A smartphone app to locate parking spaces
Imagine not having to circle the block ceaselessly, searching for a legal parking spot. Soon this might be a reality.
San Francisco is testing out the “bump”, a four square inch battery-operated wireless sensing device, attached to the pavement adjacent to parking spots. The bumps will form a sensor network that will alert drivers of empty parking spaces either by street sign displays or by looking at a map on a smartphone. This will have a profound effect on the efficiency of urban automobile transit.
A study released in June by Transportation Alternatives, a public transit advocacy group, reported that 28 percent to 45 percent of traffic on some streets in New York City is generated by people circling the blocks.
The study also said that drivers searching for metered parking in just a 15-block area of Columbus Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side drove 366,000 miles a year.
NY Times article, “Can’t Find a Parking Spot? Check Smartphone”
San Francisco will test out the bump on 6,000 of its 240,000 metered parking spaces, and a handful of other cities are talking about implementing “smart parking” methods. New York, however, is not among them.
