Not all tourist destinations are geared towards facilitating a large volume of vehicles all arriving at a similar time. Many of the destinations were created when car ownership was significantly less than now.
The challenge
Not all tourist destinations are geared towards facilitating a large volume of vehicles all arriving at a similar time. Many of the destinations were created when car ownership was significantly less than now. In this case Scheveningen, a beach resort close to the city of Den Haag in the Netherlands, was known as a tourist destination as far back as 1818 without the huge amount of modern infrastructure such as space for off-street parking. Because of this, on warm summer days there is very high congestion and cars parked on residential streets which caused disruption for local residents and the consequence to the climate.
Q-Park’s solution
Q-Park teamed up with both Den Haag Council and HTM, the local Tram operator, to provide an integrated mobility solution to help aid tourists travel to Scheveningen Beach easily whilst also reducing congestion at the resort itself.
Rather than driving to the beach customers are directed to pre-book parking online at 3 Q-Park facilities in Den Haag City Centre, CS New Babylon, Malieveld and Laakhaven. Customers pre-book 24 hours parking for the heavily discounted rate of €5 and then pay an additional €1 per person for their tram tickets. Parking capacity at these facilities was not considered a problem as they were more often used by commuters during the week meaning there was plenty of spaces available on a weekend.
Access into the car park is facilitated by using Q-Park’s state of the art new PaSS (Parking as a Smart Service) Automatic Number Plate Recognition System. Beachgoers simply drive up to the entry barrier and the arm is raised within seconds of reading the number plate providing customers a seamless experience. Once their vehicles are safely parked customers walk the short distance to the tram stop at Den Haag Central Station. They then jump on the tram and the operator scans the QR code on their parking booking confirmation.
After a fun day at the beach the customers take the tram back to Den Haag, jump in their car and drive out of the car park once again taking advantage of the seamless experience of the number plate recognition.
Outcome
This scheme has proved incredibly popular with visitors to Scheveningen and therefore has hugely reduced congestion on the roads around the beach which has improved the liveability of the local area. Commercially Q-Park have been able to drive volume into parking facilities that are usually quieter on weekends. The innovative PaSS technology allows Q-Park to replicate this scheme to customers in other Q-Park countries including the UK & Ireland.
