To further leverage smart management in the city’s roadside parking, Tainan City Government has installed smart parking meters and magnetic sensors at roadside parking spaces. Current deployment level has reached 62.5%, which is the highest in Taiwan. Mayor Huang Wei-che emphasized that the government will continue to build smart parking infrastructure and eventually transform Tainan’s roadside parking system into a 100% smart structure. The objective is to improve the supply and demand imbalance and cut down the time drivers spend on finding parking spaces at parking hotspots to offer better and more convenient services to the public.
Huang pointed out that while Tainan is a historical city, it has the most intelligent parking system in Taiwan. Currently, Tainan has 12,000 charged parking spaces, among which 7,500 are smart spaces (62.5%), which is the highest percentage in Taiwan. The Mayor thanked the officials at the Industrial Development Bureau for supporting the project which significantly saves Tainan drivers’ time as they can find available parking spaces more efficiently. The project increases the turnover rate of parking spaces and reduces air pollution and traffic flow, offering a better parking experience to drivers.
The Mayor mentioned that the metro systems in Taipei and Kaohsiung saw an operation deficit due to the pandemic. This shows that while infrastructure, such as the metro, is very important, but good operations are also crucial. In the area of transportation, Tainan City is setting up bus and public transportation systems and creating a more convenient environment for personal vehicles. Huang especially thanked the Ministry of Economic Affairs Industrial Development Bureau, TIDC, Acer ITS, and FarEasTone for their support: the Industrial Development Bureau contributed Technology Development Program subsidies, the companies supplied capital and know-how, and Tainan City Government provided actual operation environments (the city government did not supply any funding). The three parties jointly created the Tainan smart management system for roadside parking.
Bureau of Transportation Director-General Wang Ming-te expressed that smart parking meters and magnetic sensors are basic infrastructure for smart parking spaces. In addition to detecting parking space usage, smart parking meters allow drivers to pay their parking fee right on the spot. At the moment, this is the largest roadside parking on-site paying system in Taiwan. Furthermore, the city government can leverage the collected data and set up query services. Drivers can check for current available parking spaces and estimated number of available spaces at a later time through the Tainan Parking app (臺南好停). The App also offers mobile payment functions to improve overall parking service quality. Residents are encouraged to download and use it.