Other APMS Applications
New advanced parking management systems go beyond providing information to the traveler on the availability of parking spaces. Some APMS applications take reservations for parking spaces and some even guide travelers, with turn-by-turn directions, all the way to the available parking space.
Facility-Based Reservation Systems
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is sponsoring the development and testing of a parking management system with reservation capabilities. Caltrans is partnering with the University of California at Berkeley, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), ParkingCarma™, and Quixote Corporation to test the system at the BART park-and-ride lot in Millbrae, California.The project began in September 2004, following two years of research and development. Electronic sensors in the east lot of the Rockbridge BART park-and-ride facility communicate space availability to commuters on the freeway using two temporary dynamic message signs. Figure 13 shows a schematic map of the Millbrae BART parking facility with the two lots that operate the ParkingCarma™ system highlighted.
Figure 13. BART Park-and-Ride Facility in Millbrae, California[12]
BART riders may reserve any of these 50 spaces over the Internet, personal digital assistant (PDA) or telephone. Daily or monthly reservations are available up to two weeks in advance. It costs a commuter $4.50 to reserve a spot in advance through ParkingCarma™, compared to the daily rate of $1.00 for those who drive into the lot and find a space.
Utilization of the reserved parking spaces has increased from 10 percent before the test to 75 percent after the test.[13] Over 1,000 users have registered to participate in the reservation program. Stakeholders believe that the system also has improved difficult-to-quantify measures such as customer satisfaction. One commuter said that without the ParkingCarma™ service, "I would probably not take BART."[14]
Online Reservation Systems
The latest trend in parking management is online reservation services. Two companies—including MobileParking LLC and SpotScout™—allow drivers to check parking availability for select cities using their radio, cellular telephone or computer. MobileParking LLC currently covers 400 parking facilities in 50 cities across the U.S. MobileParking's service allows drivers to call a toll-free number from their cellular telephones to check parking availability in their city. After the driver provides the operator with his or her final destination, the operator directs the driver to the closest available space. The first reservation is free. Additional reservations cost $1.75 each. At some of MobileParking's partner garages, in addition to paying MobileParking for the reservation, customers can also pay the parking fee itself through MobileParking, eliminating the need to make a separate payment to the garage operator.
SpotScout™ launched in 2004 and began taking parking reservations in New York and Boston beginning in 2006. The SpotScout™ service allows drivers to reserve and pay for parking spots either online or through Web-enabled cellular telephones. Once a driver has reserved a spot and paid for it, a text message is sent to the driver's cell phone with a confirmation code and directions to the facility.
In addition, SpotScout™ allows users to sell their personal parking spaces to other motorists for short-term use. These users are called "SpotCasters." SpotScout™ allows users to "set the price and time parameters within which they wish to make their space(s) available."[15]
In the future, SpotScout™ hopes to include on-street spaces in its network of parking spaces. Since the SpotScout™ service allows the parking facilities to update the number of available spots online, no sensor infrastructure is required.
Parking Navigation Systems
In 2005, XM Satellite Radio, which already provides real-time traffic information to in-vehicle navigation devices, demonstrated a potential service called "Dynamic Parking Information." The service provides XM Radio users with the number of available parking spaces at specific lots.
The system relies on sensors within the parking lots to transmit the availability information to the vehicle's navigation system. (Parking lots in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit provided data for the demonstration.) The in-vehicle display uses color-coded icons to reflect the percentage of unoccupied spaces.
XM Radio has plans to take the service nationwide. At the time of the demonstration, company officials announced that it was in negotiation with major parking providers about participating in the service.
- Bay Area Rapid Transit (2006). Millbrae Station Parking Map. http://www.bart.gov/docs/permit/pk_millbrae.pdf.
- Botkin, Donald (2005). ParkingCarma's Innovative Smart Parking System Featured this Week at ITS World Congress in San Francisco. http://www.parkingcarma.com/ITSPR.aspx.
- Saranow, Jennifer (2006). "Your Space is Waiting: Reserving a Parking Spot." The Wall Street Journal. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06088/677762-96.stm.
- SpotScout™ Website (2006). SpotScout™: Parking the Mobile Generation. http://www.spotscout.com.
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