Patent ID: 7889099

Claim:
A system for the management of a parking zone with a plurality of parking spaces for vehicles, comprising: an automated payment machine for receiving payment of a parking fee for a plurality of parking spaces in the parking zone and monitoring a payment state for each parking space; a vehicle detector arranged on each parking space, the vehicle detector configured for determining an occupancy status of the parking space as being either free or occupied; one or more communication devices configured to wirelessly transmit the occupancy status of the parking space between the vehicle detectors and the automatic parking-fee machine; a central parking control center configured for collectively receiving the occupancy status for each parking space in the parking zone; a display device for displaying an overall occupancy status of all the parking spaces in the parking zone to collectively show the occupancy status of each parking space in the parking zone as being either free or occupied; an evaluation device in communication with the automated payment machine that evaluates, for each parking space in the parking zone, the payment state and occupancy status to determine all wrongly occupied parking spaces as those parking spaces that are occupied but not adequately paid for, wherein the evaluation device organizes and prioritizes inspection rounds in an evaluation result for such wrongly occupied parking spaces based on one or more of: (a) a number of wrongly occupied parking spaces within a predefined geographical area; (b) a number of wrongly occupied parking spaces that have exceeded a predetermined time threshold of being not adequately paid for; and (c) a number of wrongly occupied parking spaces that comprise a density per unit geographic area exceeding a predetermined threshold value.