Find a parking spot in San Francisco with your smartphone

As a self-proclaimed "hypermiler" and mobile-tech enthusiast, this trial plan for San Fran is right up my alley. The city is installing 4-inch by 4-inch wireless sensors from Streetline in 6,000 metered parking spots; that’s roughly one-quarter of the total metered locations. According to the New York Times, each sensor connects to a mesh network which feeds the parking availability data to a central office. Folks looking for a spot can find one through updated street signs or directly on their smartphone, thus saving time and wasting less gas driving in circles.

s great as this sounds, I can think of two potential issues. One, I don’t think the city wants folks driving around while scanning their handheld for a spot… accidents are inevitable. Two, from a consumer point of view, I have a feeling it will make it easier and faster for the city to determine when your meter has run out. Still, this all ties back into what I think is a hotly  growing trend this year: location-based services. Hopefully if you’re searching for a spot on a device with GPS, you’ll be able to narrow down where the closest place to park is.