Cities may find it easier to upgrade their parking infrastructure thanks to a new round of financing that allows them to install a smart parking system on a "pay as you go" basis.
We first told you about Streetline back in 2010, when they were finishing pilot tests in Los Angeles. With sensors and wireless connectivity, the company's technology turns dumb parking meters into a meshed network of smart devices that can interact with smartphones for mobile payment and reservations, and city data centers for tracking and analysis. Since then, they've increased their funding and installed Streetline on meters in Texas, California, North Carolina, New York, Indiana and Maryland.
Now, in partnership with IBM, they've announced a $25 million credit facility from Citi, which will allow interested cities worldwide to roll out a Streetline-equipped parking infrastructure with minimal upfront investment.
While Streetline's Parker mobile app allows drivers to find, pay for and even reserve public parking spaces, the service isn't just a benefit for consumers. With real-time access to the status of all their meters, a city's parking department can discover exactly where it's most cost effective to send out enforcement officers, which meters are expired and which meters are broken. In the long term, they can also see where parking is in highest demand and how long the turnover rate is for spaces, and adjust pricing accordingly -- a practice known as dynamic pricing.
That's valuable data for cities. Not only can they make money from enforcement and dynamic pricing, but they can also create a better place to work, live and shop by making parking available where and when it's needed -- an improvement that would be appreciated by anyone who has ever been late for a meeting or decided to forego a trip to a local shop or restaurant due to a lack of available parking . There's also an environmental benefit: In Streetline's study of a fifteen block section of Los Angeles, the company found that motorists drove an additional 950,000 miles in a year just searching for parking -- an effort that wasted 47,000 gallons of gas.
Depending on volume, installing Streetline costs about $25 to $30 per meter upgrade. While that's often cheaper than ripping out meters and installing a whole new parking infrastructure, it's also a significant one-time cost for a city with 20,000 spaces. The new line of credit may make it a little easier for a city government to stomach the cost of installing a system that will, hopefully, lead to long-term efficiency, revenue and improved quality of life.
Photo: Flickr/sidewalk flying
