Many cities like Ottawa are dealing with congestion as the number of commuters is growing rapidly and there are more and more vehicles on the road. Parking in Ottawa can be difficult to find at times if you are looking for short-term parking and a very convenient location. This is why a lot of commuters who travel downtown for work often purchase a monthly parking pass.

So what does the future of parking look like in Ottawa? Well this is where smart parking and smart cars come into play. Smart parking involves the setup of quite a bit of technology and infrastructure so that there are networks of sensors and automated gates and parking structures/facilities to accommodate autonomous cars on the road. Basically you would be able to drive (or be driven by your self driving car) to work and then your car would drop you off and park itself. Since computers would be making the deciding factors of where to park etc. and distance wouldn’t be as big of an issue since you could work in the downtown core but have your car park itself 15 minutes drive outside of the core then the entire transportation system would flow a lot more smoothly and the requirement for large parking lots and parking structures would be lessened in the core of the city.

There is still a long way to go before self driving cars and self parking cars are mainstream however there have been many leaps in the technology and most importantly many updates to the existing laws around different cities in the world to approve autonomous driving cars.

The future of parking in Ottawa is looking to be an interesting landscape as transportation technologies improve and shift toward self driving and self parking cars that can make your commute a breeze and help streamline the flow of traffic overall in the city.