Study analyzed the public parking environment in Kampala Capital City, Republic of Uganda and evaluated the feasibility of transitioning to smart parking over a five-year period.
Kampala, Uganda
Feasibility Study on Smart Parking in Kampala Capital City
Summary Information
Rapid urban population growth, economic expansion, and escalating traffic demand in Kampala and the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA) have exacerbated traffic congestion, a pressing urban issue that can be further exacerbated by inadequate parking management. To mitigate these issues, it is important for transportation agencies to consider proper technological innovations and system integrations related to smart parking, which is defined as connected parking management solutions deployed on public on-street and/or off-street parking facilities where the occupancy of a parking space is determined by in-ground sensors or cameras, and drivers are directed to vacant spots.
In partnership with Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG), Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) conducted a study focused on testing a small-scale, off-street deployment utilizing an intelligent Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)-based parking system. This small-scale pilot study was conducted from 2019-2020 and was intended to be a steppingstone for KCCA to prepare for a potential full-scale deployment further down the line in five years. This five-year plan is in-line with KCCA’s envisioned comprehensive parking policy master plan for the region of GKMA up to year 2040: to better manage traffic demand, reduce traffic congestion, decrease illegal parking and create essential revenues.
METHODOLOGY
For the study, one CCTV camera was installed at KCCA Library and Information Centre and one server was installed at KCCA Traffic Control Centre, in addition to some communications and basic hardware. The occupation status of parking spots are captured by the Intelligent CCTV Parking platform in real-time (the 1 camera could monitor up to 30 parking space) and the inventory of parking spots is continuously updated as vehicles vacate parking spots. For the trial period, the team remotely monitored the system’s performance and parking statistics on a monthly basis from Korea. Note that when the system is deployed in the future, it is expected that the data would be continuously sent to the City's mobile parking application for drivers to access.
A five-year feasibility assessment of the intelligent CCTV parking system was based on the TELOS (Technical, Economic, Legal, Operational, and Scheduling) methodology. The economic benefit analysis was calculated based on the existing parking revenue estimate that KCCA would receive directly from the operational on-street parking during first year of the five-year future deployment. The parking revenue was calculated on the premise that on-street parking is occupied 80 percent of the time on average during workdays, excluding weekends and public holidays when parking is free.
FINDINGS
- Currently, KCCA collects a fixed amount of parking revenue through a private parking management company (USD $1,105,263.16 per year). After transitioning to the Smart Parking system, it is expected that KCCA will be able to collect 100 percent of the parking revenue directly without an intermediate parking management company.
- Feasibility study results showed that, starting from the third year, KCCA is expected to see a rise in annual profit in parking revenue from USD $1,105,263.16 to USD $3,619,740.56, an increase of approximately 328 percent.
- The researchers corroborated that a possible reason for such a dramatic increase in expected revenues could be due to transparency in parking-related operations. Another reason could be the fact that the Smart Parking system would also facilitate the parking fee payment compliance rates.
