Patent ID: 8508333

Claim:
An automatic parking station system comprising: a station communication network; a plurality of parking stations which are client nodes of the station communication network, each parking station located in different sites in a city or a geographical area and associated with a respective parking station code used for addressing the station communication network, each parking station comprising at least one interactive work station, configured to exchange messages with the central server via the station communication network, and a plurality of parking posts; a central server connected to the plurality of parking stations via the station communication network; and a database in communication with the central server, the database comprising: a user database comprising user identification data, billing information and said cycle or bicycle codes, and a parking database comprising the parking station codes associated with each parking station and, for each parking station code, a geographical location of the corresponding parking station and the number of parking posts of the corresponding parking station which have a locked cycle or bicycle available for rent or the number of posts having no cycles or bicycles locked thereto; wherein the messages from the parking stations comprise at least one of: a) status messages comprising information about the busy or free parking status of the parking station from which the status message is sent, b) charging or billing messages which request or acknowledge payment by a user, c) operation messages which communicate requests for servicing or maintenance, or d) requests and corresponding responses for available free parking posts at neighboring parking stations located in a proximity of the parking station from which the requests are sent, based on locked or unlocked status information of each of the parking posts of the neighboring parking stations; and wherein the central server is configured to receive the messages from the parking stations, to update the database according to the intent of said messages, and to update the number of parking posts based on the busy or free parking status information contained in the status messages received from the parking stations.