Bayline, an Ethos initiative to help local authorities deal with parking issues, is being deployed by South London Partnership’s InnOvaTe Project.

The London Borough of Sutton are working with us to install sensors with the aim of providing a better insight into the number of vehicles using the main car parks and their timings.

Parking spaces have seen a significant increase in use during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many residents relied on the borough’s green spaces for daily exercise, to get fresh air or to improve their mental wellbeing.

The central car park has a single track in and out, which can often become congested and cause gridlock with drivers not being able to exit as new ones enter the park.

As a result, this has impacted the surrounding residents, with police being involved due to cases of illegal parking and complaints from the local community. The Bayline solution can show that a car has been parked within 7 seconds.

The sensors will be piloted for one year and will be implemented in three identified locations. Data collected from the sensors will be anonymous and in compliance with all GDPR policies and the Transparency Principles of the InnOvaTe project.

Should the trial go well, Council officers can then assess whether this information can be used to display on a live board, informing visitors arriving at the park that the car parks are full or providing alternative parking locations to help prevent any gridlock occurring .

Councillor Manuel Abellan, Chair of the Environment & Sustainable Transport Committee at Sutton Council, said:

“Beddington Park is very popular amongst our local residents with a range of facilities on offer including; wide open spaces, a playground and a cafe serving fresh food and drinks. However we are aware that many residents have struggled to gain access to the car parks, causing unnecessary traffic and problems for the local community.”

“Piloting this technology will help assist the Council’s park officers with accurately reporting back on the car park usage, helping to ensure that safe and reliable access can be maintained.”

“Our residents can then use the car parks safely as we tackle the overcrowding of parking areas and prevent the access road from becoming jammed.”

Edward Lambert, project lead at Ethos VO Ltd, said

“This is a bold attempt to crack a complex problem involving driver behaviour in which Sutton Council are understandably seeking to address residents’ concerns about overcrowding in Beddington Park.”

“As well as understanding historic parking occupancy and assisting planning for future parking availability, we expect to build a parameter set that optimises real time parking utilisation whilst avoiding the current congestion that the park experiences on a regular basis.”

“With a comprehensive sensor network, our solution is also expected to identify parking outside permitted parking areas and further minimise disruption for residents and road users.”

“We are delighted to bring our technology to Sutton and develop an IoT based solution that we expect to be able to help local authorities nationwide.”

About Bayline:

Bayline, an Ethos initiative, is a real-time parking management platform for local authorities.

The Bayline technology incorporates National Highways-approved surface mounted low-profile sensors and can detect occupancy within 7 seconds of vehicle movement. The data which communicates over LPWAN to a central base station can be immediately transmitted to the base station for upload via 4G to Bayline’s secure servers. Using the live data from the car park sensors, Bayline can show Sutton Council real time occupancy for the car parks both on site and on a dashboard and parking management system.

Bayline is designed to enable parking managers to optimise the use of parking assets and provide insights into opportunities to make parking a vital part of better placemaking.

Find out more at the project website: bayline.tech

About the InnOvaTe Project:

South London Partnership is working with London Councils to deliver an exciting and innovative “Internet of Things” (IoT) project across the five south London Councils of Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Sutton.

This initiative is funded by the Strategic Investment Pot (SIP) as part of the London Councils Business Rates Retention scheme which is administered by the City of London Corporation, and hopes to improve people’s lives through the delivery of a multi-purpose Internet of Things (IoT) platform, which will connect various sensors across borough boundaries.

The project is led by Sutton Council, which was selected to oversee the project on behalf of the other boroughs.

Find out more at the InnOvaTe Project Website https://www.innovateproject.org/