A complete parking solution for Warwick University
When the University of Warwick, (UK) contacted us to assist them with their parking difficulties, we were more than happy to assist them with the challenge. For this project we worked with them to specify and install a complete parking solution and management system to reduce congestion and improve the driver experience across the entire campus.
Warwick is one of the UK’s leading universities regularly featuring in the top ten of all major domestic rankings. It is currently working on its five-year plan to develop its campus and facilities, with a target of growing its student population by as much as 40% by 2030.
As part of the plan, the university needed to upgrade its transport systems and in particular, improve parking facilities and parking management across the campus after identifying inefficiencies in its existing processes and parking strategy.
One of the main issues it faced was co-ordinating its traffic flow management. Drivers were struggling to find available parking spaces, causing unwanted congestion and a somewhat chaotic parking experience, especially during peak times. Ultimately the university needed to find a solution that not only reduced congestion, but also improved the user experience and maximised the available parking spaces across 27 on-campus car parks.
Intelligent data is sent to the signs by a series of car park counters and Inductive Loops that record all vehicles entering and exiting a car park. It means the data and status of the car parks are always up to date, enabling the university to better manage parking availability.
The entire site is being managed by a single hosted solution, SWARCO’s intelligent Zephyr solution. The web-based user interface enables users to quickly and easily edit message and pictogram displays at the touch of a button, as well as being able to upload new text and graphics as required. The platform can be used to access data on traffic, speeds and volumes as well as set timetables, on/off times and provide key information such as power monitoring, LED monitoring and radar monitoring.
Parvez Islam, Director of Transport and Future Mobility at Warwick University, said: “The implementation of SWARCO’s parking management solution has enabled the University to get a better understanding of how parking behaviour operates across campus. It has also highlighted that capacity is not the issue going forward for the University and the focus needs to be more on efficiently managing traffic flows that we hope to achieve by further evolving SWARCO’s system.”
Tony Gillings, Project Manager at SWARCO Traffic, said: “Working in close partnership with the University, we have delivered a complete smart parking solution and management system that has created a more coordinated and improved experience for drivers across the entire campus.”
Project Dates: 2019-2020
Challenge: Heavy congestion across the site due to ineffective use of space
Solution: Holistic parking guidance and management solution
Supplied:
42 parking guidance signs
2 full colour VMS
Zephyr parking and sign management software
