Google Open Spot

Link: Google Open Spot

So Google launched an Android App that is supposed to make parking a breeze. One problem: it won’t.

The app works by having people report when they’re leaving their street-side parking spot. That data gets fed into the app, and then drivers can see where people recently left an open parking spot.

The problem is that data has a very short lifespan. In the time it takes you to pull out your phone and figure out how to get to that open spot you found using Open Spot, that spot will get taken. By someone who wasn’t futzing around with their smartphone.

The real solution is to price street parking for what it’s worth. That means parking meters, and that means much more expensive parking meters. Higher prices for parking create greater turnover in the spots, which makes it easier to find a parking spot. San Fransisco is taking a stab at this with the SFPark project. (Fun fact: the original premise of ParkWhiz was to do exaclty what SFPark is doing.)

Not being able to find an open parking spot is one of the hidden costs of “free” or cheap street parking. There are some other hidden costs too. Because these costs are hidden, raising the price of municipal street parking has long been a politically untenable issue.

So even though Google Open Spot won’t directly “make parking a breeze,” it, along with SFPark, and yes, ParkWhiz, helps comprise a rising tide organizations that are using technology to make parking more efficient. The best way for Open Spot to succeed is to make it unnecessary to use Open Spot in the first place.