High-precision parking for shared micromobility in Prague
The challenge of mis-parking is solved by ParkedByMe.
The Challenge
Cities face the challenge of reducing emissions while enhancing safety, mobility for cyclists and pedestrians, and overall quality of life. Multimodal transportation plays a key role in achieving sustainable mobility. Post-pandemic transport trends show a growing reliance on micromobility for daily commuting, with 70% of respondents across regions expressing willingness to use these modes, alongside a surge in investment.
However, the rapid rise of micromobility solutions is putting pressure on urban infrastructure and raising safety concerns. The lack of a systematic approach to managing bicycles, e-bikes, and e-scooters has led to issues like overcrowded parking and improper vehicle placement outside designated zones. As a result, some cities have gone as far as banning kick-scooters entirely.
Currently, there is no verification system tracking the number of mis-parked vehicles in place in Prague. The municipalities must rely on the data provided by the operators at their own discretion.
Is there a way to strike a balance - ensuring micromobility can thrive while maintaining order and safety for all?
The Solution
ParkedByMe tackles urban mobility challenges by providing high-precision, Bluetooth-based parking technology for micromobility vehicles. Its solar-powered, scalable antennas ensure centimeter-level accuracy, guaranteeing that vehicles are parked in designated zones. This reduces urban clutter, enhances safety, and improves overall infrastructure efficiency.
Seamlessly integrated with operator apps, the system enables real-time monitoring and a smooth user experience, fostering responsible parking behaviour. Additionally, its data-driven insights support municipalities and operators in urban planning and resource optimization, strengthening multimodal transportation systems.
ParkedByMe's innovation was deployed in Prague and yielded some insightful results that can be replicated by other cities.
Making an impact
The ParkedByMe innovation achieved significant impacts across key areas. It improved the quality and accessibility of public spaces by enhancing 25 parking locations in Prague for neat and efficient parking of shared micromobility vehicles. A comprehensive summary report was created to share best practices and pilot insights with municipalities and micromobility providers, supporting informed decision-making for future collaborations. The project contributed to the sharing economy by integrating its technology with two micromobility operators.
Additionally, the innovation advanced its Technology Readiness Level (TRL) from 6 to 8/9 by integrating solar-powered antennas, upgrading software algorithms, and enhancing hardware functionality, demonstrating its potential for scalable, sustainable urban mobility solutions. During the pilot, the performance of Bluetooth-based Sparkpark antenna recorded 90,6 % success rate compared to GPS/GNSS-based positioning of the vehicles which recorded only 38,4 % success rate.
ParkedByMe offers solution for parking of kick-scooters, bicycles and e-bikes.
Lessons learnt
The deployment of the ParkedByMe solution revealed both challenges and valuable insights that shaped the project's success and potential scalability. In Prague, the diversity of parking spots needed significant resources for analysis, installation, and calibration. This effort, while intensive, created a robust database of diverse parking configurations that will accelerate future deployments.
The selection of parking areas required close cooperation with the Prague 7 Department for Transport, addressing urban planning changes, private ownership limitations, and testing in both existing and new parking locations. We identified a key challenge of the absence of regulatory frameworks, resulting in fragmented relationships with operators across city districts. This highlighted the need for adaptability in working with various city contexts and regulatory environments.
In Madrid, early engagement with city technical teams was critical for identifying feasible parking locations. The biggest challenge in the Madrid pilot was a sudden ban of kick-scooter operations which required the team to adapt to the circumstances. Thanks to that, the pilot uncovered new use cases, such as enabling hybrid models of docked and dockless bike-sharing, which could significantly increase operational efficiency. These lessons emphasised the need to target both e-scooter and bike-sharing operations while fostering flexibility for hybrid systems.
