The town of Bocholt is launching a trial of smart parking sensors

This week, the town of Bocholt began installing smart parking sensors in public car parks. The first sensors for monitoring occupancy have already been fitted in the car parks between Dietrichstraße and Hermannstraße. The project forms part of the city council's digital strategy and digital urban development initiatives, aimed at making it easier to find a parking space in the city centre in real time in future.

With the installation of the first row of sensors, the city of Bocholt is implementing a key component of its digital car park management system. On Thursday, a contracted company fitted smart ground-level sensors in the car parks between Dietrichstraße and Hermannstraße. At the same time, preparatory work was carried out in the car park to the west of Theodor-Heuss-Ring with a view to installing further monitoring systems there shortly.

"The sensors used rely on an integrated induction loop to reliably detect whether a parking space is occupied by a vehicle", explains Hany Omar, Chief Digital Officer for the City of Bocholt. On the section of Dietrichstraße, the sensors are fixed using a special adhesive that is gentle on the road surface, meaning no structural alterations to the road surface are required. Depending on local conditions, other sensors may also be used, says Omar.

""We are initially testing the system in this compact car park to gather experience regarding its operation and functionality," explains Hany Omar, Chief Digital Officer for the City of Bocholt. The sensors have a built-in rechargeable battery that only needs to be replaced approximately every six years.

In the car park between Dietrichstraße and Hermannstraße, the city council is also trialling a special integration: in the area around two existing electric charging points operated by stadtwerker, the sensor data is directly combined with usage information from the charging infrastructure.

""This allows you to see straight away whether the charging point and the parking space are free"," explains Omar. Among other things, this is intended to prevent charging points from being blocked by vehicles without any charging taking place.

The project forms part of the city of Bocholt's Smart City strategy. "The long-term aim is to consolidate the occupancy data on a central platform", explains Jennifer Menk, the city treasurer responsible for implementing the digital strategy. "Residents and visitors can then access this data via a dedicated app or our website", says Menk.

""By setting up a digital car park management system, we will in future offer residents and visitors to our city real added value," hopes Mayor Christian Mangen. "Knowing where a free parking space is available before setting off saves time and stress." The parking guidance signs, which have been out of order for several years, are also set to be upgraded as part of the roll-out of the smart parking management system.

Anyone interested can find further information about the project at www.bocholt.de/digitale-strategie.