GB2217085A

GB2217085A - Apparatus for the advance booking for parking at a parking place

Info

Publication number: GB2217085A
Application number: GB8906881A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ian Carey Hilton
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1988-03-29
Filing date: 1989-03-28
Publication date: 1989-10-18
Also published as: GB8807419D0; GB8906881D0

Abstract

Uncertainties as to where and when a vacant parking space will be found can be removed, and travel in search of parking eliminated, by means of advance booking of parking. Advance booking can benefit other road users and the community, and offers new opportunities to owners and operators of parking facilities. The invention is a system comprising advance booking apparatus adapted to accept or reject bookings on the basis of parking place booked occupancy and to indicate to the prospective user or enquirer the availability for booking of parking space, either by duration from specified time of commencement of parking or by time of commencement for specified duration. Advance booking systems may include, variously, systems for admission control, charging, prediction of actual parking behaviour, and assessment of practical capacity. Component fees may be charged for parking before, within, and after the booked period.

Description

Apparatus for the advance booking for parking at a parking place Demand for parking space commonly exceeds supply. When they find their preferred parking place full car-users may wait for a vacancy, search for a space nearby, or abandon that attempt to park. Commonly users know the time needed to park, and how far and for how long they will have to walk to their destination, only after their search has ended. Vehicles searching for parking contribute to road congestion and delay through traffic, expose people to risk of accident, noise and fumes, and degrade the visual environment.

Searching can be eliminated, and the uncertainties as to where and when a vacant parking space will be found can be removed, by means of the advance booking of parking. Advance booking offers direct benefit to vehicle-users, indirect benefits to other road users and to the community at large, and new opportunities for the owners and operators of parking facilities.

The present invention is a system for the advance booking for parking at a parking place comprising advance booking apparatus adapted to accept or reject bookings on the basis of parking place booked occupancy and to indicate directly or indirectly to the prospective user or enquirer the availability for booking of parking space either by duration from specified time of commencement of parking or by time of commencement for specified duration.

Users of the advance booking system may book indirectly through an operator or by direct communication. Requests for bookings are accepted up to a limit, referred to herein as the practical capacity of the parking place under the circumstances prevailing.

Requests for bookings are refused when for some part of the period within which the vehicle may be parked the booked occupancy would exceed the practical capacity. The system may make use of predicted or assumed probabilities of a vehicle being parked at times earlier, within, and later than its booked period.

For parking on a particular day or time of day a booking period may be defined, within which bookings are taken. A cancellation period, within which bookings may be cancelled without forfeiture of any booking fee, may also be defined.

Since drivers may not be able to arrive at their parking place precisely on the booked time of commencement of parking, when circumstances allow vehicles may be admitted earlier or later.

Within the system parking duration may be measured from the booked time of commencement or from the actual time. Limits may be put on the earliest and/or latest times, relative to booked time of commencement, outside which bookings are not valid and vehicles are refused admission to the parking place. Bookings, during their period of validity, are referred to herein as entitlements.

At the parking place admission control the identification of arriving vehicles is checked against booked vehicles and/or vehicle users, together with booked time of commencement if appropriate. Vehicles presenting recognised identification and entitlement are admitted.Vehicles presenting identification which is not recognised are not admitted. Identification might, for instance, be by credit card previously used in booking.

Vehicles might be recognised by number plate or by electronic identifier. The admission control apparatus may be adapted to admit only recognised combinations of user and vehicle.

The advance booking system is illustrated by Figure 1: apparatus for advance booking, for vehicle admission control at the parking place, and for charging are connected by communications links. Some information flows in the system are shown.

An information system for the prediction of actual time of commencement, or actual duration of parking, or both, may be incorporated in the advance booking system, as in Figure 1. This may use data on past bookings, actual parking commencements and durations, and fees and charges.

Also shown in Figure 1 is an information system and apparatus for the assessment of practical capacity of the parking place: practical capacity, the preferred measure of capacity for use in the advance booking system, may differ from the number of parking spaces marked out at a parking place and may vary with the circumstances of operation.

Operation of the advance booking system is exemplified in Figure 2.

