Parking occupancy measurement

Parking occupancy measurement, also known as a parking occupancy survey, shows how full a car park is by zone, hour and season, with arrivals and stay length. The counting is done by LiDAR sensors or AI cameras, without reading number plates. Bumbee Labs is the company behind the only footfall method in Europe approved by a data protection authority.

Which parking decisions can car park occupancy measurement support?

Our parking strategy rests on a one-day hand count. What should an occupancy survey cover?

A survey that a municipal parking strategy can rest on shows occupancy against capacity for each car park and kerbside zone, hour by hour, across the days of the week and the seasons. LiDAR counting in the car park delivers that as a continuous series, so the survey covers the whole year. For councils, see cities and municipalities.

Town-centre street parking: how long do the cars stay?

Counting each kerbside zone gives two measures: how full the zone is against its capacity, and stay length with turnover. Read together, they show how long cars stand in the zone and how often it turns over at any hour, on any day and in any season. AI camera counting or LiDAR at the zone supplies the counts.

Which tariff should apply where, and at what hours?

Tariffs and time limits can follow what each zone does: its occupancy at each hour and on each day, season by season, with stay length alongside. A council or operator takes the series into its own tools through the People counting API or reads it in the dashboard, and reviews each zone’s hours against the same numbers.

What happened to parking when we changed the tariff or the time limit?

The same zones, measured before and after the change, give a comparison of occupancy and stay length. Put next to visitors’ dwell time and footfall, that comparison shows whether the new rule shortens visits, with parking and visitor data for the same weeks.

How full does the car park get, and when?

Occupancy against capacity, by zone or level, tells you how full a car park or garage gets. Entries and exits for each hour, day and season tell you when, and peaks and trends emerge over the year. Near real-time occupancy and threshold alerts come with the Crowd Alert add-on; see data deliverables.

Do we need a new multi-storey car park, or can existing spaces be shared?

Occupancy measured at each existing car park, hour by hour through the days and seasons, gives each facility an occupancy profile. The profile shows when spaces stand empty and when they fill: the evidence on sharing them before anyone decides on a new building.

Which other parking questions can the count answer?

• The developer was allowed fewer parking spaces. Is the promise holding? A continuous count of occupancy against the number of spaces gives the follow-up one series to read year after year.
• Our loading zones are full of the wrong vehicles. Occupancy and stay length are counted for each kerbside zone, and finer vehicle classification is set up per project to match what you need.
• We have no ticket data for the barrier-free car park. A ticket system sees what passes the barrier; counting at the entries, exits and zones gives occupancy against capacity without one.
• Does a full car park mean a full visit, or only long stays? Reading occupancy and stay length beside the venue’s footfall separates the two; see retail park footfall analytics.
• Is our park-and-ride big enough? Hourly and daily occupancy, set against the number of spaces, shows when the car park fills; for the station side, see public transport hubs.
• What does the concert do to the parking? Occupancy and arrivals around the event appear on the same timeline as the visitors; the method is described under measure event impact.
• Do cars move into the residential streets when we start charging? Occupancy measured the same way in the charged zone and the streets beside it can be compared directly.
• The street is full but the car park is half empty. Occupancy by zone or level is recorded for both over the same hours, so a planner can read street and car park together.

Our page on data protection in traffic measurement answers whether we read number plates.

Can parking data be read next to visits and traffic?

Yes. At a shopping destination, a forecourt or an event site, the visit often starts and ends in the car park, which is why parking data is kept on the same platform and timeline as footfall and traffic data. A traffic survey upstream shows the demand the facility never captured.