On Downtown Day and Smart Parking

For many years, Montevideo has held the "Día del Centro" (Downtown Day), a day on which downtown businesses offer significant discounts with the purpose of attracting an extraordinary volume of customers.

This measure is accompanied by a parking fee exemption in areas that are normally subject to charges. The goal is (or was) clear: to encourage people to go downtown without paying for parking.

However, this initiative causes Downtown Day to be the most difficult date to find parking and park a vehicle: people who work in the area take advantage of this exemption, arrive early in the morning, and occupy all the spaces for the rest of the workday.

As a result, this initiative becomes counterproductive for the purposes of Downtown Day, at least for those who want to drive there. At first glance, one might think it would actually be more convenient to charge the regular fees, since the cost of parking for a couple of hours is far less than the volume of discounts offered. Alternatively, a parking reimbursement system could be implemented by the participating businesses.

What alternatives exist? The case of Mons

This problem (as always) is not unique to one city; many commercial hubs experience these challenges. One example is the city of Mons, in Belgium, which implemented a smart parking system based on parking sensors communicating through a LoRaWAN network.

Residents suffered from a shortage of parking spaces in their commercial district, which resulted in 30% of traffic being caused by vehicles searching for a parking spot. As a result, people opted for large shopping centers with included parking. Turnover in parking spaces was minimal, averaging fewer than three rotations per day per space. By comparison, a space in a shopping center rotates on average between five and six times per day.

The authorities of Mons implemented a solution for consumers through an app that allows users to view available spaces; once parked, they have 30 free minutes, and after that time, parking is billed in the usual manner. However, if the person makes a purchase, the store can extend their free parking time, similar to what shopping centers have implemented.

The results were more than satisfactory: within two months, the turnover rate in the spaces tripled the previous numbers. Merchants also saw their sales expectations widely exceeded.

Would It Be Possible to Replicate the Mons Model in Uruguay?

Is it feasible to pursue a similar project in Montevideo? The most central and commercial area, and therefore of greatest interest, encompasses approximately 800 spaces. An initiative of this kind would require a considerable deployment for this type of solution, compared to Mons, where 110 sensors were installed, and the city of Liège (also in Belgium), which has 223.

In those cities, the deployments were designed to address the specific commercial problem in question. They are smaller-scale projects with a concrete focus, different from the case of the English city of Harrogate, which opted for a "massive" deployment and installed more than 2,000 sensors to address the problem comprehensively.

These numbers give us an idea that, at first glance, the most reasonable approach would be to identify a smaller problem area as a proof of concept or pilot. Perhaps considering other commercial centers, such as Arocena Street (in the Carrasco neighborhood) or the surroundings of the Mercado Agrícola. In these cases, the number of sensors would be comparable to the deployments in Mons and Liège.

Selecting a reduced area of downtown Montevideo would entail a dual system, as the traditional metered parking and the new smart parking model would coexist. This would be confusing and problematic for users.

Regarding infrastructure, while these solutions require an initial investment in sensors, new LPWAN technologies allow connectivity to be resolved at a minimal cost compared to what was anticipated just a few years ago.

Finally, going one step further, we can consider the possibility of downtown merchants offering this parking benefit on a permanent basis, every day of the year. This would generate a more lasting dynamic in the area, rather than limiting it to one day per month, which would justify the investment.

Based on the perception of a number of users; there is no institutional field study to support this claim.
LoRaWAN is a low-power, long-range communication protocol for IoT (Internet of Things) devices. It uses LoRa technology to transmit data wirelessly over long distances, making it ideal for applications that require low power, high mobility, and access to remote areas. It enables the connection of thousands of devices to a single network.
LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) is a type of wireless communication designed to transmit data efficiently and economically over extensive geographic areas with low energy consumption. It uses low-speed, low-bandwidth communication protocols to connect IoT (Internet of Things) devices, making them ideal for applications such as remote monitoring, process automation, and asset tracking.

José Luis Nunes, Engineering Specialist at Telco & Smart Cities.

Joselo is an Electrical Engineer (Telecommunications) from Universidad de la República. For the past 6 years, he has worked at Isbel in the area of post-sales and implementation of large-scale projects.

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