Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter will briefly present about background of the project, statement of the problem

with justification, objectives of the project, scope of the project, limitations of the project, system

development methodology, significance of the project, beneficiaries of the project, feasibility

study, project schedule and project budget.

1.1 Background of the project

Because of improvements in life style as well as grow up of urban living life to a reasonable

extent, now a day owning vehicles by individuals is increased. Most of the time, the increasing

number of vehicles when started running on the road at peak office hours causes traffic

congestion. When also vehicles arrive to their destinations, if parking is not properly taken care

of, if parking areas not avialble or if drivers did not know where to park then this also becomes

major issue and major contributor for traffic congestion, accidents and inconvenience to

pedestrians. Abdul Ahad, Farhan Ahmad Kidwai, Yasir Khan and Wiqas Anwar, 2020, says that,

this problem is overcome by the use of smart technologies.

Parking spaces are very important to cities. A city must have enough parking spaces to

provide their residents and their visitors a place to park their car. Since cars are a main factor in

transportation, a city must meet the needs of the drivers. If people can’t find a place to park, or if

they have to pay too much for parking, these people probably won’t come back to your city to do

some more shopping, dining or spending money in any other way. Also residents must have

enough place to park their car nearby their house and workplace.

The continuing development of information and communications technology (ICT) presents

different opportunities to facilitate many sectors, providing that users with technology to access

different types of services and systems. One of the sectors that should be supported by ICT is the
parking system. According to Muftah Fraifer and Mikael Fernström, 2017, the design and

development of a system that facilitates the availability of parking space to users. In the field of

smart parking systems, different types of technologies have merged over the past twenty years.

It is well known that drivers spend a considerable time searching for a parking spot. Parking

plays an important role in the transport system since all vehicles require a storage location when

they are not being used. One of the crucial issues of Addis Ababa is the scarcity of car parking.

Car-parking sector has always been of great importance in terms of urban mobility, since it is a

fundamental element in achieving a high level of accessibility in the city centers. In fact, many

businesses and municipalities see an adequate supply of parking, especially for visitors, as

crucial for their competitive growth. Yet, at the same time parking is, and will remain for most

cities, the most powerful means of traffic restraint available. The enhancement of the urban

environment is also partly dependent on adequately managing parking (December 2008a, Napier

University).

The other issues and the biggest barrier for Africa is a lack of public parking and this can be

easily observed in major cities. This has been a key problem for many municipal governments in

Africa as they undergo rapid motorization. Parking is one of the comprehensive components in

land use appearing in residential, shopping and industrial areas, and is related to all kinds of trips

occurring in traveling, shopping and leisure trips (Mersden, 2006). The challenges of parking

spaces seen in urban cities are claimed to be caused by urbanization, rapid increases of car

dependence, high densities of the city and economic transition. Parking supply management,

particularly pricing, could help shift auto dependence to more sustainable alternative modes and

reduce congestion (Shoup, 2005).

Parking scarcity identified as:

(1) Lack of parking supply

(2) Weak regulations and intergovernmental conflicts

(3) And weak enforcement.

A recent survey conducted by Step & Mint (2011a) Limited based in Nigeria reported that,

Cairo’s public parking infrastructure could only accommodate 5.2 percent of its cars, Lagos

6.7 percent of its cars and Johannesburg had a ratio of 8 cars per public parking space.

1.2 Statement of the Problem and Justification

With increase in the population, number of vehicles increases and due to unmanaged

parking, it leads to many problems.

In center cities, people face difficulties as increasing number of vehicles creates congestion,

wastage of space, wastage of time, traffic problem, car vandalism and many other difficulties.

Parking Lot Problems

Difficulty in Finding Vacant Spaces Quickly finding a vacant space in a multilevel parking
lot is difficult if not impossible, especially on weekends or public holidays. Finding spaces
during weekends or public holidays can take more than 10 minutes for about 66% of
visitors. Stadiums or shopping malls are crowded at peak periods, and difficulty in finding
vacant slots at these places is a major problem for customers. Insufficient car park

spaces \ lead to traffic congestion and driver frustration.

Improper Parking

If a car is parked in such a way that it occupies two parking slots rather than one, this is
called improper parking. Improper parking can happen when a driver is not careful about
another driver’s rights. This is tackled by the development of automated smart car parking
system.
 1.3 Objectives of the Project

1.3.1 General objective

The general objective of this project will be to develop user-friendly parking locator mobile

application which enable drivers to find the nearest parking lot easily.

1.3.2 Specific objectives

- Enable drivers navigate to the nearest parking area and provide route to vacant

parking lot

- Provide online booking service.

- Reduce time for car park during peak parking hours and congested traffic.

1.4 Scope of the Project

As we all know that the new technologies are advancing day by day, many new methods and

features are been introduced almost daily, therefore, the scope of the project could vary as new

technologies emerged. The scope of the project will include both behaviors and technical parts

(modules) of the project. The application provides selecting a parking slot even before entering

the lot for parking.

- To design user-friendly the parking area locator.

- To design admin module for managing users(drivers) and parking areas

- To design parking availability checking module.

- To design booking(reserving) service module.

- To design parking cancellation module

- To design users(drivers) parking history module.

1.5 Limitation of the Project

 In this project it is not thought that full investigation is done on the parking area service

providers and further study on IoT because of several limitations to conduct the study like, lack

of time and budget. Hence future work is needed to investigate further analysis on the IoT

because it will make the project smart and intelligent. In addition time and budget limitations

1.6 System Development Methodology

1.6.1 System development Approach

1.6.2 System Development Tools

1.7 Significance of the Project

1.8 Beneficiaries of the project

1.9 Feasibility Study

1.10 Project Schedule

1.11 Project Budget