With an estimated population of 2.6 million people, Warsaw is the largest city in Poland. Many skyscrapers dominate the new city skyline, hosting public organizations as well as domestic and international private companies. Facing high levels of traffic congestion, the Warsaw city authorities are investing in major ITS infrastructural changes, such as for public transportation, road infrastructure and on and off street parking.

To improve parking in the streets of Warsaw, the Polish company Comarch was selected by the city of Warsaw to introduce a smart parking platform. The technology behind this smart parking solution is based on Comarch’s Smart Parking system and a mobile application for inhabitants and visitors. This enables the system to collect information on the occupancy and vacancy of parking spots and to inform drivers in real time about the number of available parking spaces including navigation to the suggested available parking spot.

Besides that, Comarch offers a management and analytical platform on the parking infrastructure. This enables the municipal roads authority to obtain analytical data in the form of reports and summaries of key indicators and statistics on utilization of parking spaces. This will help the city authorities to make decisions concerning the city’s future parking policy.

As a part of this project, Nedap’s smart parking sensor systems SENSIT were implemented to cover the parking spaces at the Plac Konstytucji, the major square in the Śródmieście district of Warsaw. Constructed on the Marszałkowska street, Constitution Square is one of the busiest places in Warsaw city center. Vehicular traffic, pedestrians and public transportation services like buses, trams and metro lines all cross here. Constitution Square contains a number of 110 off-street parking spaces that are situated outdoors. Comarch monitored over 80 parking spaces in front of main railway station in the city center of Warsaw with its overhead camera-based sensor technology.

“In urban agglomerations looking for parking spaces is very time-consuming, especially in the city centre and business districts,” said Wojciech Dec, Comarch Smart City product manager. “The comfort of being able to find a parking space faster is important to all drivers but it also matters to residents. The shorter the time taken to find a parking space, the lower the emission of fumes. The traffic flow is also better as the risk of congestion and collisions is lowered,” Dec added.

At the Plac Konstytucji, Nedap’s SENSIT system presents the robustness and reliability of its double sensor technology and radio communication network. Nedap is the developer and manufacturer of SENSIT. This vehicle detection system consists of wireless bay-mounted sensors that detect in real-time whether or not a single parking bay is occupied and how long it has been occupied.