors consistently converge to experience the town’s dense and unique downtown entertainment district.