Performance Parking | Hacker News Reader

Performance Parking

cmu.edu

28 pointsmind_heist17 comments

So, this is nothing new. People in the parking industry have been grappling with this problem for years (I'm in that industry). Parking technology has just rocketed ahead from where it was even 5 years ago. From license plate recognition (LPR - allows parking without having a physical permit) to being able to forecast and adjust prices based on historical demand, parking people have a vast wealth of knowledge on their hands.

The only problem is, most vendors of parking management software have enterprise products spanning millions of lines of code that have to be maintained, and it's hard to keep adding new features like "performance parking" while keeping basic features like selling permits and interfacing with accounting and bursar systems up-to-date.

It's definitely a challenging (yet exciting!) time to be in the parking technology industry.

Edit: Ooh, I'm forgetting about smart meters, mobile apps (both for the parker and the parking operation), and more. Mobile apps are the rage now for parking operations, as they replace expensive ($5000+) industrial handhelds for parking enforcement agents.

Hmm interesting ... if I may ask a couple of more questions .. What devices did you previously use ? and I suppose these were manufactured by a company specialized in the parking industry ?

And What are the new Apps that have replaced the heavy handheld of the previous generation ?

No, the devices were general purpose handheld devices running Windows Mobile 6. The apps are private and only distributed to customers. They are not available in app stores.

[0]http://www.casio-intl.com/asia-mea/en/pa/IT-9000/

Hmm .. interesting ; thanks for you reply :) So, if the city bought these in mass , who programmed them for you ? I suppose these were then given to third party companies to program

1.Like Enter the header for the printed out tickets

2.Relay back information about total number of tickets issued etc., etc., ? Did all of the information on these devices automatically roll over to centralized servers ? Or did you have to manually plug it into a computer and sync data ? Did the third party companies ever write such software for you ? or were they predominantly standalone terminals involved paperwork later on ? for example : you have to input the parking ticket number again in a computer later on ?

We do the programming :)

Most devices like this have an online and an offline mode, using cellular or WiFi connections. The process is usually, the officer writes the ticket, if it's in online mode, it transmits that to a web service, which then enters it in a database. If it's offline, it just stores it until it goes online.

BTW - I always thought of CASIO as a watch company. I had one of those vintage electronic watches with a ton of little buttons on them as a child. Never knew of their remaining product line ! Thanks again :)

Seattle actually has a similar sign-based system in place. I rarely have trouble finding a spot, but I moved here recently so unsure how it compares to previous system. http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/parking/signs_icons.ht...

Why not make an auction? That would be fun. Vote with smartphone and/or terminal on the street.

If your definition of "fun" is arriving at a parking lot not knowing if there will be a spot or how much you will be paying then yes, sure - mountains of fun.

Isn't that the normal state of affairs already? Or rather, usually you know that there won't be a spot unless you go hunting for half an hour or so.

The idea would of course be to book the spot in advance, so you WOULD know that there is a parking lot waiting for you.

coincidentally

>Isn't that the normal state of air fares already

I guess there was a startup recently who tried to solve SF's parking woes by actually doing this. The City them tackled them down .. Techcrunch wrote about this christening them "Jerk Tech".

Edit ( Adding Links to Monkey Parking App )

http://blog.sfgate.com/cityinsider/2014/06/23/sf-cracks-down...

They seem to advocate blocking a parking space to sell it to somebody else via the app. The jerk factor is making money with public space.

I think if the city would auction the space directly it wouldn't have that jerk aspect.

Aww I thought it was going to be videos of people doing amazing parking stunts

Here's some for you (it's an old ad so thinks it's ok here) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RHXg5s7wv8

If you guys check the file (http://www.lq.com/lq/data/hotelMarkers.js) its not actually valid json but rather Javascript, so it was probably just easier for him that way.

wrong thread

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