Driving around Ellicott City just became simpler, thanks to the introduction of the Parker app on Nov. 15.
The app works by providing real-time information on available parking spots in an area based on data collected by street-level sensors installed wherever spots are. These “sensors communicate with a receiver on a nearby lamp pole, which connects to a data center in Dallas, which in turn communicates with the iPhone app,” according to a USA Today article.
Download the Parker app for iPhone here. Download Parker for Android here.
According to the Baltimore Sun, the installation of the street-level sensors to each one of Ellicott City’s nearly 600 parking spots cost $150,000, and annual maintenance and repairs will cost about $170,000 through the city’s contract with California-based Streetline, the company that developed the Parker app.
Watch a video of Howard County executive Ken Ulman announcing Parker is available in Ellicott City:
http://www.youtube.com/v/x56hadk0UFY?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0
Through Parker, drivers can also reserve parking spaces in advance, the main function of the web- and app-based service run by Federal Hill-based Parking Panda, available in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Join our growing Slack community
Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!
Donate to the Journalism Fund
Your support powers our independent journalism. Unlike most business-media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational contributions.
The case for storytelling: Want your region’s tech scene to grow? Start with a story, new data says
Why every city has a ‘startup week’ now — and whether they should
This Week in Jobs: The mother of all career roundups with 26 tech opportunities
