Qatar Mobility Innovations Centre (QMIC) is in the process of aggregating data from different parking sites in Qatar to develop applications and services for the national platform of smart parking.
“We have started doing it.The first step is to start aggregating necessary data from multiple sites. Aggregating the data through the national platform is the key to create applications that will be delivered to the market,” Dr Adnan Abu-Dayya, CEO of QMIC told Gulf Times on the sidelines of the Smart Parking Conference being held at Intercontinental City, Doha.
He continued: “We have started aggregating the parking data from several sites such as Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre as well as other parking centres including Souq Waqif and several shopping centres to aggregate the data.”
Speaking at the Smart Parking Conference, Dr Abu-Dayya called for a national platform that can collect data from major parking sites in the country to develop applications and services
He said: “We cannot have an application for each parking lot. Therefore a national platform can collect all these data and using this data, applications and services can be developed. It can also provide intelligence and information about the availability and utilisation of the parking.
“Most of these parking centres have their own parking management systems. They know how many lots are vacant in general and how many will be available at a given time. Looking at the size of the parking lots, you need to know how many lots are vacant at a particular time and how many are available for different categories such as people with special needs,” he explained.
The official said that data will be collected through the gateways that QMIC deploys. They will be used as part of the national platform to fuse new applications and services.
“Initially, we will use the data to deliver the services through our i-traffic application. We will be using the i-parking as the gateway for accessing most of the parking availability in terms of location and real time availability. Later the data can be analysed and parking lot owners can think of dynamic pricing according to the demand,” said the QMIC CEO.
Dr Abu-Dayya suggested that a mature public transport system will help in solving several parking issues. “This will help people to find parking in low demand areas as people can avail the public transport even from distant parts of a city,” he added.
He also highlighted the high demand for indoor parking due to heat conditions as well as the limited options for on-street parking as other reasons for parking issues in Qatar and the region.