Mobile Phones Make Finding a Parking Space Easier
Good news for the US: smartphones will soon be helping to ease the pain of finding a parking space in busy cities. In a few months, San Francisco will see 6,000 of its 24,000 metered parking spaces fitted with wireless sensors. These sensors will be connected to a network that will alert drivers when a space becomes free. The “I’m free!” alerts will be displayed on street signs, and drivers will also be able to check whether a space is free on their smartphone.
The plastic sensors may even save people’s lives because, in San Francisco, arguments over parking spaces make people stabby. In 2006, 19-year-old Boris Albinder was stabbed to death in an argument over a parking space. Parking spaces are definitely high up on the “pathetic reasons to murder someone” list.
A dozen other major US cities are discussing implementing the alert scheme, but New York isn’t one of them. This is despite a study showing that 28-45 % of traffic in the city is caused by people circling the blocks, looking for somewhere to park. Also, drivers searching for metered parking in a 15 block area around Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side drove an average of 366,000 miles a year. Sorry New Yorkers; as San Franciscans smile benevolently at their phone screens before pulling into an empty space, you’ll still be driving in circles and swearing up a storm.
Source: New York Times
