Palmerston North has 2,000 sensors placed on the road in parking spaces. They are solar powered. They can sense when a car arrives and leaves a parking space. Using satellite technology, this information is linked to road signs which show drivers where there are vacant parking spaces.
Drivers can download an app on their phones to pay for parking. The app also tells them where there are vacant spaces, and gives a reminder to the driver when their parking time has nearly expired.
Parking wardens can use information from the sensors to give parking tickets if cars stay too long.
This technology is now being tried in Auckland, Hamilton and other cities.
Vocabulary
• sensor (n) – a object e.g. photo-electric cell, which receives and sends a signal
• to sense (v) – to know automatically
• solar (adj) – from the sun
• vacant (adj) – empty (especially land, houses)
• expired (v) – finished (e.g. a passport expires after 5 or 10 years)