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FROM April 15, road-side electronic signboards will help motorists in the built-up Marina Centre area zero in on available parking lots.
The Land Transport Authority's so-called Parking Guidance System will signal the number of available lots in all major buildings in the area.
It is expected to cut down on the time drivers spend circling the area looking for parking lots. This, in turn, should reduce traffic in the vicinity.
Although an increasingly common system employed in carparks in commercial buildings, this is the first time a Parking Guidance System is being tried out on public roads here.
Such systems are fairly widely used in Europe and North America. The overseas systems usually come with directional arrows, so drivers who are unfamiliar with the area can get a quick sense of where the buildings listed are.
The LTA has started testing eight electronic panels in the Marina Centre area, and they will start operating on April 15.
The system will be rolled out later in other busy or built-up parts of Singapore, such as the Sentosa-HarbourFront area.
In Marina Centre, the panels will list the available lots in Suntec City, Marina Square, Millenia Singapore, The Esplanade and Raffles City.
Besides parking information, the panels can also, like expressway signboards, give traffic advisory.
The vendor for the Marina Centre system is homegrown Wei Long Electronics Engineering, a 10-year-old company specialising in cashless parking systems. It beat four other bidders - including international names - to supply the system for around $700,000.
LTA chief executive Yam Ah Mee said on Monday: 'We hope that with the Parking Guidance System, it would help to reduce the amount of circulating traffic, which will, in turn, lead to a more efficient use of our roads.'
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