The current pandemic required almost all indoor recreational centres to close or cancel events over the summer months. As a result, both public and regional parks have been filled to the brim with visitors eager to get outside of the house. While there’s no harm in enjoying the great outdoors, this influx of visitors has become a cause of concern and resulted in a handful of issues for parking authorities and municipalities. The good news is that there is innovative technology available to streamline these issues and effectively manage higher volumes of visitors.
More Visitors, More Unauthorized Parking
With more people gravitating toward parks, parking availability becomes scarce, traffic flow increases and parking congestion goes overboard. This creates an environment that breeds unauthorized parking, leaving people frustrated and parking in emergency fire routes and/or private residential areas. The increased volume of visitors not only becomes a parking compliance issue, but it poses a safety concern as well.
Parking software is a great way to resolve some of these issues and better manage increased volumes of visitors. It brings more efficiency to enforcement by issuing tickets quickly and conveniently, it simplifies payment for parkers via mobile devices and it provides clear parking guidance to visitors upon entry so they’re parking in authorized areas.
Overcrowding Makes Physical Distancing Hard
Parks might be a popular pastime, but they’re now becoming counterintuitive and a public health concern. More visitors has resulted in overcrowding, making it difficult for people to properly physically distance themselves. The best way to address this problem is by limiting the number of people coming into the park. Parking management software enables officers to implement time-limited parking, which helps to control the number of vehicles parking on property. This keeps parkers more accountable and aware of the time they spend at the park, while easing parking congestion and minimizing overcrowding to ensure public safety.
The Need for Contactless Options
Given the current pandemic environment, contactless and touchless options are becoming status quo. For public parking lots, parkers and officers are likely to come into contact with a number of touchpoints including parking meters, entry gates and customer service booths. Luckily, most parking software is designed to function in a completely contactless way. For parkers, they offer contactless payment options, touchless entry and virtual customer service, providing a safer parking experience. On the enforcement side, they feature License Plate Recognition technology and handheld features that enable officers to do their jobs remotely and at a safe distance.
To keep the potential spread of the virus low and address the overall health and safety of visitors and officers in your parking area, it’s important to have the right systems in place. At Roker, our solutions are designed to help you achieve each of these objectives in a cost-effective and efficient way. To learn more about how you can implement our parking technology, contact us today.
