Smarter Parking Technology

How Smarter Parking Technology Will Reduce Traffic Congestion::

Between 8% and 74% of traffic in congested downtown areas is caused by people cruising for parking, according to a report by UCLA professor Donald Shoup who synthesized studies from 70 years of research on the subject. The paper indicates that drivers in major cities — including San Francisco, Sydney, New York and London — spend between 3.5 and 14 minutes searching for a space each time they park.

The last study Shoup included in his report ended in 2001. Today, wasted cruising time is likely longer, and it's on track to get worse. During a recent Ted Talk in March, Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. estimated that the number of cars on the road could go from 800 million to nearly 3 billion by 2050.

While the sci-fi possibilities of Ford's full vision have yet to be realized, many companies and cities have started implementing smart solutions for parking and traffic problems. What they're learning in these first steps may help shape the future of smart driving.

The city of Los Angeles recently installed low-power sensors and smart meters to track the occupancy of parking spaces throughout the Hollywood district, one of its most congested areas. The sensors are about the size of a coffee cup lid and are embedded in the asphalt. The smart meters attach to regular meters and allow users to pay with their mobile phones in addition to communicating payment information to the city.

With the information from the sensors, the city is able to change pricing on its parking depending on demand — raising it for a special event or a particularly busy hour, for instance. The information also alerts enforcement officials about expired parking meters or other parking violations and reduces the time they spend driving in circles.

Drivers can also access information gathered by the sensors through a free app called Parker. The app alerts drivers where there they are or are not likely to find an available parking space so that they can save time cruising around.

"Once you have this infrastructure of sensors throughout a city, you can use these networks in a number of different ways," she says. "We’re starting in parking today, but eventually you can envision this being used for measurement of pollution or to detect if a water pressure system in a fire hydrant is operating at the right pressure or if a streetlight bulb needs to be replaced. ... there are lots of smart city applications that can be built on top of this."