Wellington's compact, harbour-ringed downtown made it an early tester for connected parking: from 2016 to 2024, an in-ground sensor network under the CBD's streets fed live bay availability straight to drivers' phones. The city retired the network when its sensors reached end of life, swapping it for simpler pay-by-plate meters — a quietly honest case study in a smart-city system aging out rather than failing outright.

The atlas documents 2 projects in Wellington, the earliest dating to 2016: 1 scaled back, 1 still running without a verdict. Every entry carries an evidence grade — the strongest here is official (2 entries) — and links its sources.

All 2 projects in Wellington

✔ Every published entry is checked against the public sources it cites before publication.

Outcome: 1 ongoing · 1 scaled back — Evidence: 2 official

Deeper reads

Where Wellington appears in the atlas's own analysis.

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• 🇪🇸 Barcelona: Fastprk In-Ground Parking Sensors In-ground sensor grids that didn't last: Wellington's RFID net ran 2016-24, Barcelona's Fastprk faded by 2020 as payment apps took over.
• 🇬🇷 Athens: Extrema Global Heat Risk Application Both philanthropy-funded hazard tools: Athens routes people from heat (2018), Wellington's twin shows floods and landslides ahead (2022).

Official strategy and sources

📎 Cite this city

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Smart-city projects in Wellington, New Zealand.” The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/cities/wellington/ (last verified 2026-07-19). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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