Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) operates seven car parks in the centre of AMAC. The Council has a requirement for a new system to control its car parks. This system must provide for the day-to-day operation of each car park—issuing tickets, handling payment and controlling barriers—and the management of car parks—recording problems, issuing season tickets and monitoring service level agreements with the security company that guards the car parks.
Operational System
The car park operational system controls entry to and exit from a car park and payment for car parking.
There are three types of users: ordinary customers, who pay for their use of each car park at the time they use it; season ticket holders, who pay a fixed amount in advance for parking for three, six or twelve months in a specific car park; and Government official cars. While the government official cars are exempted from paying to park, they are allowed into these car parks for free on weekdays only with no reserved parking space for their vehicles. Season ticket holders are allocated parking spaces in designated areas that are not available to ordinary customers from Monday to Friday. Season tickets are for weekdays only; the designated spaces are available to all customers at week-ends. No more than 10% of the spaces in a car park are allocated to season ticket holders.
Entry to the Car Park
When a car approaches an entry barrier, its presence is detected by a sensor under the road surface, and a ‘Press Button’ display is flashed on the control pillar.
The ordinary customer must press a button on the control pillar, and a ticket is printed and issued. The ticket must be printed within five seconds. A ‘Take Ticket’ display is flashed on the control pillar. If the car park is full, no ticket is issued, and a ‘Full’ display is flashed on the control pillar. If a vehicle leaves the car park, then the ‘Press Button’ display