Apps Soon to Take the Place of Signs

The reason why this app exists

Wednesday, Feb. 8th, 2012 – If you’re always struggling to find somewhere to park, Michael Fasano may have created the answer to your prayers. After a nightmarish parking encounter in New York, Fasano decided to devise an application for iPhones to read parking signs. His app, Can I Park Here, just debuted in Apple App Stores in this month for $1.99.

According to NYTimes writer Joshua Brustein, the application works fairly well with few glitches. To check a parking spot, the app requires you to take a photograph of the sign. It then ‘reads’ it and indicates the legality of the spot, how long you can stay, and which side of the sign to park on. Once you park, the app starts a timer and notes where you parked to facilitate you finding your way back in time.

Brustein test-drove the app on several spaces and found that while the app never failed in accuracy, it sometimes failed to give information. Apparently the issue lies in the phone’s imprecise GPS system. The application relies on the GPS in order to check it against the Transportation Department’s database, but sometimes the GPS cannot pinpoint the user’s location to a specific block. Fasano and his partner Matthew Ripston, however, announced that their next version will contain a map that allows users to select the exact parking space in question based on their approximate location.

More story after the jump…

Apps like this one just showcase the clutter and confusion in the sign world. It seems that if city officials won’t do anything to clear up this problem, local citizens such as Fasano and Ripston will.

– A. Li

Category: Parking Tech