Someone may have mentioned it in the break room last week that a study from INRIX found that drivers spend way too much time hunting for parking spots and pay for parking they don’t essentially make use of. News stories fail to mention, however, how much growth is being made in the parking and mobility industry to soothe those qualms—or the technologies and services that many motorists usually use to find parking that save them a lot of time and money, by helping them find and keep their spaces.

 

You should consider this:

• Motorists who use the navigation app Waze for their journeys can also use it to find available parking at their destinations and their exact locations. Motorists who use Google Maps have the option to mark their parking locations and receive prompts about how long they’ve been parked there (to get away from overpaying or receiving parking tickets).
• There are several companies that offer text prompts to motorists when they’ve used a fraction of their pre-paid meter parking, and most of them allow the feeding of meters from a remote area, adding extra time (where it’s legal) without having to go back to the car. And a growing number of apps let motorists locate on-street parking with accurate, real time data.
• There are garages around the world that are being built or upgraded with wayfinding programmes that are able to tell motorists how many spaces are available before they pull in. Robotic garages are an increasing trend as well. They allow cars to be drawn in by mechanical structures and parked while the people walk away, free to do whatever they chose, other than search for parking space.

 

Bob Pishue, senior economist at INRIX says, “Parking pains are accelerating the development of modern technologies that will dramatically change the way the parking industry operates. Drivers, cities, parking operators, and automakers are benefiting from the growth of cloud-based services and mass digitisation, resulting in smarter, more insightful tools and analytics that will ultimately reduce the frustrations associated with the search for parking.”

The industry is aware that parking has never been easier to locate or use. So, the real story shouldn’t be about painstaking parking. What it should be about is letting the world of motorists know about the technologies and services they can use to avoid circling for a parking space or overpaying, not to mention the innovative ways they can arrive at their destinations without using their car at all. The future looks quite bright and the present is looking pretty good.

If you are looking for parking for your car and monthly parking passes give Ottawa Parking a call to discuss the various Ottawa parking options, parking lots, and parking spaces that we have available. We offer affordable monthly parking passes all around the city, so you can be close to work and avoid parking tickets in Ottawa with peace of mind knowing that your car is safe while parked in your own parking space.