Motorists to trial roadside electronic parking under ERP 2 from August

Motorists to trial roadside electronic parking under ERP 2 from August The feature allows motorists to start and pay for roadside parking through the ERP 2 on-board unit (OBU) display. SINGAPORE: When parking on the roadside in future, motorists may not need to use the Parking.sg app - they can instead select a car park on their ERP 2 on-board unit (OBU) display and tap start. When they drive off, the parking session will automatically end. These functions are part of an upcoming roadside electronic parking (REP) feature under the ERP 2 system, which allows motorists to pay for roadside parking through the OBU display. The feature will be trialled from August at 644 designated car park locations and cover about 19,000 roadside parking lots across Singapore, a Land Transport Authority (LTA) spokesperson said on Monday (Jun 15). More car parks will be progressively added to the REP system during and after the trial. About 1,000 motorists will test this new feature. They are also part of a trial for new location-based charging features on ERP 2 that started in June. These first two features of the pilot are location-based charging and checkpoint charging under ERP 2, and will be rolled out on Jan 1, 2027. The roll-out date for the REP feature has not been announced. At present, all designated roadside car park locations in Singapore continue to accept existing payment methods, such as the Parking.sg mobile application. HOW TO START PARKING SESSION From August, trial participants will see a P icon appear in the top-right corner of the OBU display. Motorists have two options. After they have parked, they can tap on the P icon to start the parking session. Alternatively, motorists can switch off the vehicle’s engine, and a parking prompt will appear on the OBU for about two minutes. Motorists can press the prompt to start the parking session, after which the OBU will shut down automatically. If the OBU detects only one car park, a single parking option will show on the display, and motorists can press start to commence the parking session. But if there is more than one car park in the vicinity, several nearby parking locations may be displayed on the OBU touchscreen. Motorists should select the correct car park from the list, which will typically be the first option shown, before tapping the start button. Motorists will have to confirm the start of a parking session as it verifies their intention to park and gives them control over when the parking session begins, similar to the Parking.sg app, the LTA spokesperson added. Doing so also helps ensure that parking charges are applied accurately. After the parking session begins, a notification saying "parking in progress" will appear on the OBU display with other details, before the OBU shuts down. HOW TO END PARKING SESSION The parking session will automatically end when the motorist drives out of the car park, the spokesperson said. The parking charges will be displayed and deducted from the motorist’s selected payment mode. Motorists who have installed the OBU display can pay parking charges via the OBU. It will automatically calculate parking charges without motorists having to estimate or extend their parking duration, said LTA. The REP function will be introduced to motorists who have installed the OBU touchscreen display. As of May 31, about 960,000 vehicles or more than 96 per cent of vehicles in Singapore, have installed the ERP 2 OBU. LTA said that among the vehicles installed with the ERP 2 OBU, about 98 per cent have opted to install the touchscreen display. The Parking.sg app will remain in operation after REP is fully rolled out, and motorists without the OBU touchscreen display may continue to use the app. Since the installation of OBUs was extended to foreign-registered vehicles from Apr 1, over 5,700 foreign-registered vehicles have opted to install the OBU. More details on the REP trial will be announced at a later date, the LTA spokesperson said.