ParXit: a parking spot selling app for iPhone and Android [Crowdfunding]

Car owners have had it hard in Brooklyn. As if finding a space to put your car in the city isn’t already hard enough, alternate side parking rules force them to move their cars at least three times or more per week. So it’s no surprise that some Brooklyn developers are looking for ways to solve the parking problem using mobile technology.

Which resulted in ParXit, an app that allows parked car owners to “sell” their parking spot to other app users that need them. ParXit team members are careful to say that they are not actively ‘selling’ public property, but rather serving as a platform to exchange information.

“The ParXit app is fully compliant with the law and does not in any way provide a platform for people to “sell” spots, whether it’s an on-street spot or a private driveway,” said cofounder Yudhi Soetono. “It does, however, enable people to exchange information and transact upon that information.”

Still, the opportunity is clear.

According to the ParXit Twitter page, the website went up last week. The developers are now seeking $100,000 on IndieGogo, mostly in order to pay for developing the Android version of the app, according to the page. It also says that the iPhone version is nearly done and should be ready for an October release, subject to approval by the Apple app store.

How Parxit works:

• When drivers (or “finders”) are about to set out on a trip, they estimate their arrival time, address and how far they are willing to walk from a parking spot. Also, they add a price for what they will pay another driver for a convenient spot
• If a driver has a spot (a “lister”), enter its location with GPS or an exact address, adding details about the kind of spot it is, when it will be free and wait to see if an offer comes
• Once the exchange has been made, the users rate the transaction and the system uses Paypal to transfer the fee between the parties
• ParXit takes 20% off the top
• Drivers late to a spot get locked out of the system for 15 minutes and if a person looking for a spot cancels within 15 minutes of arrival, he or she will still be charged the 20% service fee.

Parxit enters into that interesting legal gray area where drivers seem to think that they actually “own” a spot, when, in fact, street parking is a part of the Commons. Correcting that misconception is a big part of the idea behind Parking Day.

One limitation of the app is that it won’t work until it has a lot of users in a given area. There’s also the problem of a driver trying to predict an arrival time when parking is in the highest demand (that is, when a neighborhood has lots of traffic). The most interesting problems, however, will arise when a non-Parxit user sees someone getting ready to leave a spot and waits for it, even though he or she isn’t the person the parked driver has “sold” the spot, too.

That should yield some interesting conversations.

That said, this is a ripe area for experimentation. Parking’s inefficiency is an information problem. Drivers don’t know where the nearest spot is and waste time (and take up traffic space) by making lots of wrong guesses about where to look. For those curious about how Parxit is tinkering with the parking problem, you can watch their crowdfunding video here: