In 2011, The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency established the SFpark pilot, using new technology and policies to improve parking in San Francisco. The pilot aimed to reduce traffic by helping drivers find parking spaces more quickly. More parking availability makes streets less congested and safer. Improved parking meters that accept credit and debit cards and phone payment reduce frustration and parking citations.
As the pilot phase comes to a close in 2014, the project will continue to operate and any major changes will be considered after evaluation is completed in Spring 2014. In the meantime, there will be some changes to the SFpark mobile app. and the data feed that some other private parking mobile apps also use.
As of January 1st, 2014, the parking sensors in the street will be turned off and their data feed will no longer be available as parking sensor batteries have reached the end of their useful lives. This means that the real-time information on parking space occupancy will not be available for mobile apps and similar uses.
The SFpark data feed and app will continue to show meter parking rates, as well as real-time space availability and rates at parking garages. The SFMTA will continue to conduct demand-responsive rate changes to find the lowest rates possible to help ensure there are a minimum number of open parking spaces on each block to reduce circling and double-parking.
The SFMTA and the U.S. Department of Transportation are both now preparing to evaluate the pilot using data collected during the pilot project. Some preliminary findings have surprised many, including professor of urban planning at UCLA and author of The High Cost of Free Parking, the bible of modern parking policy, Donald Shoup, who stated, “The biggest surprise I got was, that prices went up and down, but overall, they stayed the same. The average price actually declined by 1 percent, that surprised everybody. People thought it was just a way to jack up prices, but the city specifically said, ‘We are going to set prices according to this principle.’”
From the user perspective, the most astonishing thing that I found was that when the vehicle detection sensor network data, was integrated with the mobile app VoicePark, the average time that it took drivers in San Francisco to find a parking spot was reduced from an average of 6.5 minutes to 45 seconds.
This is important because according to a Columbia University and Fabernovel study, 40% of all fuel consumed in downtown metro areas is done so while looking for a place to park. And, a UCLA study performed by Professor Donald Shoup study found that 1/3 of all downtown metropolitan traffic is composed of cars circling looking for parking. Based on these findings, if an integrated system of vehicle detection sensors and VoicePark mobile app were to be fully deployed in San Francisco, this system would potentially prevent the half a million cars from being driven on the street for 3 million less minutes per day.
The average car produces about a pound of CO2 per mile, so from an environmental perspective, full deployment of an integrated system also makes total sense.
After the SFMTA and the U.S. Department of Transportation evaluate the pilot using data collected during the pilot project, decisions on the next phase of SFPark will be decided. The way things are looking, great things are up ahead on the streets of San Francisco.
David LaBua is a leader in the sustainable urban mobility movement, author of Finding the Sweet Spot, and founder of VoicePark, the world’s first voice-guided mobile app that guides drivers to the closest available parking spot in real-time. You can follow him on twitter@ParkingGuru.