The Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone, or Hefei high-tech zone – located in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province – has introduced a superfast sensorless payment system for car parks, using electronic toll collection, or ETC smart parking.

ETC parking uses a wireless system to automatically collect the usage fee. When a car passes the parking toll reader device, it sends a signal to a transponder in the auto. This transmits back an identifying number and an electronic payment is made. A major advantage is the driver does not have to stop.

The zone has installed ETC parking facilities in the Wangzui Lake Park parking lot and at its science and technology innovation center.

When a car leaves the parking facility, no scanning is needed and payment is made automatically, meaning the owner doesn't have to waste time scanning payment codes.

In a conventional car park, it takes 40-60 seconds for a driver without an ETC device to complete the payment process – whereas an ETC car park in that time it can process six to eight cars.

The capacity of a car park increases at estimated fivefold by using ETC-controlled charging via sensorless payments, according to statistics.

The Hefei high-tech zone introduces a sensorless payment system for parking, which saves drivers time. [Photo/gxq.hefei.gov.cn]

The service allows ETC users to access intelligent parking facilities through the "Hefei parking Tingyihui" mobile phone app, which includes parking reservations, route navigation, shared parking and other services.

Moving forwards, plans are for the Hefei high-tech zone to explore data-driven parking management services to promote the ETC application and management – providing more convenient, fast and intelligent travel services to the public.