With more and more people driving electric vehicles, Montreal needed to address the issue of drivers who didn’t think parking restrictions and snow removal periods still applied..
AXSO proposed a solution that alerts drivers by displaying the parking hours for each individual charging station. It also notifies any driver who is about to use a charging station where permitted parking will soon lapse.
To integrate this feature, the City of Montreal provided AXSO with open data. Parking restrictions for the various streets, boulevards and avenues that affected partner charging stations had to be taken into account. Permitted hours can be changed in real time, such as for special events or construction.
This became particularly important during snow removal operations, when parking restrictions can change with very short notice. Since the app is connected to City of Montreal data, it can turn on a dime. This became indispensable for city administrators because, once a vehicle was charging, it could not be towed as was customary during normal snow removal operations, and it became an obstacle that complicated the work for crews.
With AXSO’s technology, City of Montreal administrators can also lock-out charging stations in a specific zone when parking is prohibited, making it impossible to initiate charging in the zone, a feature that is also appreciated by drivers.
Coming soon: a new feature will be introduced that will allow users to pay for parking and charging in the same location.
The AXSO solution for the City of Montréal is a great example of how integrating open data enables solutions to be developed even for some of a network’s most complex problems.
