Suitability of smart car parking for shopping malls in Sri Lanka

Smart parking is a technical advancement that makes use of sensors and information technology to assist users in finding available parking spaces. It is a management approach for parking lots in many facilities for users to find satisfactory parking places. Shopping malls are one of the facilities that face different parking management issues due to the large crowd. Smart car parking solution is one of the best solutions to mitigate the issues associated with parking management systems. Thus, this study aims to investigate the suitability of smart car parking as a solution to mitigate the current parking management issues faced by Sri Lankan shopping malls. A case study approach is employed using three shopping mall facilities located in Colombo metropolitan area to analyse the current parking management issues. Further, a questionnaire survey was carried out to identify the issues from the customers’ perspective. The data collected from structured interviews and the questionnaire survey was analysed using manual content analysis and statistical analysis, respectively. The findings revealed that the choice of shopping at the facility is strongly affected by the availability of parking, and this has a significant impact on the facility. Further, this paper highlights the major issues associated with shopping mall parking management systems and the suitability of smart car parking to mitigate those issues. The findings of this study are useful in developing smart car parking solutions for shopping malls in Sri Lanka.