Park-and-ride areas play an increasingly important role in the management of traffic and transportation in the metropolitan area. It would also be important to know where the users of the park-and-ride areas come from. And this information is available.
Park-and-ride is parking aimed at the customers of public transport. It allows for reducing congestion on the inbound lanes of cities and in city centres and for attracting new customers from the most peripheral areas in the region.
It was this aspect which also gave Nodeon its chance to contribute to the much-discussed West Metro project.
West Metro has park-and-ride stops in the areas of 14 municipalities. The areas reserved for this type of parking are in the vicinity of public transport stations and stops. The customers can leave their car or bicycle in the parking area and continue their journey from there on a public transport vehicle. Park-and-ride areas are meant for parking equal in duration to a working day, and most of them apply a 12- or 24-hour limit to parking.
A week’s measurement of park-and-ride areas also reveals the recurrence that takes place within a week.
A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE USERS OF PARK-AND-RIDE AREAS
With the help of its traffic flow analysis service, Nodeon found out interesting details about the use of park-and-ride areas in Matinkylä and Tapiola for the city of Espoo.
The measurement solution combining Nodeon’s registration identification cameras and the data in Traficom’s vehicle registration database enables, in addition to an analysis of traditional population times and fill factors, the more detailed profiling of the areas’ users. Understanding from which areas the park-and-ride areas’ users come from and the rate of recurrence in that use is one of the most crucially important matters.
In terms of users, these measurements are secure. The solution does not compromise the motorists’ privacy protection, because no personal data is examined – only the postal code areas to which the vehicles are registered.