Whangarei District Council in New Zealand has introduced Smart Parking’s SmartCounter technology at five of the city’s underused car parks.

A survey conducted by the Whangarei council in January 2016 suggested that locating a car park space has become an issue for the ratepayers' in the central business district (CBD) region.

However, the statistics reveal that only 61% car park spaces are being occupied during Monday to Saturday and occupancy on the on-street car parks was reported as 73%.

"Whangarei District Council in New Zealand has introduced Smart Parking’s SmartCounter technology at five of the city’s underused car parks."

The move will help in balancing the car park space needs of the commuters, shoppers and visitors and enable them to easily locate the available spaces as well as enhance the occupancy rate in the underused car park locations.

The council introduced SmatCounter technology at five different locations namely, the Forum North Car Park, Laurie Hall Car Park, Vine Street Car Park, Central City Car Park, and Water Street Car Park.

Through its SmartEye sensors, SmartCounter technology detects and keeps a record of the vehicles passing through the entrance and the exit of a car park, in order to maintain a data of available spaces in that car park area.

The parking data is then transmitted to the real time variable message signs, which will enable drivers to easily locate the available space at all the five car parking areas, thereby enhancing customer convenience as well as overall occupancy of the city’s parking facilities.

Occupancy data collected via SmartEye sensors is relayed in real time to SmartRep, Smart Parking’s car parking management software tool.

The car park data is expected to help Whangarei District Council to precisely plan and manage the car parks and ensure that all available parks are being used optimally.

Whangarei is the northernmost city in the New Zealand, with a population of 56,400.