SF Uses Wireless Sensors to Help Manage Parking

With this data, Woo says, the city can review occupancy and turnover rates and decide if time limits need to be changed. Streetline has provided the city with graphical illustrations of parking usage in particular areas, indicating how long spaces remained vacant, and when.

The Streetline system can be electronically linked to the parking meters, enabling the city to obtain real-time information about each meter's operating status and the amount of money it contains. According to Dykstra, "In addition to data collection, we also provide service that controls the parking meter. For example, we're able to remotely reset a parking meter that is in a failed state, which can dramatically reduce maintenance costs." To date, however, San Francisco has not chosen to use that option.

Tod Dykstra

Woo says the city intends to remove the final 30 sensors from parking spaces at the end of September, and then study the pilot's results. Eventually, he states, he would like to see a system in which customers can pay for parking via cell phone, by calling the system and inputting money into an account. He hopes to one day establish a system allowing customers to pinpoint empty parking spaces via their vehicle's GPS system and a Web-based server. At this time, though, the city has no immediate plans to test such a system.

The city of Los Angeles also tested the Streetline system in its Toy District, in a 100-space pilot conducted this year from April to mid-August.

"It's really been a remarkable success, and very gratifying to see," Dykstra says of the two pilots. "Parking is a very complex social activity, and a huge factor in local economies. As drivers, we mostly just think of it as a frustrating experience to be forgotten as soon as possible, but it's really a fascinating model for how people share scarce resources in the public sphere, and how accessibility impacts things like retail sales, land use, commercial real estate values and quality of life in cities."

Streetline's standard pricing is $300 for each sensor and $150 for each meter monitor, including installation, and a $10 monthly service fee per device.