Council is piloting new technology to help commuters find available car park spaces faster and more easily whilst reducing traffic congestion caused by drivers looking for car parking.

The Smart Parking program is now being trialled at the West Gosford’s Racecourse Road car park using cameras equipped with smart parking analytics that identifies if a space is available. This data is then fed in real time to the existing NSW Government Park’nPay app so that drivers can easily identify how many free car spaces are available at any given time.

The NSWGOV Park’nPay app is free to use and is linked to 266 car parking spaces with in-ground sensors in Gosford and 409 car parking spaces with in-ground sensors in Terrigal.

The new smart parking technology provides a simple and more cost-effective technology to install and maintain compared to in-ground sensors currently used in Gosford and Terrigal. In addition, this technology also provides analytic data collection enabling enhanced understanding of pedestrian and traffic statistics to guide future urban planning.

Mayor Lisa Matthews said this project demonstrates Council’s commitment to exploring innovative solutions to the car parking issues facing Central Coast commuters and successful collaboration with other levels of Government and stakeholders to achieve this.

“The Smart Parking pilot program delivers on a key parking principle and action emerging from the Central Coast Car Parking study, and that is for Council to invest in parking technology and smart parking initiatives to improve usage of existing car parks and provide fast access to information on availability and reduce traffic congestion,” Mayor Matthews said.

“This initiative has been made possible through the collaborative efforts of Ausgrid, PlusES and NSW Government and we appreciate the opportunity to lead the trial of this new technology in NSW.” 

Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast and Member for Terrigal Adam Crouch said the trial would make parking easier at West Gosford.

“This digital technology trial will give local drivers a bird’s-eye view of parking, taking the hassle out of finding a spot,” Mr Crouch said.

“The Government’s Park’nPay app has made hundreds of parking spaces at Terrigal and Gosford more easily accessible. The trial will build on that success, thanks to the partnership between the NSW Government, Central Coast Council, Ausgrid and PlusES.”

Jason Clark, Executive General Manager from PLUS ES said this was an exciting trial that could open up more opportunities to bring this technology to other communities.

“We are excited to have partnered with Central Coast Council to install the fibre cables needed to turn a simple power pole into, essentially a smart pole,” Mr Clark said.

Following a successful trial period, Council will progress this new technology for adoption throughout the Central Coast LGA and proceed to a stakeholder consultation and phase 2 implementation.

The Racecourse Road car park has 200 spaces and is serviced by Council’s ‘easy run’ free shuttle service which runs continuously throughout the day and evening and takes passengers to and from key Gosford CBD locations. Find details and track location of ‘easy run’ by visiting centralcoast.nsw.gov.au/easyrun.

Park’nPay is a free smartphone app developed by NSW Government and can be downloaded from AppStore and GooglePlay.