Mitigating traffic problems by integrating smart parking solutions into an interconnected ecosystem

Abstract

It is observed that, due to the raising number of cars on the road, more and more cities suffer gridlocks. Mobility services, alike parking services, support drivers with real time mobility information to avoid those gridlocks. However, due to the the fragmented and isolated service operation, they are often not universally discoverable and usable. In this paper we elaborate an architecture for an ecosystem of interconnected service platforms to achieve that parking services can be universally discovered and used to mitigate parking related traffic problems. We present step by step how closed service platforms mature towards open service platforms by joining a centrally managed ecosystem. Respective enterprise integration patterns along with necessary data model are presented and discussed to justify the architecture. The achieved cross-system information exchange enables mobility providers to develop more sophisticated parking solutions in which they incorporate parking data and services from distributed parking operators. We demonstrate how our ecosystem increases access on parking information and how this mitigates the frustrating situation for drivers who are looking for a free parking lot.