Parking & Urban Mobility Use Cases

As cities look for ways to manage growing traffic and limited space, parking remains one of the most persistent urban challenges. From public transport hubs to private buildings, parking affects how people move, how efficiently cities function, and even how businesses operate.

In recent years, technologies such as automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) and real-time data analytics have started to transform parking management. Tobias Ekberg, Head of Business Development at Observit (Sweden), explained that the shift is not just about collecting data but using it to improve how people move through urban environments.

“Cities are trying to achieve flexibility and efficiency, combining different modes of transport, like buses, trains, and e-bikes, while making the best use of available space.”

The goal, he said, is to create systems that allow drivers, cyclists, and commuters to switch between transport modes smoothly. Many cities now combine parking facilities with scooter rentals or bike stations near train hubs to make mobility easier and more sustainable.

Jan Grusznic, Business Development Director at SquareTec (Poland), agreed that convenience and integration are key, but reliability remains the foundation of any good parking system. “It has to work every time,” he explained, noting that users expect barriers to open instantly and cameras to recognize plates in all weather conditions.

Grusznic also shared an example where SquareTec integrated parking management with digital collaboration tools. When employees scheduled meetings in Microsoft Teams, the system automatically added their vehicle to a whitelist for access and removed it after the meeting ended. This type of automation reduces paper tickets, minimizes errors, and makes parking part of a larger digital ecosystem.

Beyond automation, both experts pointed out that data sharing and openness are now the main pressure points in creating efficient mobility systems. Many access control, camera, and parking platforms still rely on proprietary standards, making integration difficult even when stakeholders are willing to cooperate.

“Vendors often say their systems are open,” said Grusznic, “but integration is still complex and time-consuming. We need standard protocols for sharing data and making systems work together.”

Ekberg noted that in public transport, frameworks like IT4PT already define how different systems communicate, a model that could benefit parking and ALPR as well. A standardized “language” for essential services would make collaboration easier between cities, technology providers, and infrastructure operators.

Improving data quality also remains crucial. ALPR systems can now detect not just license plates, but also vehicle attributes such as type, color, and missing plates. Combined with shared data standards, this information could help cities better manage congestion, identify violations, and optimize parking use.

Urban mobility today depends as much on communication between systems as on the technology itself. The smarter the data flow, the smoother the movement of people and vehicles and the closer cities move toward a truly connected, efficient infrastructure.

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