Headline August 02, 2018/ " 'PARKING APPS TRACKING' "

" 'PARKING APPS TRACKING' "

*DON'T RECALL AT ALL* - a  mention, or someone talking about a parking app in this part of the  developing world. A world that is clustering all around at some real pace! :

Malaysia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam?  Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, .................. Vishnu? Lakshmi? Zilli?  Dantini? Omer? Haider?  Majeed? 

ONE OF THE FEW THINGS more frustrating than driving in a big congested city is searching for a  parking spot so that you can stop driving.

On-street spaces are reoccupied just moments after the last motorist pulled out, and garages charge more than people can earn in an hour.

Technology has already started to solve the problem of squeezing into a space, with automatic parking features taking the pain out of parallel parking.

Now it is trying to solve the other headache : finding a spot in the first place.

A slew of apps can predict where on and off-street spaces will be available, direct you to them, reserve a space and let you for the spot through your smartphone. And manufacturers are beginning to add those capabilities to their vehicles navigation screens.

BMW, one of the first to do so is making the functionality of the Parkmobile app available through the navigation system on many of its 2018 models.

The BMW screen available garages, and its ParkNow service allows drivers to reserve a space and, if the garage has contracted for the service, pay through the car. Certain garages will allow drivers to scan the apps bar code, using their phones, to open the gate.

For those metered parking spaces that have sensors, the car's navigation system asks if you want to start a parking session  and then, once that's confirmed, charge for the meter on the screen.

Beginning next year, Parkmobile will also allow drivers to add additional meter time via the  smartphone app and pinpoint available meters, said Jon Ziglar, Parkmobile's chief executive.

Most vehicles lack extensive integration with parking information, but drivers can easily replicate the functionality with one of the many smartphone apps on the market, including BestParking, Parker, ParkMe, ParkWhiz, SpotHero.

Which one you choose may come down to the number of parking spaces that any particular app inventories in your city.

''All these apps are pretty similar in features,'' said Vishwas Shankar, research manager at the Frost & Sullivan consulting firm.

Research by Frost & Sullivan found that the various parking apps track more than 57 million on-and-off -street spaces in the United States and Europe, and the apps are used by 30 million people.

According to Inrix, a data collection firm that provides data to the federal government and space information to a number of  parking apps,  American drivers waste 17 hours per year in search of spaces.

Almost one third of the drivers surveyed said they had been in a fight over a space in the previous year.

''Parking is a very important problem to solve, '' said Jason Schultz, Inrix's  general manager of parking.

''Congestion and parking are opposite sides of the same coin.''

Inrix and its competitors continue historical data and real-time information to predict how likely a driver will be able to find a space in the garage and which streets are more likely to have metered parking available during a particular time of the  day.

The Honor and Serving of the latest Global Operational Research  on Technology and Society continues. The World Students Society thanks author and researcher Eric A Taub.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Technologists, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya  all '' register '' on The World Students Society - for every subject in the world and  Twitter - !E-WOW! - the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Place To Park '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless