Innovative parking studies for the municipality of Amsterdam

The City of Amsterdam regularly conducts parking surveys to determine what the parking pressure or payment rate is in an area. With this information, the municipality improves the parking policy in the city. Until now, parking pressure surveys were conducted manually by field workers. For the next four years, the municipality chooses Ecorys’ innovative working method: collecting data with a scanning car.

The agreement has a duration of two years, with the option to extend twice thereafter by one year.
Ecorys is proud to, in addition to Rotterdam, now also be allowed to work in Amsterdam collecting and analyzing traffic data. With our innovative approach, we are happy to contribute to the development of the mobility policy of the future.

From manual to scan car
The municipality was already using scanning vehicles to measure the rate of payment. Ecorys will now also measure parking pressure with scan cars. The advantages of this method are:

• By conducting the surveys with scanning cars, more observations can be made in a shorter time frame for the same cost. These additional observations provide a more reliable picture.
• We capture (anonymized) information on vehicle data from the RDW, such as publicly available information of weight, fuel type, dimensions and color.
• Using Artificial Intelligence, we record (anonymously) the nature of objects placed in parking spaces. For example, trailers or containers. This information can help with enforcement and gives a better picture of parking pressure.
• The data is no longer collected manually but digitally and immediately enriched and verified. The data is stored in the data platform of the municipality of Amsterdam. In this way, the municipality can, for example, calculate parking pressure and payment rates. The data from these parking surveys can also be combined with other data from the municipality.
• A ‘price per scan’ has been determined, making it easy to estimate the cost of additional surveys.
• Naturally, the collection of the data complies with privacy regulations.

Ecorys’ first scanning cars are driving through Amsterdam since November 2022.