About parking sessions

The AutoVu™ Free-Flow feature in Security Center uses parking sessions to track each vehicle's stay in a parking zone.

The following terms are important when setting up AutoVu™ Free-Flow parking zones:

Convenience time:
The convenience time is a configurable leeway time before a vehicle starts to be charged after entering the parking zone. For example, if you need to set up a 2-hour free parking period before paid time or parking enforcement takes effect, you would set the convenience time for 2 hours. For parking lots where parking enforcement begins immediately, you would still need to set a short convenience time to allow vehicle owners time to find a parking spot and purchase parking time before parking enforcement begins.
Default expiration delay:
The default expiration delay is used for permits supplied by Pay-by-Plate Sync that do not include an expiration. In this case, AutoVu™ Free-Flow checks with the parking permit provider to see if the permit is still valid. Increasing this value reduces the frequency of the permit checks. For example, if the parking lot charges for parking in increments of 15 minutes, and you also set the default expiration delay to 15 minutes, the system validates the permit with the parking provider every 15 minutes.
Grace period:
You can add a grace period to a parking session for purposes of lenient enforcement. Following the expiration of the vehicle’s paid time or convenience time, the grace period gives extra time before a parking session is flagged as a Violation.
Maximum session time:
Setting a maximum session time helps to improve parking lot occupancy statistics. When a vehicle exceeds the maximum session time, it is assumed that the vehicle's plate was not read at the exit and the vehicle is no longer in the parking zone. The parking session appears in reports generated from the Parking sessions task with the State reason: Maximum session time exceeded.
Paid time:
The paid time stage of a parking session begins when the convenience time expires. Vehicle owners can purchase parking time through a pay station or mobile app, and the payment system can be provided by integrated third-party parking permit providers.
Parking rule:
A parking rule defines how and when a parking session is either considered to be valid or in violation.
Parking session states:
A vehicle's parking session is divided into four states: Valid (including convenience time, paid time, and grace period), Violation, Enforced, and Completed. When a vehicle parks in a parking zone, its parking session progresses through the parking session states based on the timing that is configured for the parking rule, the validity of the paid time, and whether the vehicle's parking session incurs a violation.
Parking zone:
The parking zones that you define in Security Center represent off-street parking lots where the entrances and exits are monitored by Sharp cameras.
Parking zone capacity:
The parking zone capacity is the maximum number of vehicles that can be parked in a parking zone.

Parking zone capacity threshold:
The parking zone capacity threshold setting determines at what point a capacity threshold reached event is generated. For example, if you lower the threshold to 90%, the system generates an event when the parking zone reaches 90% capacity.