Electronic Parking Signs in Waterford City

RobitTV

A new electronic car park signage guidance system is currently being installed by Waterford City Council on all main routes into the city. These variable message signs (VMS) will assist in guiding visitors to all of the main privately-run and city council car parks within the general city centre area. The signs will also indicate, in real time, the number of available parking spaces in the named car parks. In all, there are 27 electronic and 10 smaller, non-VMS, signs included in the project.

The privately owned car parks are the Forde Wharf, Merchants Quay and Clyde Wharf car parks (all owned by the Port of Waterford), Clock Tower Car Park, City Square Car Park, The Glen Car Park and New St. Car Park. The signs are currently being tested and the scheme is scheduled for completion within the next week.

Senior executive engineer, Jim Hickey, stands beneath one of the new parking information signs at Lombard Street.

Sully

Yeah, nice idea. Thought the council had forgotten them at one stage, seemed to be floating between dots, numbers and letters over the last few weeks

nkay1985

Yeah they seem to have been up for a good while with no sign of them actually coming online. I presume the intention was for them to be ready before December to help people coming into town for Christmas shopping but that they were delayed a bit.

JohnC.

How do they know the number of spaces? Maybe some of the car parks have sensors or something, but Millers Marsh at least doesn't, but it does have a display on the signs, though not yet active.

Professey Chin

Kahless wrote: »

How do they know the number of spaces? Maybe some of the car parks have sensors or something, but Millers Marsh at least doesn't, but it does have a display on the signs, though not yet active.

I think they count how many times each barrier goes up

JohnC.

Ultimate Chin wrote: »

I think they count how many times each barrier goes up

No barrier in Millers Marsh. No way of guessing how long each car is parked there either as the tickets last up to a whole day if you pay the 2 hour charge, so they can't make guesses by ticket expiry times. But the barrier method would work elsewhere. Hadn't thought of that.

fricatus

Kahless wrote: »

How do they know the number of spaces? Maybe some of the car parks have sensors or something, but Millers Marsh at least doesn't, but it does have a display on the signs, though not yet active.

I don't know, but I was parked down at the Clyde Wharf the other day and just while I was waiting, for curiosity, I watched the number changed as cars drove in and out, and it seemed to be updating correctly.

No barrier there, so there must be some sort of sensor.

AdMMM

Most car parks just monitor their barrier. Car goes in their entrance, -1 space, car leaves, +1 space. Our own car park falls victim to some abuse though, I like to keep the barriers system fairly accurate to stop people coming in and double parking but if two cars leave the car park at once (not waiting for the barrier to close after the car in front of them) they can become skewed very quickly

Aquos76

Kahless wrote: »

No barrier in Millers Marsh. No way of guessing how long each car is parked there either as the tickets last up to a whole day if you pay the 2 hour charge, so they can't make guesses by ticket expiry times. But the barrier method would work elsewhere. Hadn't thought of that.

They have installed the sensors in the ground in Millers Marsh

Cabaal

Great idea, shame some idiots will park and take up two spaces which will only register as one space :mad:

Hoffmans

how would a stranger know where these carparks are unless they had a map of the town??:

wellbutty

Hoffmans wrote: »

how would a stranger know where these carparks are unless they had a map of the town??:

The signs have arrows on them!

Bards

Hoffmans wrote: »

how would a stranger know where these carparks are unless they had a map of the town??:

Look at the first picture in the first post again - open your eyes/use a bit of cop-on

Another instance of waterford people knocking everything and contributing nothing

Roanmore

Hoffmans wrote: »

how would a stranger know where these carparks are unless they had a map of the town??:

You could say that about any city / town.

Traumadoc

Waste of money IMO, never had any difficulty finding a parking space, especially along the quays.

Never thought "gosh I wish they had a sign telling me which carparks are full"

echosound

I think it's a great idea - especially for people who wouldn't be overly familiar with Waterford and might only come shopping here once every few months or so.

