The core foundation for a city to be considered a smart city is connectivity and technology. Amongst a host of benefits, technology offers a real-time view of events and provides rich capabilities for insights into behaviours and trends which allows city officials to make informed decisions.
The City of White Rock is working towards being a smart city, and connected parking solutions brings us one step closer to that goal with the new West Beach Parkade.
Traditional parking facilities require drives to search for an available space. This time-consuming process generates air and noise pollution, traffic congestion and loss of revenue for the businesses in the surrounding area. As this is a top concern raised by local businesses, tourists, and residents, the City has built a four-level parking structure to provide a variety of vehicular and bicycle parking options near the heart of White Rock’s West Beach community.
Drivers in White Rock are the first in British Columbia to experience the latest in parking guidance technology. This technology, first used in Tesla autonomous vehicles, delivers a frictionless path to a parking space as quickly as possible. Using laser beams to detect parking space capacity, the information is fed to the live signage system that shows drivers where stalls are and guides them there using LED lights.
Comprised of wireless indoor and outdoor guidance solutions, including solar occupancy sensors, the system is managed through a cloud-based dashboard that provides rich and insightful graphics, as well as customizable reports. Additional capabilities include a mobile app, dynamic pricing and the ability to send targeted push notifications (with promotions and advertising).
Additional noteworthy technology used in the West Beach Parkade is the lighting and video surveillance system. Equipped with the latest in LED lighting fixtures, computer controls activate the lighting based on daylight ambiance and motion sensors. The closed-circuit television (CCTV) system is a motion-activated state of the art system and uses multisensory cameras capable of 360-degree coverage.
The West Beach Parkade offers 180 parking spaces and seven (7) electric vehicle charging stations and is located on Vidal Street and Victoria Avenue. For more information, please visit the City Projects page at whiterockcity.ca/cityprojects.