Airport Plays Red Light, Green Light

By Len Lazarick

BWI Airport has started playing a high-tech version of red light, green light, hoping to win the hearts of frustrated travelers trying to park.

On level 2 of the terminal garage, BWI last month became the first U.S. airport to install a computerized sensing system it’s calling Smart Park, providing drivers with real-time information about where parking places are available.

The new system is the first positive benefit of a $1.8 billion expansion program at the airport that will disrupt parking and traffic patterns for the next four years, while it adds 12,000 spaces and 20 new aircraft gates at the terminal. The airport is also installing machines in the terminal so drivers can pre-pay for garage parking and speed their exit.

“When you can’t find a parking place at the airport, it costs you money,” said airport director David Blackshear, through missed flights and missed connections. In the terminal parking garages, “when you’re 75% full, you’re 100% full” as far as drivers can tell, because the open spaces are spread all over with no easy way to find them.

The new Smart Park aims to solve that problem. Developed by Schick Electronics of Switzerland and in use in Europe for years, the system depends on ultrasonic sensors installed over each parking space. When the space is open it has a green light, and when it is occupied it has a red light. The sensors also feed information to computers that control signs at the end of every row.

The illuminated signs show how many spaces are vacant in each row. As a driver turns into a row hunting for a space, the number of spaces on the sign is reduced by one, and the driver can see the red and green lights up and down the aisle. As the vehicle pulls into a space, the light over the space turns red.

Installation and operation of the $500,000 pilot program on level 2 began in late March, and “we’re getting some great hits on our web site” praising the new convenience, said Bill Lins, BWI’s director of information technology. The system operates on a single high-end personal computer and server, and so far it has proved to be “very, very accurate,” Lins said.

After the initial testing, the sensors and signs will be retrofitted at all 4,600 spaces in the existing garage at a cost of $450–$500 a space. They will also be a major feature of the huge new planned garage that will add 8,400 spaces just west of the current garage along Elm Road. Signs at the entrance to the garages will indicate how many spaces are available on each level.

Lins said the next phase of the project would include the addition of “variable message signs out on the highways” to let drivers know parking availability as they approach the airport. Eventually, the status of parking spaces will also be provided on the airport’s web site, just as real-time status of arrivals and departures of flights are now available there (www.bwiairport.com).

Parking availability is also announced on radio channel 1040 AM that operates near the airport.

An additional 1,000 parking spaces will be freed up in the garage when the rental car companies are all moved to a new facility at New Ridge Road and Stoney Run Road. Construction is expected to start on that in the next few weeks, and will be completed in two years.