San Francisco Testing Smart Parking Systems

In large cities, there are always not enough parking places for cars - of course, not everywhere, but in the most popular places. The problem was repeatedly tried to be solved, but so far without success. And so, the San Francisco authorities have firmly decided to address this issue, offering their own plan of "salvation". In San Francisco will soon be installed new parking systems, which are significantly different from conventional devices. Not only does such a system, called SFpark, allow you to pay for parking time with a credit card, but also independently evaluates the level of congestion in the parking lot / parking block, setting individual prices.

Yes, the “smart” automaton, thanks to special sensors, really allows you to assess the workload of a particular parking lot at different times of the day. Then the remaining amount of free places is calculated, and the price rises for especially loaded parking lots. Thus, the cost of an hour of parking in various places can range from 25 cents to $ 6. Monitoring of congestion is ongoing, so if popular parking is usually free for a certain period, prices will be as low as somewhere on the outskirts.
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San Francisco authorities promise that after entering smart systems, the cost of an hour of parking will not be particularly expensive relative to the previous “fixed” tariffs - the maximum “smart” price may exceed the “fixed” price by 50 cents. True, it will be so from the very beginning, then changes are possible.

By the way, automatic devices SFpark not only take money from motorists, but also provide information about the workload of parking lots / parking lots for the entire city. Moreover, to obtain this information, it is enough to register in the system, and access to the database can be obtained even through a mobile device (including the number of empty seats at a particular parking lot and the size of the hourly rate here). Such a scheme of work will still save. For example, do not put the car in the most "expensive" region, and put it two blocks from this place, well, thus saving.

In principle, if the system really saves, motorists will appreciate such a scheme, because now time losses due to the need to find free parking / parking will be excluded. If the project works, and works well, the experience will be transferred to other locations in the United States.

A source