Cellular connectivity enhances safety and efficiency in parking garages.
By Stephen M. Kowal
The U.S. has more than 2 billion parking spots for around 250 million cars. Although that may seem like enough to go around, in dense urban areas and other locations where providing ample parking is difficult, spots can be hard to come by.
To help drivers park swiftly and safely, many parking garage owners now employ occupancy sensors with digital readouts, informing drivers of how many spots are available and even on which floors. However, these sensors require reliable cellular connectivity to remain online. When occupancy sensors and displays lose connection, they’re likely to show outdated information, or no information at all, causing great frustration for drivers. And that frustration can negatively affect the businesses that rely on the garage to accommodate their patrons: If people can’t find parking, they might abandon their plans altogether.
The easy answer to an absence of cellular coverage would be to simply replace it with Wi-Fi. But while Wi-Fi has plenty of useful applications, it’s not the best solution in a parking garage environment. For one, garage owners may struggle to scale Wi-Fi throughout the parking structure, especially if it has multiple floors. Wi-Fi also poses several inconveniences to drivers, as it can’t accommodate occupancy sensors as well as cellular can, and time-consuming login processes deter users from connecting to the garage network, leaving them once again in the dark. With these limitations in mind, garage owners should consider investing in stable cellular connectivity to promote operational efficiency, user safety, and convenience.
The role of cellular connectivity in parking garages
Parking garages are infamous for being cellular dead zones: Thick concrete walls and tight corners block signals, making it difficult to connect to the macro network. The problem only intensifies in the surrounding walkways, stairwells, and elevators, where additional obstructive materials and enclosed designs further block signals, resulting in little to no cellular coverage.
Reliable cellular connectivity isn’t just about convenience — it’s a critical matter of safety. The dark corners and frequent absence of passersby in a parking garage can set people on edge. Having a strong, reliable signal or being able to maintain a call while walking alone through a parking structure makes patrons feel safer and less isolated. With a stable connection, patrons can also easily call for help in the event of an emergency or car trouble or simply keep in touch with friends and family. High-quality cellular connections can also keep surveillance cameras online and even support live streaming to enable real-time monitoring of the premises and accelerate response to incidents.
Some garage owners have tried to compensate for their cellular dead zones with Wi-Fi, but this is rarely a viable solution. Tenants and employees who use a garage daily may not take issue with logging into a third-party Wi-Fi network, but visitors and customers will find it inconvenient. It also raises security concerns: When in public, people often feel safer using their phones over cellular, since they know their service provider has network protections in place.
The role of cellular connectivity also extends to the various systems and applications that streamline and secure garage operations. Cellular networks ensure that key systems like occupancy sensors and their associated readouts remain operational, even in large, complex structures. Cellular provides a reliable, scalable solution for critical applications such as contactless payments, electric vehicle charging stations, and emergency kiosks, enhancing safety and peace of mind for patrons.
How cellular connectivity enhances operations
Reliable cellular connections keep critical systems functional throughout a parking structure, reducing downtime for more efficient operations and a better customer experience.
Consistent uptime can enhance garage operations in three critical areas: personnel, payments, and occupancy.
Maintenance crews, security guards, and other key personnel will benefit from uninterrupted communications while onsite or monitoring remotely. Reliable cellular coverage improves coordination across teams and enables technologies that help them to do their jobs. For example, Internet of Things (IoT) devices can monitor the health of equipment, such as elevators and gates, to send alerts when maintenance is required.
With real-time updates and predictive maintenance capabilities, garage personnel can address issues quickly and keep services running smoothly.
Stable connection also speeds up transactions at payment kiosks or via mobile payment apps, reducing the need for cash handling. This funnels drivers in and out of the garage more efficiently and, perhaps most importantly, ensures that payments always go through. This creates a more convenient experience for customers while minimizing operational costs.
Occupancy sensors rely on cellular connection to inform drivers of how many spaces are available in a garage. Patrons expect a sensor’s readout to be accurate, whether it’s showing on a display board at the garage entrance or a parking app on their phone. Keeping sensors online and functioning at the highest level of accuracy will benefit everyone using the garage.
Addressing connectivity challenges in parking
Poor cellular signal in parking garages is coverage-related, not capacity-related. This means the issue is not that there are too many devices for the network to accommodate, but that the garage itself is obstructing signal penetration.
Common solutions to enhance cellular reception in parking garages include signal boosters and the approach known as a distributed antenna system (DAS).
Cellular signal boosters provide a cost-effective solution by amplifying existing signals from outside the structure. The boosters ensure strong cellular coverage even in underground or multi-level parking garages and are particularly effective for smaller to mid-sized garages.
Meanwhile, an intelligent active DAS offers greater coverage for larger or more complex structures by distributing signals through multiple antennas across different levels. They take advantage of the macro network outside the garage and bring it indoors, patching up dead zones and ensuring consistent connectivity for systems like payment kiosks and security cameras. In addition to the improved coverage, garage owners can also enable specialized applications, including gunshot detection technology for improved safety, through their intelligent active DAS.
Both signal booster and intelligent active DAS technology significantly enhance the customer experience and public safety in parking garages by ensuring end-to-end coverage across the premises.
The cellular difference
As parking garages continue to integrate advanced technologies, cellular connectivity plays a vital role in maintaining smooth, uninterrupted operations. A robust wireless connectivity plan will enable parking garages to remain competitive in the next generation of smart infrastructure and future-proof their operations.
Guests and tenants shouldn’t have to guess whether or not they’ll have coverage in a parking garage. They should simply be able to use their devices as normal, with seamless, secure connectivity.
STEPHEN M. KOWAL is the chief commercial officer at Nextivity Inc.
