Ground sensors on roadside parking spaces could make payments automatic under new URA pilot project

Paying for roadside parking might become automatic in the future, if a planned trial to install sensors on the ground goes well.

These sensors embedded in the ground would be able to detect when a car drives into or leaves a roadside parking space, and communicate with the vehicle's on-board unit (OBU) via Bluetooth technology.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) called a tender on May 6 for proposals to study the effectiveness of such a system.

The agency told The Straits Times on May 29 that the study aims to test the viability of using Bluetooth communications to facilitate automated payment for roadside parking to make it more convenient for motorists.

These sensors would be flat and easily driven over by vehicles.

Currently, motorists pay for roadside parking either with paper parking coupons, or through the Parking.sg app.

This URA study is separate from other plans by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to also use the OBU for payments for roadside parking.

This feature, which the LTA intends to roll out when most vehicles have OBUs fitted, will require motorists to use the OBU's touchscreen display to start the parking session. The parking session ends automatically when the vehicle is driven out of the parking space.

LTA said that it will "work with URA to review the outcome of this study in assessing any future deployment plans".

Across the island, URA manages approximately 13,000 roadside parking spaces.

For this trial, URA intends to select a contractor and conduct a reliability test at Changi Beach Car Park 5 from October 2025 to July 2026. It also intends to carry out an operational pilot at carparks in Chinatown, Keong Saik and Bukit Timah from August 2026 to July 2027.

According to tender documents published on government procurement portal GeBiz, the 10-month reliability test will need to be conducted on four vehicle types: passenger sedans, light goods vehicles such as lorries, heavy vehicles such as prime movers, as well as buses with 23 or more seats.

URA did not comment on why it excluded motorcycles from the trial.

For the 12-month operational pilot, the authority noted that the three carpark locations were chosen because it is possible to put in the sensors at these places for the trial while having them remain accessible to motorists.

"We do not expect any disruptions to parking operations," said the URA spokesperson.

ST understands that there will be no automated payments triggered in the study.

The tender closes at 4pm on Aug 21, and the contract will be awarded by October 2025.

Asked about when it hopes to roll out these parking sensors on a wider scale, URA said it will review the outcome of the study and other parallel initiatives in assessing future deployment plans.

Motorists and operators whom ST spoke to mostly welcomed this new initiative, although some raised concerns.

Mr Davidson Chua, 25, said that such a system could "remove the hassle" of manually starting a carpark session when he is in a rush.

The business co-founder also hopes that the system would be able to inform motorists of the availability of parking spaces in the area.

But Mr Chua noted that some motorists may be unhappy with this new initiative, as they can no longer "game the system" by avoiding payments whenever they can.

Mr Lim Kian Chin, the managing director of Allied Container Group, a firm with a fleet of more than 80 lorries and prime movers, said that data collected from these sensors may improve land resource planning as the agency will know how well used parking spaces are and decide how best to use the available space.

But Mr Lim, who is also chairman of the Singapore Transport Association, said that it may be troublesome for truck and lorry drivers who often temporarily park their vehicles at roadside parking spaces to run quick errands, such as delivering goods to the service counter of a building.

As at June, over 500,000 vehicles have been fitted with new OBU, which is part of the new satellite-based Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system known as ERP 2.0.

These OBUs are capable of determining a vehicle's location and processing ERP charges. They can provide motorists with more information like real-time traffic alerts of road closures and accidents.

The installation of the new OBUs in Singapore-registered vehicles is targeted to be completed by 2026.