Q-Park Urban Mobility Hub

At the beginning of 2024, the parking operator Q-Park concluded a management contract for the “OVUM” parking property in Cologne-Braunsfeld. The modern “OVUM” quarter, which was designed by the project developers Alfons & Alfreda and FAY Projects, offers around 27,000 m² of space for a mix of tenants from the office area, catering, retail and a hotel. 

The underground car park is open around the clock and is initially available for long-term parking on two levels with around 270 spaces. 

The Challenge

The OVUM team needed to implement a system that accurately provides access to the various user groups (e.g., office workers, retail customers, restaurant patrons, hotel guests, and residents) and their respective parking needs. To ensure that the system could effectively manage parking access based on each user group's specific requirements, sophisticated programming and data analysis were required. 

A solution was required to uniquely identify users at the barrier.

The Solution

Q-Park decided to use LPR/ANPR to identify the different users. Each lane has a barrier integrated with an LPR camera that reads the license plate at the entry and exit. The LPR camera digitalizes the license plate in less than 20ms and sends the data over a network connection to the overlaying system.

The system can then link the license plate with the user’s profile and store that information in a database, sending a signal to the barrier to open, and making ulterior classification possible.

Identifying and categorizing users based on license plate data allows for tailored parking solutions depending on the type of stay (short-term/long-term parker).

Results

The system allows for dynamic management of parking access. For example, new employees or users can alter their license plates individually, so the barrier will open automatically the next time the registered license plate approaches the car park. This secures access control for permanent users. 

Also, hotel guests have the option to prebook a car space, providing their license plate at the time of booking the parking space. For the booked time frame, users have ticketless access to the facility.

Short-term parkers will also get ticketless access to the car park if they via registering on the Q-Park App before entering. In case the license plate was not registered in the app, a regular ticket can be drawn at the barrier.

Due to the camera recognition, the ticket is printed with the license plate on it to provide faster exit after payment at the pay machine. They can pay at the pay machine, and then the barrier will open when they approach the exit lane.