Low-Carbon Transport in Mobility Hubs

 

In the Vähähiilinen liikkuminen liikennehubeissa (‘Low-Carbon Transport in Mobility Hubs’) project, the co-operation businesses and stakeholders will carry out new car and bicycle parking pilots in the city centre area, with support from the City of Turku and Turku University of Applied Sciences. The purpose of the pilots is to reduce unnecessary driving resulting from having to search for a parking space, promote safe bicycle parking and develop new low-carbon transport services that could be put into use permanently. A survey regarding the state of parking in Turku, conducted through stakeholder co-operation, served as the basis for outlining the pilots.

The new service pilots will be carried out primarily in June–September 2021 as part of the Smart and Wise Turku spearhead project.

About the project (pdf)

Services to be tested in the pilots

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Convenient roadside parking 1 (Brighthouse Intelligence Ltd)

The SmartBox solution developed by Brighthouse utilises a smart and secure multi-camera system that is based on machine vision technology and used to generate situational information about an area of approximately 40 parking spaces. The goal of the summer pilot is to encourage drivers to park in the Turku Cathedral area, reducing traffic density in the city centre. The BrightPark application notifies the user of the parking space situation immediately when approaching the parking area, decreasing unnecessary driving.
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Convenient roadside parking 2 (Wapice Ltd)

The starting point for the pilot project carried out in May–September 2021 is the City of Turku’s identified need to improve drivers’ parking experiences, especially in roadside parking spaces maintained by the City. The map application of the pilot project indicates the number of unoccupied roadside parking spaces in the pilot area, and it is based on the latest AI-based machine vision technology, which is integrated into Wapice’s IoT-TICKET data platform.

Parking spaces for carpool cars (CoReorient Ltd)

Carpooling saves money and reduces traffic congestions and emissions. CoReorient makes carpooling a part of the neighbourhood’s sharing practices and integrates it into the eParkly platform, enabling the carpool provider to park their car at the destination easily for free or at a lower price than normal. The carpool service works on browsers, and when a passenger signs up for a ride, the service enables the user to seek a suitable parking area in the eParkly service. The pilot will launch after the summer holidays as people return to their workplaces after working remotely due to the coronavirus situation and when sharing rides will be safer.

Traffic situation picture of the city centre (Gispo Ltd)

In recent years, the City of Turku has successfully collected different information sources and has compiled information materials to describe the dynamics of parking and transport in the city centre area. However, the existing interaction and information management processes are not enough by themselves to overcome the challenges of urban development. Instead, the situation calls for informative and approachable information management products to facilitate constructive discussion. The pilot project will involve 1) producing informative and approachable data visualisations regarding the state of parking and traffic in the city centre, 2) holding workshops with operators identified as being suitable regarding the state of parking and traffic in the city centre, and 3) submitting a project report regarding the state of parking based on data visualisations and the services of substance experts. The pilot project will be carried out between May and September 2021. 

Roadside parking space reservation (Kradient Intelligence (MarshallAI))

MarshallAI will carry out the pilot project at the address Aurakatu 2, which features two public paid parking spaces. The state of these spaces can be seen in real time on a dedicated website, on which users can also reserve an unoccupied space for 15 minutes when arriving at the location. The pilot will launch in early June, and the use of the spaces will be guided by a display that changes in accordance with the situation and a camera installed at the location. The camera will not save any personal information, but it will inform parking control of any illegally parked cars. When the pilot launches, the reservation system can be found at https://parkki.marshallai.com.
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Peer-to-peer renting of parking spaces (Shareway Ltd)

The Shareway application facilitates peer-to-peer renting of private parking spaces. Private persons, housing companies and businesses alike can use the application to rent out their parking spaces when they are not using them. The application also enables drivers to see unoccupied parking spaces in real time. The objective of the pilot is to promote a more resource-wise mode of operation by utilising existing parking spaces. A resource-wise operating model will improve the comfort of the residents and the city alike, in the form of more diverse and efficient parking. Shareway will be launched in all of Turku in early June 2021.  

The owners of parking spaces can decide when to rent out their parking spaces and earn 60% of each rental payment. As such, the pilot encourages all parking space owners to download the application and rent out their parking spaces during such times as work days or weekends. Parking spaces owners can use the application free of charge. 

During the pilot, drivers can park in other people’s unoccupied parking spaces for €1/hour. The application also provides day and week parking for €10/day and €20/week.  The application can be downloaded for free, and drivers only pay for their parking times. The application enables drivers to find the best available parking spaces in real time. 

The Shareway application can be downloaded on Google Play and the App Store. Read more about the service: www.shareway.fi (in Finnish)
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Parking guidance during events (Enterlot Ltd)

It is neither sensible nor cost-efficient to build a machine-based system for observing the availability of parking spaces for car parking at major one-off outdoor events – especially if several remote parking areas are established for the event. This is particularly true in cases of temporary parking locations that have no existing parking squares and whose usage may be uncertain until the last minute.

