APT Technologies has completed the installation of bay monitoring technology at the Gunwharf Quays car park. Paul Plumbley, who is a car park manger at Gunwharf Quays, shared with APT the challenges faced at the car park. He explained that the parking availability is at a premium in the centre of Portsmouth. “We can reach car park capacity very quickly at weekends and during school holidays, with queues at the entrance sometimes stretching back two to three miles. The popularity of the car park was becoming a real issue for us, and one that we had to address.
Gunwharf Quay's parking system previously operated on a loop – counting cars in through the entrance barrier and out at the exit, and when at capacity it would only allow a waiting car to enter after another had exited. Gunwharf Quays car park has 1533 parking spaces split over two levels underground, with some three miles of roadway between entrance and exit.”
Paul explained that the problem they were facing was that a “vehicle could be stationary awaiting availability of a parking space at the entrance barrier for anything up to 15 minutes, when in fact spaces were available. The bay monitoring system, however, senses when a car has left a space and automatically sends a signal to the entrance barrier, allowing the next car to enter immediately.”
Now that the system is operational, Paul comments: “We will still see queues at peak times, this will not change, but these queues are now moving much more quickly and drivers are less frustrated. APT successfully completed the installation in six weeks despite the team having to work around our peak periods. It was very impressive to watch and looking at the kit now you would not know that it has been fitted retrospectively, it looks as though it has always been there”.
APT Technologies specializes in Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR).  APNR is an established technology which is extensively used in the security sector as well as in the parking industry for recognizing number plates and the ability to allow automatic or authorized entry. For more information, please visit http://www.aptcontrols.co.uk