PeopleTrans worked with Westfield and SCentre Group, the manager of Westfield shopping centres in Australia, to help switch all existing car park gates at Westfield Parramatta, Westfield Chatswood and Westfield Burwood to an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system.

 An ANPR system or a License Plate Recognition System (LPR) reduces the entry and exit time for customers by eliminating the need to stop and take a ticket on entry and to insert the ticket into the machine to open the boom gate on exit. This can help improve the efficiency of existing car parks and make sites more attractive to customers.

For each car park, PeopleTrans visited the site to observe the operation of each entry and exit, car park traffic circulation and pedestrian flows during busy times and to identify current operational issues. 

A detailed design review and swept path assessment was then carried out on the proposed layout for each access to ensure that the proposed infrastructure could keep appropriate clearance for vehicles and met the relevant Australian Standards and the Westfield Design Guidelines. This is to ensure the safety of customers using the car parks. The car parking spaces affected by the modifications to each access were reviewed to ensure a minimum of loss of parking spaces was achieved or where possible additional spaces could be provided on each site.

A transport impact assessment report was prepared and provided to Scentre Group to help get approval from Council for the construction.

After the LPR system was installed at Westfield Parramatta, PeopleTrans inspected the car park and reviewed the detailed measurements collected on-site to ensure the installation occurred as documented in the DA approved plans and was in matched the development consent. Detailed recommendations were provided to Scentre Group to address the identified non-compliances to obtain an occupation certificate.

For more information on our design expertise and to help improve the shopping experience for your customers, please get in contact with Matthew Houlden in our Sydney office on 02 8226 8760.