To meet these needs, Enterlot has developed a simple web application, pre-parking.info. The supervisor of each parking area (necessary in all cases) will use the staff view of the application to report on the availability of parking spaces at agreed upon intervals. The information is displayed immediately to the attendees of the event via a user interface that is open to all.

The objective of the pilot is to reduce unnecessary driving among event attendees near the location and in the Turku inner city area in general. At the same time, the service relieves drivers’ stress over uncertain parking opportunities, which, in turn, contributes to traffic safety. The Tall Ships Races (5–8 July 2021) and a Slipknot concert on 7 August 2021 will serve as piloting events. Both events will be held if allowed by the pandemic situation. The parking areas of Turku Fair Centre and Gatorade Center are likely to serve as remote parking locations, as is the area between Pansiontie/Tukholmankatu and Ruissalontie. 

Guidance to a parking space (YSP Ltd)

In the ‘Guidance to a parking space’ pilot, YSP Ltd has developed a service called etsiparkki.fi. etsiparkki.fi is a web and mobile service that collects and shares information about unoccupied parking spaces in the city centre. The etsiparkki.fi service enables people in the city centre to find the nearest parking spaces in advance, with driving instructions. The etsiparkki.fi service saves people in the city centre time and stress and reduces emissions and expenses from unnecessary searching for parking spaces.  

For the City, the etsiparkki.fi service provides an opportunity to serve people in the city centre better and thus improve the visitor experience and increase the attractiveness of visiting the city centre. The service also provides businesses in the city centre with an opportunity to advertise their own parking spaces for increased business. The service can also be used for other targeted advertising and information provision operations.  

The schedule for the pilot will be announced later as information regarding parking and parking spaces is received from the City of Turku, other pilots and parking space providers. The objective of the trial is to obtain user feedback about the service and its advantages for further development and application purposes.  
 

eParkly project

eParkly is a project launched by the Department of Computer Science of Aalto University in 2020. The purpose of the project is to build a platform in which all operators in the field can participate. The platform serves as a distribution channel for parking operators, and one of its key features is a market place that facilitates dynamic pricing. Customers (drivers) receive information on their mobile devices regarding the parking costs in their selected location, where they can find unoccupied spaces and where to drive. 

The project is currently being planned to last until the end of January 2022. After that, the plan is to establish a company to continue the operations of eParkly. 

We are glad to co-operate with others participating in Turku’s pilot. Instead of competing with anyone, we aim to contribute to increasing the visibility of operators in the field in the market place.  

As regards the dynamic pricing, we are currently seeking the most functional solution for Turku’s pilot. 
 

Safe bicycle parking with additional services (Punta Ltd)

Punta Ltd’s parking service at Turku Science Park in Kupittaa facilitates safe bicycle parking. Customers can park 24/7 inside a container, the key to which is their phones, for example. Besides safe parking, additional services offered include an item storage locker, an electric bike charging station and a self-service bicycle maintenance kit. The service is affordable (€5–7/month or €1–2/day). The pilot will be carried out by Punta Ltd between May and October 2021. 

If the expectations and goals are met, the service will be easy to expand to cover bicycle parking in the entire urban environment. The features of the service make it possible to operate it in the future automatically 24/7 without staff resources, facilitating quick and efficient scalability. At the same time, the service can be expanded to also cover housing companies, parking halls and outdoor facilities, depending on the infrastructure and the needs arising from it. The solution is mobile and easy to move, making it possible to bring the service where it is needed the most, based on constantly collected data. As a major advantage, the cloud service solution makes it possible to change the service in accordance with current needs, whereby the life-cycle of the solution develops with the service and always provides a service that meets current needs.
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Give feedback about the pilots!

 

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Past events

The following recordings provide more detailed information about the project. The parking pilots carried out in 2020 and 2021 can be followed on this website and social media.

Auto- ja pyöräpysäköintikokeilujen esittelytilaisuus 27.05.2021 

 Market dialogue event, 19 November 2020

Auto- ja pyöräpysäköinnin uudet ratkaisut liikennehubeissa (‘New Car and Bicycle Parking Solutions in Traffic Hubs’) pitching event, 10 June 2020

Workshop on car parking service needs in the Turku city centre, 29 May 2020

Auto- ja pyöräpysäköinnin uusia palveluja yhteistyöllä (‘New Car and Bicycle Parking Services’) webinar, 21 April 2020

         

        Further information about the project: juha.pulmuranta@turku.fi

         

        Implementing the 6aika city strategy

        The City of Turku and Turku University of Applied Sciences are taking part in the implementation of the Vähähiilinen liikkuminen liikennehubeissa (‘Low-carbon Transport in Traffic Hubs’) project, the objective of which is to research, develop and try out lower-carbon transport solutions. The project is part of the Smart and Wise Turku spearhead project, and it implements the 6Aika city strategy. In addition to the City of Turku and Turku University of Applied Sciences, the project involves the City of Espoo, Business Tampere and the City of Oulu. The project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund via the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council.


        6Aika: Vähähiilinen liikkuminen liikennehubeissa (in Finnish)