What Is Mobile Parking Guidance, And Why Do We Need It?
May 23, 2022
Once exclusively reserved for phone calls and texting, it seems as though people use their phones for just about everything these days. From work emails to banking to planning vacations, 45% of the polled public claim that their phone is their most valuable possession. In fact, 71% of Americans report checking their phones within the first 10 minutes of waking up, typically to plan their start to the day.
With this in mind, doesn’t it seem unusual that we can find route guidance to our destination via common tools such as Google Maps and Waze, though our plan is typically to ‘find parking when we get there’? It’s a burden that we seem to put ourselves through on a daily basis, and far too often we struggle to find parking once we arrive - leading to stress, frustration and often being late to work or to class.
With a mission to provide personalized parking guidance, Modii (formerly Spot Parking) has spent years of research, development and testing to deliver one of the industry’s most accurate parking guidance technology to your phone in seconds. We knew that if we could hand our users back the 15 minutes they spend on average searching for parking each day, it would significantly impact their lives and lead to less complaints, congestion and an elevated experience for the drivers visiting the cities and campuses that Modii supports. Not to mention the vital added benefit of drastically reducing the dwell time searching for parking - resulting in reduced vehicle emissions.
Mobile parking guidance, at its core, provides drivers with only the relevant information they need to find the best place to park, giving commuters the confidence there will be a parking space available for them on arrival. By delivering this information as an overlay of a familiar Google Maps interface, Modii's Parking Finder illustrates the ideal parking areas (on & off-street) nearby your destination. In addition, Modii's technology has been designed to plug into occupancy tracking technology (LPR/occupancy counters) to display live parking availability as well as predicted availability for a future date and time.
Modii's city solutions brings interactive parking guidance to the masses by digitally mapping parking rules and entitlements down to the individual space. Having a system that visualizes the availability of curbs, parking garages and lots allows drivers to make informed decisions on where to park, allowing for an optimal parking experience and less congestion in cities. Our interactive interface also alerts drivers of changing parking conditions due to construction, weather and more - this gives City Parking and Transportation Directors the opportunity to communicate with drivers like never seen before.
Searching for parking can be time consuming and exasperating. Having informed guidance allows drivers to make fast decisions to locate parking, limiting time lost circling in search.
See a personalized view of the best parking spaces and understand patterns of demand as they change based on the day of the week or factors impacting parking such as street cleaning, weather or construction.
Having access to time-dynamic parking guidance directly to your phone ensures that anyone can plan their trips ahead of time. Prior to leaving their home, drivers are able to identify their best parking opportunity in seconds.
40% of all car accidents resulting in physical damage take place during parking and maneuvering. As driver experience improves with the available parking information, drivers are no longer circling curbsides and garages. This, in turn, helps lower gas emissions and congestion in cities.
Finding available parking is not the only challenge drivers are faced with, they must also find a spot where they can legally park. This can be challenging as streets have changing rules at different times of the day. By utilizing the Modii Parking Finder drivers are able to identify locations they are entitled to park at any time of day, preventing future parking tickets and violations.
Many smart cities are perplexed in how to get started due to the challenges and barriers that cities face in implementing new technology. The Modii Data Starter Pack helps cities take the first step to digital parking by starting with a small dense area of parking in your city and adapting Modii’s platform for the unique requirements of the area. Under this model, cities are able to appreciate the benefits easily and inexpensively.
While Modii offers phone-based guidance for drivers, for city administrators Modii provides an intuitive dashboard to collate and analyze data, trends and insights of the day-to-day parking management. City parking managers are then able to make better informed planning decisions with their new found parking data.
The Modii Data Starter Pack provides a pathway for cities of all sizes to improve their city's mobility without great expense, risk, or human resource requirement as Modii handles the entire implementation. The result is a tool for city planners to boast a clearer visual of digitized curbside parking, rules and mobility mapping, while gaining an in-depth look into valuable parking data, insights and parking trends to help enhance the ever-pressing parking problem.
