Barrierless system to be trialled at Old Airport Road Food Centre car parks
SINGAPORE — Motorists using the open-air and multi-storey car parks near the Old Airport Road Food Centre can now enjoy the convenience of the barrierless parking system.
The Housing Development Board (HDB) said in a media release on Friday (16 September) that the system, dubbed Parking@HDB, had been trialled at six car parks in Punggol since January 2021, and the Old Airport Road car parks are the first ones outside of Punggol to carry out the trial.
Under the Parking@HDB system, there will be no gantry barriers at the car park entrances and exits, as the vehicle plates are registered via cameras.
Colour-coded LED overhead indicators have also been installed above parking lots at the Old Airport Road multi-storey car park to signal lot availability. Green means lots are available for short-term parking, amber means lots are reserved for season parking while blue indicate lots reserved for persons with physical disabilities.
For motorists who have parked in an unauthorised lot, the light indicator will turn red and flash to prompt the motorists to move their vehicles immediately.
Using Parking@HDB app to pay parking charges
For short-term parking, motorists can download the Parking@HDB app to pay their parking charges via credit or debit card.
The parking system detects the vehicle when it enters the car park and automatically activates the parking session through the app, and charges are automatically deducted when they exit the car park, without the need to activate the app.
With this, motorists need not insert their cash cards into the In-vehicle Unit, nor worry about insufficient funds.
The app will also provide real-time notifications at the start and end of the motorists' short-term parking sessions, as well as their incurred charges. It will also give an automated alert to detect motorists who park illegally or in an unauthorised lot.
Observations from trials at Punggol car parks
Since the parking system trials started in Punggol, close to 2 million parking transactions have been processed.
HDB has observed the following outcomes from the trials in Punggol:
Currently, 90 per cent of the feedback from motorists pertain to delays entering or exiting car parks due to car park gantry barriers.
Among the 21,000 users of the Parking@HDB app, around 20 per cent of the motorists parking short-term in the car parks paid their parking charges via the app. The remaining 80 per cent paid their parking charges using cashcard.
The number of cases of illegal parking has decreased by about 60 per cent at the trial car parks.
HDB has invite residents and motorists to try out the Parking@HDB experience and share their feedback to further refine the system. Those who download and use the app will enjoy free parking for their first three parking sessions at these trial car parks.
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