Montreal parking manager Stationnement de Montreal has begun a project with smart parking solutions provider Streetline in a move to improve parking experience for motorists.

The programme aims to decrease congestion and increase parking availability, marking the first Streetline project with a Canadian city.

Streetline’s patented smart parking platform is currently in use in over 40 locations in the US and Europe, and detects the presence of a car through a network of ultra-low power wireless sensors in the pavement of individual parking spaces.

"We can make data-driven decisions to better utilise city resources."

The data from the sensors is then made available to cities through a real-time and historical analytics application called ParkSight which allows a city to view parking data on a 24/7 basis.

Stationnement de Montreal managing director Charles Auger said: "Capturing street-level data on an ongoing basis is difficult but necessary to our parking operation.

"With access to a new level of data and analytics with the Streetline system, we can make data-driven decisions to better utilise city resources and better serve the citizens of Montreal."

The project will focus on the neighborhood around Saint Catherines Street, de Maisonneuve Boulevard, and Cresent Street.

According to Stationnement de Montreal, the parking data captured by the Streetline system will help the City administration to better understand occupancy and turnover patterns and make data-driven policy decisions to ease the high congestion during rush hours.