BY PETE GOLDIN


marked by the introductions of Google’s Open Spot and ParkPatrol for iPhone. Although each application has a different pur- pose, they both allow people within the same community to interact with each other in real time and helpmake parking easier.


T NewSmartphone Parking


HEUSEOFTECHNOLOGY for parking has accelerated in 2010 with the emergence of a new trend, interactive smart- phone parking applications,


Google marks the spot Recently launched on July 9, Open Spot is a


Google Labs product developed for use withAndroid 2.0 and higher, using the open Android platform, Google Maps and AppEngine. The product is still very new, and Google Labs does not consider this a final product. The purpose of Open Spot is simple – it allows


people who are vacating parking spots to notify other users who are currently searching for parking that the space is now available. Open Spot identifies parking spots located within a 1.5 kmradius of the user’s loca- tion, on a GoogleMaps display.As the users moves, Open Spot automatically refreshes to show parking spots within the current radius. Users can mark paid and free parking spots, both on street


and in parking lots. Red pins on the map designate freshly- marked spots, with orange for spots postedmore than 5min- utes ago, and yellow for more than 10 minutes. Spots are removed from the map after 20minutes. Open Spot is currently


ApplicationsGet Interactive


only available in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands, and Jason Woodard, a Soft- ware Engineer atGoogle Labs, says they are seeing the strongest usage in major cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and LosAngeles.Open Spotmay be intro- duced to other countries in the future, depending on the success it achieves in currentmarkets.


Turning the tables on parking patrols Launched in January 2010, ParkPatrol is an iPhone applica-


tion developed by Australian startup, CRWDPOWER.COM. Users report on locations of parking patrol officers, and also


“Itwill be interesting to see what the take-up rate is for this newtechnologywhich relies to such a large extent on input frompeople on the street.”


receive alerts based on these reports when a parking patrol offi- cer is within the vicinity of their parked vehicle. Users report the parking patrol officer’s location with the press of a button, and they can view reported sightings on a Google map, and make a determination about the direction the offi- cer is heading. Reported sightings remain on the map for four hours. ParkPatrol works any-


where in the world where there is an Internet connec- tion available, preferably 3G. CRWDPOWER.COM is in the process of introduc- ing an Android version of


the application, along with aWeb version for users with Black- berry,Microsoft and other handheld technologies. ParkPatrol is currently free, but a paid versionwithmore featuresmay be intro- duced later in the year. It might sound like this application is designed to help


users circumvent the law – a perspective voiced publicly by Perth CEO Frank Edwards – but Joe Darling, Director of


Continued on Page 56 SEPTEMBER 2010 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com 55


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64