International. There is a lot of noise around Big Data. Today more than ever information is coming from many sources and at a higher speed. Whether it's a small parking lot or a big city, operators and decision makers are looking for ways to take advantage of it.
If we focus on the parking industry, mexico City alone has registered about 1,500 public parking lots. This makes urgent the need to have a good management and administration of these spaces and this is where Data Analytics could be a great ally before the amount of information that is generated.
According to Genetec, there are currently unified security solutions, which with License Plate Recognition technology, help to comprehensively manage parking lots by providing information on occupancy at peak times for a better definition of control and surveillance routes, identification of areas with greater demand; and in addition, they allow close collaboration with law enforcement in the identification of offending cars through the reading of license plates.
"Monitoring and controlling parking lots by following a routine and manually controlling vehicles for physical permits and parking violations can have a negative impact on compliance rates, customer experiences and organizational operations," says Engineer Jorge Sánchez, Transportation Business Development Manager at Genetec Latin America. "To decrease violations, improve compliance and improve public safety, it is necessary to implement a solution that automates the reading and identification of license plates."
And it is that in hours with greater demand, one in three cars is parked in a forbidden place: sidewalks, ramps, zebra crossings and double rows. According to the latest report of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), the CDMX ranks as the entity with the largest number of cars in the country, 5 million cars; followed by the State of Mexico2.
It is known that drivers lose about 20 minutes per trip looking for parking, which increases traffic jams by 30% and consequently the rate of greenhouse gas emissions3.
Why the data seems to be immense
Data collection has become a derivative of business. Reviewing violations and parking meters is becoming a waste of time. Today, a growing number of digital payment stations are connected to the Cloud and governments are making use of technologies such as automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) to cover more areas in less time. While these technologies have made efforts more efficient, it is also true that they are providing more information.
At times, this overwhelming amount of data is difficult to interpret and the analysis becomes frustrating. In the process, it's easy to lose sight of what really matters: understanding how this information can help organizations and governments think and act better.
What cannot be measured, cannot be improved and data analytics allows us to make measurements in real time and know consumption patterns. It is known that 2.5 trillion bytes are generated daily across the planet. Enough to think about how this well-analyzed information allows to improve the performance of organizations in general4.
"Knowing, classifying, filtering and using the information through an analysis of that data becomes essential so that they then become true assets and business generators of the company," says the engineer.
Volume vs data quality
It's important to take a step back and ask ourselves: what does big data really mean? Answering this question often reveals that data volume is not the most relevant concern for parking operations, or even for growing cities.
On the other hand, the quality and interpretation of the data is. "Many systems provide basic, unstructured information that doesn't reveal much. Only with high quality data can parking managers, cities and companies understand how to act, based on real-time information to plan better and make effective decisions," says Engineer Jorge Sánchez.
The antidote to lots of basic information
Meaningful data does matter. Systems that provide structured, easy-to-understand data help users understand the flow of information; it gives them an advantage by offering specific benchmarks. For example, systems like ALPR can tell parking managers and organizations in general who entered, in which places, how long they stayed, what time they entered, and what time they left. This helps to improve the service.
"With this information, its parking surveillance and control staff will be able to direct drivers to areas with free parking spaces, thus improving the flow of traffic in their cities," says Genetec's Transportation Business Development Manager.
The study "Fewer drawers, more city", carried out by the British Embassy in Mexico and the Institute for Transport and Development Policy (ITDP), reveals that the area dedicated to parking grows faster than any other land use; however, the public space continues to collapse due to the large number of vehicles in search of space and this does not mean a lack of places but in many cases, an inadequate management of these.
Rather than providing surveillance and control, a proper parking management solution optimizes operations, improves user satisfaction, and allows cities greater control over regulatory compliance.
"At Genetec we build connected and resilient systems that help companies protect, understand and improve the world around them. Our solutions go beyond security, providing an operational understanding that allows them to improve their businesses and their environment," concluded Engineer Jorge Sánchez.
