CASPAR
Connected Smart Parking
CASPAR is a high-tech approach to solving the problem of finding a Blue Badge parking space in Oxford and Witney. The project is the result of a successful Oxfordshire County Council bid for almost £240,000 of government funding and will use big data and smart technology to guide vehicles towards available parking.
The CASPAR (CollAborative Smart PARking project) scheme will help provide up to the minute information showing the occupancy of Blue Badge spaces, carparks and some city centre pay and display spaces, as well as any new electric vehicle charge points.
It is likely that the information would be sent to a smartphone app that would be versatile enough to show users not only where there was a Blue Badge space available near their destination, but also to reroute them to the next nearest one if that space was taken before they got there.
The county council hopes that the scheme will help reduce stress for people trying to find somewhere to park as well as reducing congestion. Improved access to information effectively helps people to look ahead and plan journeys according to where facilities are available.
Oxfordshire County Council is working at the cutting edge of transport at the moment and is helping a range of visions such as driverless cars and intelligent parking apps get off the ground. The way we travel continues to change, and technology has a valuable role to play through intelligent transport systems.
The project is a collaboration between nquiringminds, Vivacity, and Oxfordshire County Council.
The project started in April 2017 and has been awarded from the DfT’s Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems fund following a bid submitted by Oxfordshire County Council.
