Smart parking solutions for urban areas

Finding a parking place in a busy city centre is often a frustrating task for many drivers; time and fuel are wasted in the quest for a vacant spot and traffic in the area increases due to the slow moving vehicles circling around. In this paper, we present the results of a survey on the needs of drivers from parking infrastructures from a smart services perspective. As smart parking systems are becoming a necessity in today's urban areas, we discuss the latest trends in parking availability monitoring, parking reservation and dynamic pricing schemes. We also examine how these schemes can be integrated forming technologically advanced parking infrastructures whose aim is to benefit both the drivers and the parking operators alike.