Sure, most of us who live here know exactly where the carparks are and how likely any of them are to have very few spaces left at certain times, but it's a great initiative to make things a little easier on visitors to the city.

I know I find it a lot handier in a town/city I'm not familiar with to have signposts (complete with arrows and spaces available) for the nearest carpark, rather than driving around for ages on streets I don't know all that well trying to find a spot, and if it makes the trip easier on visitors, all the better for encouraging them to return again in the future and leave some money behind in the shops.

Aren't people always complaining how the council need to get the finger out with regard to trying to encourage people to visit Waterford? I'm as big a moaner about stuff as most people, but I'm not about to knock the council for doing something to try to add to the city.

Thumbs up from me.

Psychedelic

The Council should be commended for finally doing this alright, but they should have done them 4/5 years ago when they said they would. Dunno why it took them so long.

Nakatomi wrote: »

Waste of money IMO, never had any difficulty finding a parking space, especially along the quays.

Never thought "gosh I wish they had a sign telling me which carparks are full"

Well they're not really for know-it-alls like you. The signs are mainly for tourists or visitors who don't know the city centre well enough to find parking. The signs will just make their time in Waterford a little bit better by making it easier for them to find parking.

kakak1

nkay1985 wrote: »

Yeah they seem to have been up for a good while with no sign of them actually coming online. I presume the intention was for them to be ready before December to help people coming into town for Christmas shopping but that they were delayed a bit.

the people that is by the looks of town today

nkay1985

kakak1 wrote: »

the people that is by the looks of town today

I don't really understand what you mean.

AdMMM

Think he meant town was deserted.

Hoffmans

These signs will do nothing but confuse tourists following sat navs in their rented cars leading to plenty of lost souls to go with the ones already living there......

would have better put up signs ---> pointing to the few ways left to go to avoid badly made speed ramps and potholes.......

AdMMM

Hoffmans wrote: »

These signs will do nothing but confuse tourists following sat navs in their rented cars leading to plenty of lost souls to go with the ones already living there......

would have better put up signs ---> pointing to the few ways left to go to avoid badly made speed ramps and potholes.......

I agree. They should have integrated interactive Google maps onto the sign posts so people can see the right way to go. Just in case the binoculars aren't close to hand for the tourists stuck in traffic, perhaps the City Council should erect giant LED screens, like you'd see in Wembley, on top of derelict buildings which also have the maps. To justify the cost involved, they could display information relevant to the Waterford people during the "off-season" for tourism, like English Premiership scores.

Here's a retarded artists impression of how it would look.

Hoffmans

I think ya have something there!

but dont go running off to the patents office yet ,it needs a bit of fine tuning....


WHY DIDNT THEY PUT A GIANT MAP WITH CARPARK DIRECTIONS ON THE OLD MILL ACROSS THE RIVER INSTEAD A SOME WANS FACE?:):confused::)

Sully

Mod Note:

Lets get back on topic please folk (properly!)

wmpdd3

Aquos76 wrote: »

They have installed the sensors in the ground in Millers Marsh

I'm intrigued, how would this work?

JohnC.

wmpdd3 wrote: »

I'm intrigued, how would this work?

They are at the entrance, presumably just counting the cars going in and out. Not sure if it can deal with idiots driving on the wrong side in an attempt to shave vital milliseconds off their journey.

Sully

How long does it take to get them working?! They still remain a bit fecked. Some showing "SPACES" in red, some were turned off today and Millars Marsh car park kept coming up with a red dot! The sign at Masons seems to be turned off most of the time also.

gscully

Sully wrote: »

How long does it take to get them working?! They still remain a bit fecked. Some showing "SPACES" in red, some were turned off today and Millars Marsh car park kept coming up with a red dot! The sign at Masons seems to be turned off most of the time also.

They seem unreliable at the moment. I drove along Lombard St and the sign said that there were 31 spaces free in Bolton St. Yeah, right!