Eureka! Institutional Repository

This senior thesis presents the problem of lack of car parking spots in the town of Thessaloniki and especially in downtown central.This thesis researches and reflectes the problem and furthermore presents suggestions to eliminate the problem. At first it's being made a description of the concept and functions of the Smart Town as well as we analyze existing cases of Smart Towns in foreign countries as well as domestic ones. Whereupon it's obvious that it is not possible to not describe the action of parking as a broader sense and just focus on the problems of Thessaloniki. One of the existing everyday troubles that a person has to face is the parking of one's car which can be improved by using smart apps about parking which have already been utilized in various foreign countries and some towns of Greece. The research tools which have been utilized in this senior thesis for the study and the illustration of the problem are field based observations and the use of questionnaires.The first constitutes a tool of observation of the parking problem in the downtown central of Thessaloniki while the second constitutes a tool for the extraction of conclusions with statistical analysis. The questionnaires were anonymously filled in and from the 166 which were given the amount of 144 were answered. From the answers that we received it seems that this major issue of limited parking spots can only be partly solved and that is because of the fact that the town of Thessaloniki is built that way that 100% of the problem cannot be resolved with ways that foreign countries applied and solved this issues even in the most populous major urban cities. Furthermore the intention of the people appears to be positive to participate in this radical change. At last in this senior thesis are suggested ways to improve the quality of parking in Thessaloniki. From these suggested ways the most appealing one seems to be the concept of Smart Parking.