Smart Parking in Copenhagen: Invitation to dialogue
The City of Copenhagen wishes to introduce Smart Parking solutions in the streets of
Copenhagen to make better use of the existing parking space capacity by providing drivers in
search of parking with timely information on e.g. the streets or areas near their final destination
with the highest available capacity at any point in time.
Background and purpose
The City of Copenhagen is a leading Smart City winning several climate change and Smart City
awards. As part of the Smart City programme the city is planning a large scale implementation
of Smart Parking technologies in areas of the city with parking capacity challenges. The areas
currently in scope are Inner City and Outer Østerbro with a total of around 4.700 street level
parking spaces in scope for 2016-2017.
Inner City
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Outer Østerbro
A number of Smart Parking technologies currently exist in the market including sensors
embedded in the road, cameras mounted above parking spaces and radar solutions integrated
in street lighting. Each of these solutions have both strong and weak points. As part of the risk
mitigation for the large scale roll-out The City wants to test some of the solutions in order to
identify the ones that best handle a number of key challenges related to Smart Parking in
Copenhagen. These challenges are considered to be challenges that must be addressed before
a larger implementation project can be initiated.
The City of Copenhagen wishes to introduce Smart Parking solutions in the streets of
Copenhagen to make better use of the existing parking space capacity by providing drivers in
search of parking with timely information on e.g. the streets or areas near their final destination
with the highest available capacity at any point in time. In other words the purpose is to better
cater to the demand (drivers looking for available parking spaces) by making the current supply
(currently available parking spaces) more visible or accessible to drivers.
By guiding drivers more quickly to areas with more available parking spaces (current supply
greater than current demand) the outcome is expected to be a better overall balance between
supply and demand resulting in a more optimized use of the total parking capacity. This would in
term mean a reduced need for investments related to increasing the parking capacity in the
areas in scope (new on-street parking spaces or underground parking facilities).
A number of additional benefits for The City, its residents, visitors and society in general have
been identified. These include lowering the overall traffic volume resulting in fewer traffic jams,
reducing air pollution (greenhouse gasses etc.), lowering fuel consumption and lowering the
number of hours that drivers spend behind the wheel looking for a place to park.
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Key challenges
This section describes the key challenges for Smart Parking in Copenhagen. Each challenge is
accompanied by a section in the Feedback Form where your response to each of the
challenges is to be entered.
Challenge 1: Parking bays are not always individually marked
As shown below, not all parking bays in Copenhagen are individually marked (examples below
are from Lange-Müllers Gade 24 (curbside parking) and Bryggervangen 70 (side-by-side
parking)). Cars will not necessarily park within the same exact section of the total parking space
each time as the space occupied will vary based on the size of the driver’s own car, the space
available between already parked cars etc.
These unmarked parking bays are seen throughout the city and represent a large portion of the
total parking capacity in the city. Parking bays cannot be individually marked as part of this
project as these unmarked parking areas are an integral part of Copenhagen’s on-street parking
layout.
Your task: Please provide information on how your product/technology can be implemented
and will work under these conditions and how e.g. the accuracy of car detection is affected.
Image © Google
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Image © Google
Challenge 2: Trees and other obstacles in the urban space
Copenhagen is considered a green city with many roadside trees in the city center as shown
below (example from Vejrøgade, Østerbro).
Your task: Please provide information on how your product/technology is affected by obstacles
in the urban space like roadside trees, signposts, bus shelters etc.
Image © Google
Challenge 3: Parking spaces on cobble/setts (not regular asphalt)
Copenhagen is a historical city with older buildings and streets. A number of parking spaces are
therefore placed on cobble and/or setts like shown below (example from Landemærket 8, Inner
City).
Your task: Please provide information on how your product/technology can be implemented in
such a setting.
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Image © Google
Challenge 4: Weather conditions, winter maintenance and flooded streets
Copenhagen is located in the oceanic climate zone with unstable conditions throughout the year
resulting in an average daytime high in July at around 20 degrees and average temperatures
around the freezing point during winter. Due to the unstable weather conditions Copenhagen is
often hit by heavy snowfall during the winter resulting in heavy use of road salt, snow plows and
-sweepers in the streets. Furthermore, Copenhagen is occasionally hit by cloudbursts resulting
in flooded streets.
Typical winter conditions in Copenhagen. Image © City of Copenhagen
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Occasional flooding in Copenhagen. Image © flickr/Lisa Risager CC BY-SA 2.0
Your task: Please provide information on how your product/technology is affected by weather
conditions in general (below freezing temperatures, sun, rain and wind as well as snow and
fallen leaves in the streets) and how it is affected by e.g. piles of snow and the use of salt and
snow plows/sweepers.
