The Town of Newmarket was recently awarded the Excellence in Municipal Systems Award from the Municipal Information Systems Association of Ontario (MISA) for its artificial intelligence (AI) data-driven Loop (Parksense+) Parking Pilot Program. This achievement is a prestigious award given to an Ontario municipality who has successfully undertaken a significant initiative or set a new standard that other municipalities may follow.
"Congratulations to the Town of Newmarket and all staff from various departments who played an integral role in securing the Municipal Systems Award from MISA for our innovative AI data-driven Pilot Parking Program," says Mayor John Taylor. "With the success of this pilot program, we hope to continue to monitor the data gathered to make data driven decisions around parking behaviors, trends and usage that will contribute to the Town's economic vibrancy."
Newmarket partnered with Loop (ParkSense+), a graduate company of the Treefrog Accelerator Program, to launch a pilot parking project that provides 24/7 data in a major parking lot in the downtown area.
The Parking Pilot program uses off-the-shelf cameras installed in strategic locations in the Riverwalk Commons parking lot, an internet connection and a secure AI technology to provide 24/7 monitoring of parking spots in real-time and blurs all the license plates and faces before the data is processed and reviewed. The goal of the program is to use gathered insights to make informed decisions around parking in the downtown area to better service visitors and residents of Newmarket. No images are stored after the data is processed.
Each parking spot is captured on the camera and is monitored and categorized by its availability, and the length of time the parking spot is occupied – from less than five minutes to three-plus hours.
The data collected allows the Town to better understand where and when parking pressures occurred, compare the data to real- time events (i.e. during concerts and festivals) helps visualize seasonal parking demand and where and how many additional parking spots can be added.
Please see the images below for an example of the data that the program was able to collect.
Parking Data Captured for April 18, 2024 at 6 a.m.
 | The parking data captured at 6 a.m. shows an occupancy rate of 13.9% with many parking spots available.
The dark red dots indicate a longer use of the parking spot, and the white spots indicate an unoccupied space. |
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| Parking Data Captured for April 18, 2024 at 1 p.m.
 | Later the same day, the parking data now shows an occupancy rate of 80.6% with many spots occupied for a longer period.
The average parking spot occupancy on April 18, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. was 73.9% while the average occupancy for the entire day (12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.) was 36.1%. |
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With the success of the Loop (ParkSense+) Parking Pilot Program, the Town is currently working to expand the pilot project to other downtown parking lots to provide more insight for future planning. Other future uses of the technology may include but is not limited to, overtime and illegal parking detection and offering real- time parking data and wayfinding to visitors to downtown Newmarket – effectively reducing the time spent to find parking during peak periods.
For more information about the MISA award and program please visit MISA’s award webpage.
About the Treefrog Accelerator Program
The Treefrog Accelerator Program is Newmarket’s own start-up accelerator developed by Treefrog Inc, a Newmarket digital transformation company, and several partners including the Central York Chamber of Commerce and York University.
The goal of the Accelerator Program is to provide local and international businesses in Canada (start-ups) the tools and knowledge they need to succeed within the North American market. As a strong supporter, the Town of Newmarket is investing in the Accelerator as part of the Town's Economic Development Strategy. Building an entrepreneurial eco-system and fostering the entrepreneurial spirit are driving forces of the Strategy, along with attraction, marketing, and community vibrancy. Learn more at treefrog.biz.