The Town of Newmarket is keeping a closer eye on Main Street with new cameras that will monitor how exactly people are parking there.
The cameras were installed on the downtown street throughout last week as an extension of a recent AI-driven parking pilot program, where the municipality partnered with Loop (Parksense+) to collect data on parking patterns at its central downtown lot.
Now, the municipality wants to gather more parking data, this time on Main Street, as well as on Doug Duncan Drive and Market Square. The municipality said the data will help the town better understand when and where parking pressure occurs.
“The project will be used to support council in data-driven decision-making about all aspects of parking in the downtown, including an upcoming study to implement technology-enabled wayfinding,” the municipality said.
The program involves strategic cameras monitoring parking lots 24/7. Identifying details like people and licence plates are blurred through AI and all images are deleted automatically after 24 hours, with the only interest being in parking patterns. The program pilot garnered an award from the Municipal Information Systems Association of Ontario this summer.
The pilot focusing on the parking around the Riverwalk Commons found an 80.6 per cent occupancy rate later in the day, with many spots occupied over a long period.
Staff have placed cameras in locations such as among hanging planters to monitor the Main Street parking spots, among other areas.
The town said it expects to share some preliminary findings of the pilot project within the next few months.
But the data that will come from this latest expansion onto Main Street will take more time, likely in the first quarter of 2025. The town said this is due to the time needed for camera calibration and verifying data accuracy.
