Viability Of Iot In Optimizing Time Spent Searching For Car Parking In Dar Es Salaam: A Case Study Of Kisutu Ward

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, searching for parking areashas been a headache matterfor many drivers

worldwide as drivers spend a lot of time searching for parking areas. This is

contributed by significant increase of number of cars in the cities.Thus, as thenumber

of cars increases in the cities, the demand for parking areas also increases, so as with

no information to drivers of where they can park their cars, drivers spendlong time

finding parking areas.Therefore, to tackle this problem the studyexperimented the

viability of IoT in optimizing the time used by drivers when searching for car

parking slots in Dar es Salaam city specifically at Kisutu ward.

The research adopted a case study research design where by semi-structured

interviews and observation were used to acquire a good understanding of the parking

problem. An experimentofrandom acquired respondents was conducted at Kisutu

ward, whereby a parking system was deployed at JMall parking area. The system

was developed by considering an IoT technique that was identified through

systematic literature review. The time “before” and “after” intervention of IoT

technique was recorded.Thirty (30) respondents (drivers) were enrolled for the

experiment; 18 were males and 12 were females.

The results in systematic literature review showed that, majority of studies used

Ultrasonic sensor, Infrared sensors and radio frequency identification as

technological technique for addressing parking problems in different part of the

world. Furthermore, many of the reviewed literature didn’t mention what were the

best technology for addressing parking problems especially in Dar es Salaam city,

though IoT technologies have been successfully applied in various studies in

identifying free parking spaces and sending that information to drivers through

mobile devices and other communication channels. Hence, it was found that, a

combination of the two technology (ultrasonic and infrared sensors) could have

positive effect on addressing parking problems at Kisutu ward in Dar es Salaam.

Majority (80%) of car drivers at Kisutu used their own experience in searching for

car parking slots whereby about 87% of car drivers mentioned that, finding car

parking slots is an issue at Kisutu ward. Of the two (2) conducted experiments

(before and after), “before experiment”duration was 28.1 minutes and “after

experiment” duration was 8.37 minutes in average searching for parking slots. “After

experiment” responded positively by 19.73 minutes lesser than “before experiment”

in searching for car parking slots.

Therefore, the study conclude that, although the technological technique used in this

study was the combination of two sensors which seemed to suite the environment of

Kisutu ward in Dar es Salaam, does not mean other researchers could not use more

than two sensors. Hence, the study recommends that, future studiescouldusea

combination of more than two sensors for addressing parking problems.