SmartPark — CBD In-Ground Parking Sensor Network
This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.
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More than 3,800 sensors buried in the parking bays told an app which spaces were free. Eight years on, the council dug them out and put in roughly 400 pay-by-plate meters instead.
what does this mean?
The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 1 more in Wellington · 🅿️ Smart parking guide · 🚲 Mobility projects
After a 2015 trial, Wellington City Council went live in August 2016 with SmartPark: 3,800+ RFID in-ground sensors across the CBD detecting bay occupancy, feeding the PayMyPark app for real-time availability and cashless payment. The council retired the network in January 2024, citing sensors nearing end of life after eight years, replacing it with roughly 400 simpler pay-by-plate meters.
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The in-ground parking sensor, and what replaced it
Buried bay sensors were the emblem of the smart-city decade. Three of the cities that installed them have since taken them out, and the fourth never put any in — a rare case where the atlas can watch a technology lose.
| Project | Since | Status | Outcome | Evidence | Run by | Cost | What the city relies on today |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SFpark Demand-Responsive ParkingSan Francisco, 🇺🇸 | 2011 | Live | Succeeded | Official | Utility or public operator | not public | The pilot that made demand-responsive pricing famous retired its sensors as too costly to maintain, and now sets kerb prices from payment data. |
| SmartPark — CBD In-Ground Parking Sensor NetworkWellington, 🇳🇿 | 2016 | Completed | Scaled back | Official | City government | NZ$1.5m to install (2016) | The council pulled the whole in-ground network after eight years and went back to simpler pay-by-plate meters. |
| Fastprk In-Ground Parking SensorsBarcelona, 🇪🇸 | 2011 | Completed | Scaled back | Independent | Private company | not public | The sensor city's own parking sensors scaled back; what drivers see today is built from what drivers pay, not from the ground. |
| Riyadh Parking: Priced Curbs & Camera PatrolsRiyadh, 🇸🇦 | 2024 | Live | Ongoing | Official | City government, Private company | not public | A later scheme skipped the ground entirely: priced bays, an app, and camera cars instead of buried sensors or wardens on foot. |
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📎 Cite this project
1001 Smart Cities (2026). “SmartPark — CBD In-Ground Parking Sensor Network” — Wellington, New Zealand. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/wellington-smartpark-parking/ (last verified 2026-07-19). Data: CC BY 4.0.
The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.