Challenge 5: Power and networking requirements
Electricity is available in or near lighting poles or in relation to the wired lighting fixtures which is
used throughout the city but cannot be expected to be extended to reach each parking bay.
Your task: Please provide information on power requirements (mains and battery) for your
product/technology including for the network equipment required for communicating with
endpoints/nodes. Please provide a brief overview on the networking protocols used and any
needs for wired network connections.
Challenge 6: Aesthetics
Copenhagen is a historical city with an emphasis on keeping parts of the city authentic. This
means that Smart City technology solutions cannot disrupt the overall look-and-feel of the city.
In other words the Smart Parking technologies are to be unobtrusive and seamlessly blend into
the surroundings in a given street or area.
Your task: Please provide information on the physical appearance, color and size of your
product/technology and how it can be adapted to match its surroundings.
Challenge 7: Apps/services and end-user adoption
A key to success is providing end users (drivers) with timely and easily accessible information
on how to find an available parking space. Another key to success is providing municipal
employees with accurate insights into the data created by your product/technology.
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Your task: Please provide information on how your product/technology is able to deliver
information to end users (drivers) as described above and how a large user base can be
established. Please also provide information on the analytics capabilities of your
product/technology.
Challenge 8: Open Data and open business models
Copenhagen is a strong proponent of Open Data as Open Data is seen as being crucial in
creating innovative digital solutions, open business models and integrating products and
services across markets and use cases. As part hereof the City of Copenhagen will need to
have full ownership of the data created using the implemented Smart Parking technologies.
Your task: Please provide information on how 3rd party applications can make use of the data
created by your product/technology e.g. through APIs - and the conditions under which this can
be done.
Instructions for replying
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Please fill in the Feedback Form on key challenges by providing a short description on
how your company and parking technology/solution is able to handle each of the
challenges listed. You will have the chance to elaborate during the subsequent dialogue
meetings.
Feel free to attach or refer to any additional documentation about your services,
products or technologies that are of relevance to your technology/solution or the
challenges listed.
Feel free to mention any implementation projects you’ve done for cities with similar
challenges.
Please provide us with name, telephone number and email address of your primary
contact person.
Please state if you are available for face-to-face meetings in Copenhagen on either
January 29th or February 1st - or if you prefer joining a video/Skype call.
Please return your response to Project Manager Pia Preibisch Behrens by e-mail
(zj3s@tmf.kk.dk) in Word or PDF format.
Please make sure that your response is returned to us no later than January 22nd 2016.
The process following your reply
Please notice that your timely reply does not necessarily guarantee you an invitation to the
subsequent dialogue meetings: We reserve the right to choose any solution providers for
continued dialogue but we aim to include as many solution providers and technologies as
possible.
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Dialogue meetings will be held in the form of one-on-one meetings between the City of
Copenhagen and each of the solution providers on January 29th and February 1st 2016. For
solution providers from outside Denmark the dialogue meetings can be held in the form of a
video conference/Skype call.
The City of Frederiksberg will also attend the dialogue meetings. The City of Frederiksberg is
planning a test of smart parking solutions. For further information about the process at
Frederiksberg, please contact Head of GIS and Smart City, City of Frederiksberg by e-mail
(haha09@frederiksberg.dk).
The process for testing and subsequently implementing the technologies/solutions chosen as
result of the dialogue meetings is not in place yet. Your feedback to us during the dialogue
meetings will be vital in ensuring a good project design.
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Feedback Form: Key challenges to be addressed
Challenge 1: Parking bays are not always individually marked
[Please provide a short description on how you aim to handle this challenge]
Challenge 2: Trees and other obstacles in the urban space
[Please provide a short description on how you aim to handle this challenge]
Challenge 3: Parking spaces on cobble/setts (not regular asphalt)
[Please provide a short description on how you aim to handle this challenge]
Challenge 4: Weather conditions, winter maintenance and flooded streets
[Please provide a short description on how you aim to handle this challenge]
Challenge 5: Power and networking requirements
[Please provide a short description on how you aim to handle this challenge]
Challenge 6: Aesthetics
[Please provide a short description on how you aim to handle this challenge]
Challenge 7: Apps/services and end-user adoption
[Please provide a short description on how you aim to handle this challenge]
Challenge 8: Open Data and open business models
[Please provide a short description on how you aim to handle this challenge]
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