London Velodrome and Olympic Park Gold standard parking solution transforms popular venue whilst supporting reinvestment in special projects Home / Case Studies / Olympic Velodrome Explore more About London Velodrome and Olympic Park Developed after the 2012 London Olympics as a dynamic new focal point for the amateur athletes and sports fans of East London, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park offers a number of attractions, from the London Stadium to the Copper Box Arena, with plenty of parklands and cafés dotted in between. Despite previously having no parking issues, the regular customers at the park’s venues were becoming increasingly frustrated at the rising lack of parking spaces available to them with local residents, as well as visitors to the park and shoppers to Westfield, using their car parks. General Manager Jeremy Northrop talked us through the challenges facing the park and how working with Parkingeye helped to create the necessary solutions to deal with these issues. Challenges Misuse and abuse Jeremy started noticing a drastic drop in customer satisfaction in 2016. A low number of local residents had been allocated a parking space at home, which was designed to encourage uptake in local public transport. In reality, the low car parking allocation for nearby homes actually led to increased parking misconduct for Lee Valley. Lack of spaces for paying customers Visitors to the nearby London Westfield Centre also began to use the Lee Valley parking spaces. As Jeremy realised, Westfield charges for parking, meaning shoppers were enjoying a free alternative at the arena’s expense. This left many visitors with bookings at the Velodrome to park at Westfield, eating into their valuable time period and creating further frustration. A packed schedule The Velodrome team have worked extremely hard to build their reputation, and Jeremy wanted to stop customer relationships deteriorating. Jeremy recalls that at one stage, he was receiving at least two complaints per week from customers who couldn’t find a place to park. Along with managing a busy team of 53 people across different sites as well as coaching and groundkeeping, the impact of managing a car park was clearly unsustainable for Jeremy. The Parkingeye Solution We invested serious time into key customer routes. This ensured that payment machines and terminals were easily available for genuine customers – so much so, the Parkingeye team created a document outlining the different scenarios to make sure users were given every chance to abide by the new parking rules. This enabled us to give customers access to available parking quickly, with numerous easy-to-pay kiosks and terminals dotted across the site. Specifically, each car park now contains two payment machines in prominent areas, with up to 23 signs detailing the car park’s terms and conditions. High-tech equipment even notifies the customer that the information they have entered has been accepted, showing their vehicle has been correctly identified. The proposal had to cater to many different scenarios including how backlogs at reception during peak times could be mitigated. As part of the solution, mobile 3G/4G terminals (and iPads) were made available alongside fixed hardware, which were positioned along main routes. Jeremy says: “Parkingeye always go above and beyond for their clients which they proved with a recent situation at Lee Valley. After someone targeted the ANPR camera with a paintball gun, Parkingeye attended the site within 24 hours to clear the paint and perform full maintenance on the equipment to ensure it was performing back to its best.” “They really take the time to understand your site inside out and only then, designs a solution to fit the way your business works perfectly. No one size fits all here” The Benefits of Working with Parkingeye Not only is the solution built on next-generation technology to automate many of the processes, but it also provides access to valuable analytics on user behaviour, traffic flow and occupancy. This can be used to guide decisions on promotions, opening times and so on – all at the click of a button. Jeremy continued: “Parkingeye are committed to doing the right thing for their customers. They didn’t promise anything they couldn’t deliver on, and we have been very impressed by them and continue to be so.” Revenue from Pay & Display machines has now allowed Lee Valley to invest money into important causes. For example, £14,000 has already been invested in Lee Valley’s “All-ability and Disability” cycling programme which provides help for disabled people to use the facilities. Jeremy says that without this revenue, Lee Valley would be forced to find alternative ways to raise the money to make this vital scheme possible. To find out more about how Parkingeye can help your business, contact us today. Browse all case studies Testimonials Revenue from Pay & Display machines has allowed Lee Valley to invest money into important causes - £14k invested into the Lee Valley’s “All-ability and Disability” cycling programme which provides help for disabled people to use the facilities. Plus, £10k in resurfacing the car park to make sure it’s safe for all users. Jeremy Northrop, General Manager Olympic Velodrome Is your site ready for ANPR? Whilst ANPR is incredibly flexible, it’s not for everybody. By answering a few quick questions, we can confirm whether your site will suit ANPR technology. It only takes 2 mins… Take the test
