# An Intelligent Parking Management System for Urban Areas
## 5 Conclusions  
One way to mitigate the negative effects of heavy vehicle traffic in urban and metropolitan areas is the effective management of vehicle parking spaces. Technology has been mooted as the basis for solutions that will have the fastest impact and lowest cost. This article has described a scalable, low-cost, and minimally-intrusive parking space monitoring system, using a wireless sensor network based on IPv6, using the 6 LoWPAN protocol, a cloud-based management system and photoelectric sensors. The network sensors are located on speed bumps placed on the way in or out of the parking areas; these sensors are connected to nodes capable of processing the signal sent by the sensors to detect the entry or exit of vehicles into or out of the parking area. These nodes communicate wirelessly with _in situ_ signalling devices and gateway units that send the signal to the central management server for processing or distribution via the Internet. The system architecture and the elements that configure it facilitate deployment in parking zones located on public roads. The number of detection monitoring units is low, and the system can, therefore, be scaled up to a city-wide level, monitoring entire areas, as long as all the entry and exit points are controlled.  
To check the system, it was tested under real conditions monitoring a car park on a university campus. The tests showed that the system works correctly with an error rate of less than 1%.  
For future research, we propose reducing installation impact by incorporating the solar power system and the processing and communication node together with the sensors in the speed bump, as this would further facilitate adoption of this monitoring technology. In addition, tests should be conducted in traffic zones with higher speeds--50 and 60 km/h--in order to be able to implement the system on fast lane exit points and, thus, monitor entire districts of a city.  
This Project has been funded by code TSI-020601-2012-47 under AETySI--Competitividad I+D programme of the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism (_sponsors_). Thanks to Instituto Universitario de Ciencias y Tecnologias Cibernetics of ULPGC for the right for use its parking area for prototype deployment. Thanks also to every member of Edosoft Factory Lab Team for their collaboration in the project.  
[PERSON] directed the research study; all authors contributed to the design of the system architecture, the hardware selection and the tests; [PERSON] and [PERSON] developed the data centre software module and the communication system. [PERSON], [PERSON] and [PERSON] developed the sensor nodes software module and the gateway software module; all authors contributed to the preparation of this manuscript.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Vehicle Type** & **Wheelbase** & **Value (s)** \\ \hline Bus & 15 m & 2.7 \\ \hline Articulated bus & 18.75 m & 3.24 \\ \hline Car & Variable: 6.092 m max. 2.6 m min. & 0.468–1.08 \\ \hline Bicycle & 1.1 m & 0.18 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 3: Values of timers T1 and T2, depending on vehicle type, at a constant speed of 20 km/h.