19 local authorities have won extra central government for a range of digital-powered transport innovations, DfT (Department for Transport) announced yesterday.
These include smart parking demonstrator schemes in Coventry, Luton, Milton Keynes and Oxfordshire, as well as a partnership project between Hounslow, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Westminster.
The government money will be spent on developing cutting edge technology such as apps and sensors which can be used to cut congestion, improve parking in city centres and alert drivers when electric car charging points become available.
What links all 19 projects is the way they’re all about trying to improve electric vehicle parking by combining parking sensors with electric vehicle charging points to give drivers real-time information on available spaces where they can recharge, says the government.
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One example is a project by Westminster City Council that Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport Andrew Jones sees as showing how “technology really does have the potential to ‘make parking better’”, and which has just won £200,000 of the £4m war chest.
DfT is positioning the investment as very much part of the smart city agenda, noting that technology and information “have huge potential” to generate innovative traffic solutions in urban areas, as well as serving to deliver “more joined-up and seamless multi-modal solutions” for things like parking that make better use of customer time.