Figure 3 is an example of a parking accumulation curve for parking by holders of bookings for 120 minutes duration under circumstances relevant to those anticipated for a day and hours for which bookings are being taken. For the purpose of illustration, the capacity of the parking place is expressed here in terms of capacity units. Figure 4 shows booked occupancy after three bookings have been taken, each for one capacity unit, for commencement times of 09.30, 09.40, and 09.50 hrs. respectively.If, for example, the practical capacity of the parking place is 3.6 capacity units and a request is received for parking of one unit of capacity for 120 minutes booked duration, it is seen from Figures 3.and 4 together that the booking could be accepted only for commencement earlier than 09.00 or later than 10.13 hrs. and that commencement between these times would be refused.

Charges, fixed sum or duration-related, may be made for parking within the booked duration, parking earlier than the booked time of commencement, and parking after the booked duration whether measured from booked or actual time of commencement. For periods earlier than the booked commencement, charges may be at a higher rate the earlier the periods; for periods later than the end of the booked duration, they may be higher the later the periods.

The apparatus may be adapted to compare actual period of parking with booked period and to vary the charge for parking within the booked times of commencement and end of parking in accordance with any or all of actual time of commencement, actual time of end, and actual duration of parking.

A booking fee may be charged. It may be paid at the time of booking. It may be refunded in whole or part on cancellation of a booking or on parking. A cancellation fee may be charged.

"Penalty fees" may be charged for failure to use a booking or for cancellation later than the end of any cancellation period.

Parking fees may be charged and paid variously before admission of the vehicle to the parking place, whilst it is parked, or on of after departure. Payment may be made variously in cash, by credit card, by deduction of credit held in a "Parking Cards, by debit from a bank account, or other means.

Figure 5 illustrates the use of gradated prices for periods of parking before and after the booked period and of constant price within it. In this example entitlement is from 30 minutes prior to the booked time of commencement.

Figure 6 shows aggregate charges for parking of up to 200 minutes duration derived from the prices of Figure 5. Prices used in this manner may influence the actual times of commencement and durations of parking relative to booked times and durations. In this example, Figure 6, if a set of vehicles each booked for 120 minutes duration were to park and then to depart simultaneously individual aggregate parking charges would vary, dependent on actual time of commencement relative to booked time, between 30 and 100 pence after 90 minutes parking and between 80 and 240 pence after 150 minutes. The largest charges here are for commencement 30 minutes later than booked time, after which entitlement ceases in this example.

Figure 7 illustrates variable rate charging for parking within the booked period. In this example a booking fee might be made equal to the charge for zero minutes actual parking duration.

Claims

1. System for the advance booking for parking at a parking place comprising advance booking apparatus adapted to accept or reject bookings on the basis of parking place booked occupancy and to indicate directly or indirectly to the prospective user or enquirer the availability for booking of parking space either by duration from specified time of commencement of parking or by time of commencement for specified duration.

2. System for the advance booking for parking at a parking place as claimed in Claim 1 additionally comprising parking place control apparatus adaptedtoaimittoparkatthe parking place vehicles, or vehicle-users, or vehicle and user combinations in possession of valid entitlement to park therein.

3. System for the advance booking for parking at a parking place as claimed in Claim 1 or in Claim 2 further comprising an information system for the prediction of any or all of actual duration, actual time of commencement, and actual time of end of parking.

4. System for the advance booking for parking at a parking place as claimed in any of Claims 1 to 3 and also comprising charging apparatus adapted to function by use of any or all of: identification of vehicle, or of vehicle-user, or of vehicle and user combination, booked duration of parking, actual duration, booked time of commencement of parking, actual time of commencement, booked time of end of parking, and actual time of end.

5. System for the advance booking for parking at a parking place as claimed in Claim 4 in which the apparatus is adapted to determine component parking fees in respect of periods of time prior to the booked time of commencement of parking, and/or after the end of the booked duration or period of parking, and/or within the booked duration or booked period, which component parking fees may be based on fixed price and/or fixed price rate and/or variable price rate charging.

6. System for the advance booking for parking at a parking place as claimed in any of Claims 1 to 5 additionally incorporating parking place monitoring apparatus and/or an information system for assessment of practical capacity of the parking place.

7. System for the advance booking for parking at a parking place substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 1 or Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings.