The Future of Parking
Today’s drivers have no comprehensive information on where to park. The result is millions of frustrated drivers, up to 30% more congestion in cities and increased pollution.
However, with autonomous cars coming, is parking still going to be an issue? The good news is that you will not struggle anymore to find a spot. The bad news is that cars will.
Parking in an Autonomous World
We can expect cars to spend less time parking and more time transporting people and goods. However this won’t necessarily mean more parking available in the city.
First, whether or not we own cars, transportation will still be subject to peak hours. We will still go to work and come back home at the same time. Thus, there will still be an excess of cars during downtime. These cars will have to decide between going outside cities where parking is cheap or staying inside cities to be close to the demand. The result will be a better vehicle distribution across the city. In my opinion, most of the cars will stay in the city for convenience reasons and will not be authorized to roam around to avoid congestion.
Second, the supply of parking is expected to decrease. Off-street parking in particular is expected to drop for costs considerations. As more and more people move to cities, real estate values will go up and the number of parking spots per housing unit will go down.
Third, the higher utilization of cars won’t mean less cars in the city. On the one hand, demand for transportation will increase. According to a McKinsey study “The Future of Mobility”, people will travel 20–50% more because it will be cheap and easy. On the other hand, we can expect fleets of autonomous vehicles to coexist with privately owned cars. People for whom a car is more than just a transportation means will still own one and not every car is going to be shared, the same way not every extra room is listed on Airbnb.
Real-time Parking Maps as a Solution
If not managed correctly, parking will still generate traffic and congestion in the future. At SpotAngels, we are committed to fixing parking for today’s and tomorrow’s cars. We are building real-time parking maps that allow cars to identify streets to park, pay for the meter and alert drivers before they get a parking fine. Currently, drivers can use our free iOS app to avoid parking tickets in the US and soon they will be able to use it to find somewhere to park. In the future, SpotAngels’s maps will help self-driving cars decide where to stay idle during downtime.
Thanks to Aboud Jardaneh, Mehdi Sqalli, Eric Sauvegrain, Stonly Baptise, Sam Lang, Steve Dann, Qasar Younis, Daniel Conrad, Martin Shen, Zach Barasz and Haseeb Awan for providing early feedback on this post.
