New parking space concept for Neustadt: costs, opportunities and analyses!

New parking space concept for Neustadt: costs, opportunities and analyses!

The city of Cologne is pushing forward the parking space concept and is thus facing the challenges of modern parking space management. At a city council meeting, Thorsten Völker, head of the Department of Order, Environment and Citizen Services, provided information about current developments and income from parking fees. In 2024, the city was able to collect around 1.45 million euros from these fees. The personnel costs for managing the parking amounted to 588,000 euros, which resulted in a positive result of a good 835,000 euros if one ignores the maintenance and cleaning costs of the parking areas. The city's effort also includes investing in 31 new parking ticket machines to modernize the city center.

A central point of the parking system is cell phone parking, whose usage rate is currently 20 percent. Comprehensive data on parking space occupancy and the origin of parked vehicles has been collected since April. The city wants to find out how the distribution between residents and visitors works. A contracted office will analyze the collected data and an interim report will be prepared upon completion of this analysis. This will be presented to citizens and politicians before the concept for managing the parking spaces is voted on in the committees Rhine Palatinate reported.

Modern solutions for Cologne

The parking space concept aims to efficiently use the limited space in the city and meet the needs of all road users. The need for modern parking space management approaches is becoming increasingly clear in German cities. According to the latest statistics, parking spaces in cities are occupied by vehicles for an average of 23 hours per day. Innovative, digital solutions are in demand here. Successful examples from cities such as Munich, Hamburg and Berlin show how modern parking space management can alleviate parking pressure and increase the quality of life of residents NIB highlights.

A key to success are digital systems that enable the use of sensors for vehicle recognition and real-time information. For example, modern parking sensors can be installed beneath the road surface to provide precise information about occupancy status. Digital payment options also contribute to efficiency by enabling per-minute billing, making the parking process much easier.

The climate balance at a glance

Another important aspect is the climate footprint of the new parking systems. According to a study by Fraunhofer UMSICHT, digital free-flow systems show advantages over traditional barrier solutions. These systems automatically record vehicle license plates and enable payment without a parking ticket. The study found that in a basic scenario of 500 parking spaces, savings of around 8 grams of CO2 equivalents could be achieved per process. Under high traffic conditions even up to 49 percent. The savings result in particular from avoiding stop-and-go traffic when entering and exiting, which improves the overall climate balance Fraunhofer UMSICHT explained.

In summary, it shows that Cologne is on a promising path to creatively mastering the challenges of parking in the city center. The mix of traditional methods and digital innovations now needs to be further strengthened in order to ensure positive development for the city and its citizens.