Advanced parking management system

A parking management system, comprising:

• a roadside unit including a vehicle occupancy sensor with a zone of detection that corresponds to a parking space being monitored, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver with a first antenna that radiates towards the parking space to communicate with an in-vehicle transceiver and a second antenna that radiates in a direction to communicate via nearby gateways or cellular towers;
• an imaging camera system with at least one imaging sensor for collecting secondary evidence relating to a plurality of spaces and shared across the plurality of spaces;
• a guidance display indicating the number of parking spaces available in a given zone or direction of travel;
• and
• an in-vehicle device with a battery operated RF transceiver that is designed to communicate with the roadside unit,
• wherein a protocol is configured to establish two-way communication between the roadside unit and the in-vehicle device, and is configured to include a time delay element configured to determine a distance between the roadside unit and the in-vehicle device based on a fixed or known time delay and includes at least one selected from the group of:
• one or more beacon setting requirements, information needed for identification, information needed for authentication or security purposes, or any combination thereof.