The city of Bruges launches Smart Parking solutions towards increased rotation at the city centre

Based on IoT sensor technology, Orange Belgium and CommuniThings smart parking solutions allow visitors to park up to 30 minutes free of charge at selected locations throughout Greater Bruges. Local authorities will leverage sensor alerts on parking overtime to monitor the mobility in their city and act swiftly against parking violation, thereby enforcing in real-time their parking policy.

A comprehensive and effective parking policy is key for Belgian municipalities. It greatly impacts the inhabitants’ quality of life but also a city’s attractiveness for tourists and shoppers, as it can help reduce congestion and the overall CO2 emissions. It can also be instrumental to help revive small businesses and shops which are currently impacted by the Covid19 pandemic. Thanks to its selection of Orange Belgium and CommuniThings smart parking solution, the city of Bruges now has the tools to plan well-thought parking policies and enforce its adherence by the citizens. This roll-out follows other successful smart-parking deployments by Orange and CommuniThings in cities such as Liège, Aarschot, Wavre, Mechelen Mons and many others.

Aimed at promoting economic development at the city centre, particularly during the upcoming Covid19 deconfinement, the service promotes increased parking rotation at nearby retail areas. As a result, more customers visit the shops, spend, and then leave promptly – making room for others to follow the same path. Experience in other cities, shows total rotation was multiplied by a factor 3 thanks to Orange Belgium’s smart parking solution.

An energy-efficient solution to increase mobility and support the local economy

Based on nearly 100 sensors installed throughout the streets of Bruges and Zeebruges, Orange Belgium and CommuniThings’ smart parking solutions allow local authorities to better plan, organize and monitor the parking in their premises. In the future, using open data interfaces, the city may communicate parking-occupancy information over the city’s web site or mobile application. By offering visitors a better view on available parking spaces, they can reduce congestion and will be able to enhance shoppers’ experience once the sanitary context allows it. For Bruges’ local authorities, the smart-parking platform can generate useful data on key mobility indicators, such as parking duration, occupancy, rotation and overtime, allowing them to dynamically monitor and adapt their policies.

To be noted also, the solution is particularly sustainable as it relies on energy-efficient sensors and on Orange Belgium’s Narrowband IoT network, which offers extended coverage but is extremely low energy-consuming.

The smart parking services have been developed thanks to an exclusive partnership with the Belgian scale-up Communithings, which Orange Belgium helped to grow in Belgium and internationally through its Orange Fab acceleration program and a minority stake investment. CommuniThings successfully deployed in 15 Belgian cities, and are also recognised internationally with deployments across Western Europe, Middle-east and Asia-Pacific.

The Mayor of Bruges, Dirk De fauw : “Thanks to these sensors, we want to achieve a higher degree of rotation of these parking spaces. This way, the customers of the surrounding businesses have a better chance of finding a free parking space in the immediate vicinity. These sensors will also give us better insights into the effective use and misuse of these specific parking spaces".

Werner De Laet, Chief Enterprise Business, Wholesale and Innovation Officer of Orange Belgium, comments: “As an innovative and responsible operator, we believe a relevant usage of technology can help overcome major societal issues. Addressing mobility and parking challenges is key for any public authority, as it helps reduce congestion, CO2 emissions and can strongly benefit to a city’s attractiveness, which is key to offer support to the local economy, heavily impacted by the Covid19 pandemic. We’re thrilled to see that a major touristic city such as Bruges has opted for our solution, and looking forward to help them in addressing their local challenges.”

Etay Oren, Chief Executive Officer of CommuniThings adds: “On-street parking-congestion reaches a major cross-point, as cities strive to increase rotation and invigorate commerce, while reducing CO2 emissions and limiting number of cars parked at city-centers. Orange and CommuniThings teamed-up with the city of Bruges to deploy a state-of-the-art IoT solution, ensuring increased rotation and optimized enforcement by the local authority. With over 15 cities across Belgium and growing, we are delighted to launch at this world-renowned touristic city.”

For more information: www.business.orange.be/smart-parking