In comparison to other European countries, Italy’s parking management process has suffered from a long-standing deficit in terms of planning and implementation. The situation has worsened over time because of the rapid growth of private motorization, which occurred at the expense of collective transport.
The lack of parking spaces has become evident: while Europe can boast 60% of parking in dedicated structures and 40% on the road, Italy’s percentages rank for the opposite. All this entails that cars keep invading roads and stealing space to pedestrian movement, public transport and other forms of alternative mobility. The entire field therefore needs a massive modernization process.
In the years to come, in fact, vehicles for people and goods transport will turn into ‘intelligent’ tools capable of facilitating all driving activities, such as parking alerts to reduce the time dedicated to parking spots searching, as well as environmental pollution. In this context, car spots, both in structures and on the roadside, will have to adapt to a huge transformation process which involve Smart Mobility, logistics, alternative mobility, recharging electric vehicles, and dedicated car services. For these reasons, the path of digitalization will be the primary step of the transformation.
Viasat, AIPARK’s technological partner since last year, will play an important role in relation to the development plans of the next decade.
By Fabio Mosconi, President AIPARK (Associazione Italiana Operatori Sosta e Mobilità)
