As more and more mobile apps for parking are at our disposal, driving around in search for a parking spot seems like history. Technology has found its way into the parking business and going online to find a spot and pay for parking is the future.
According to this article, the major US cities and a "new wave of startups" will simplify the parking proces and maybe even revolutionize the parking business.
There are apps that let you share a parking spot so, for instance, you paid for 3 hours but only need 2, so you can 'sell' the last hour. Searching for a parking spot and paying for it, just using one app? it's already possible!
The reason for this catching on is that, apparantly, people are moving back into the cities and need a place to park their car so the need for a fast way to do so, is there. A lot of developers are now answering the peoples needs in parking. This means, cash payments will decrease, parking fines will be a lot less and a lot of time on the road will be saved, wich is better for the enviroment.
As you can imagine, this doesnt intensify the municipalities' satisfaction per se. In San Fransisco, the city attorney already threatened to sue a startup who let's people share their parking space, as the city will loose a lot of money on fines and less double paid parking spaces. You can read more about that by clicking here.
Volvo and Ford are also already dealing with integrating such, some voice controlled, parking services in their cars and so I think it's time for municipalities to catch up instead of break up with future technology.
