Overclocker

Doesn't this make riding the bus look a little more palatable? SpotScout is a new service that will help you find an open parking space via an Internet-enabled cell phone.


The SpotScout Web site also lets you market your unused parking space to spot-hungry drivers in your town.

Date posted: 12-12-2006

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A startup company called SpotScout is about to launch an innovative new service that would let drivers search for a parking space using their computer and cell phones with access to the Internet.

The service will be test marketed in early 2007 in Boston; Cambridge, Massachusetts; New York and San Francisco.

To use the service, customers would punch in the address of a destination, along with the time and date they plan to arrive. A map would pop up with a list of nearby available parking spots, with the price of each spot and the time it would take to walk to the final destination.

The company's Web site says it will enable users to reserve private parking in a garage or driveway, search for departure time information for on-street spots and be informed of the exact time a person intends on leaving a public space to "be the first in line to grab that space." Searching for the spaces will be free of charge. The Boston Globe says the site will make its money by taking a 15 percent cut of each transaction. All payments will be made with credit cards or PayPal, the online payment service.

Company founder Andrew Rollert got the idea for the service while directing friends via cell phones to open spaces he could see from a Boston rooftop.

What this means to you: This sounds like the ultimate parking solution for people living in notoriously congested areas, like L.A. and the Big Apple.

Source: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...cleId=118824#2

tzu911

And restaurants with how many tables available. This is old news, but nice avatar....

Overclocker

Thanks! Just wanted to show off my Team Lexus hat.