APCOA and MILES Unveil Ticketless Parking Pilot in Berlin to Slash City Center Congestion
Parking operator APCOA and car sharing provider MILES have launched a groundbreaking ticketless parking pilot in Berlin, aiming to ease severe parking pressure in the city’s most congested urban hubs. Since April 1, MILES users can now start and end their parking seamlessly in three APCOA multi-storey car parks, eliminating the need for physical tickets or manual payment.
The pilot targets key high-traffic locations in Berlin’s inner city: the Kant Center and Augsburger Straße car parks in Charlottenburg, plus the Victoria Center located at Ostkreuz station. The collaboration uses advanced automatic license plate recognition technology, enabling quick and touchless entry and exit while significantly reducing traffic caused by drivers circling to find parking.
Immediate Impact on Urban Traffic and Pollution
By diverting shared vehicles to multi-storey garages, the partnership aims to ease surface-level congestion and minimize the classic “search traffic” problem, where drivers cruise city streets lengthening commutes and increasing emissions. Stefanie Kochs, Head of Urban Hubs at APCOA Germany, emphasized the pilot’s larger purpose:
“The cooperation with MILES is another building block in improving the parking situation in urban city centre locations. Together, we ensure less stress, more comfort and more time gained during the parking process and at the same time contribute to relieving the burden on city centres.”
Older parking models with paper tickets and payment machines are fully replaced by the MILES digital platform, which processes all transactions in the background. Users simply park in any available standard space—no need to hunt for designated car-sharing spots—making the system simple for drivers and reducing bottlenecks.
Scalable Solution with Potential Nationwide Reach
Peter Kormany, Project Manager Business Development at MILES, highlighted plans to expand beyond Berlin, underlining growing demand for efficient urban mobility across Europe and the United States:
“Our goal is to integrate car sharing into everyday life as easily and flexibly as possible. By connecting the APCOA multi-storey car parks, we take the pressure off the streets and offer our users a reliable parking alternative in highly frequented locations.”
APCOA, Europe’s leading parking operator with more than 1.8 million parking spaces across 13 countries, uses its technology platform APCOA FLOW to connect vehicles, owners, and customers digitally. This emerging model transforms traditional parking lots into dynamic urban mobility hubs, contributing to smarter city traffic management and pollution reduction.
What This Means for U.S. Cities Like Denver
As Colorado and other U.S. states face rising urban congestion, the Berlin pilot offers a blueprint to fight growing parking headaches through tech-driven, scalable partnerships. Ticketless, app-driven systems could dramatically reduce downtown gridlock and vehicle emissions by encouraging off-street shared vehicle parking and seamless payment processing.
For now, the Berlin pilot remains confined to select city center sites but is under review for expansion as early results arrive. Urban planners and mobility leaders across the U.S. will be watching closely to gauge how this innovative solution can be adapted to America’s rapidly evolving city landscapes.
Readers and commuters can expect more updates as this critical pilot develops and potentially sets a new standard for smart, sustainable urban parking management worldwide.
