{"id":237870,"date":"2015-08-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/a-downtown-drivers-new-best-friend\/"},"modified":"2015-08-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-07T07:00:00","slug":"a-downtown-drivers-new-best-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/a-downtown-drivers-new-best-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"A Downtown driver\u2019s new best friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

New website leads visitors and residents to parking options<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Hutton Marshall<\/p>\n

The hunt for parking is a familiar practice for any car-owning San Diegan. Some in fact, may still be recuperating from trying to find a spot in the Gaslamp Quarter during Comic Con.<\/p>\n

Much of this auto overload occurs in San Diego\u2019s dense urban core \u2014 the Downtown neighborhoods \u2014\u00a0and the nonprofit Civic San Diego is more familiar with the problem than most.<\/p>\n

Responsible for managing community-based parking solutions Downtown, CivicSD has advocated for increased public transit and smarter city parking policies, and it also owns and manages two garages in East Village and the Gaslamp Quarter. Now, the urban-development organization is making the most of the resources it\u2019s already helped create \u2014 it wants to make sure the area\u2019s parking can actually be found.<\/p>\n

\"ParkItDTSD_Logoweb\"<\/a>The solution is a website, ParkItDTSD.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Built to adapt to any device (e.g. smartphones, tablets, computers), the site allows users to search for the nearest parking garage by location, neighborhood or landmark. The site doesn\u2019t incorporate free options yet, but the app allows users to filter by price as well and CivicSD\u2019s two garages are only $1 per hour.<\/p>\n

Though this website will be new to Downtown, the idea has proved worthwhile elsewhere. Stephanie Shooks, CivicSD\u2019s program manager for ParkItDTSD, said the idea for the site came from a smartphone app developed by the Uptown Community Parking District (UCPD) called Park Hillcrest.<\/p>\n

Despite being less populated than Downtown, Hillcrest\u2019s high visitor rate and proximity to Downtown and North Park make it a natural epicenter for Uptown\u2019s parking challenges. The UCPD app tracks each metered spot in the neighborhood, as well as the Park Hillcrest Trolley, which ferries people around the neighborhood free of charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing GPS technology, users can be in a store, a restaurant or at one of our parking facilities and see exactly where the trolley is on its route in order to hop on,\u201d said Elizabeth Hannon, UCPD\u2019s chief operating officer. \u201c[Park Hillcrest] helps alleviate impacted parking conditions as users can park once \u2014 whether it is for work or play \u2014 and hop on board for free rides throughout the business district.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Park Hillcrest app has evolved over several different phases, each adding additional functionality. The UCPD will soon launch a new streamlined service, Access Hillcrest, to provide additional parking information and services.<\/p>\n

With this model in mind, CivicSD sent out a request for proposal to produce an app that would include real-time parking information, searchable map functions and general information about the parking district. CivicSD received 14 proposals, but ultimately went with the Los Angeles-based Civic Research Group International (CRGI).<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a proven track record merging technology with the public sector,\u201d Shook said. \u201cWe knew this app would be data heavy, especially if we wanted to include real-time data.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although CivicSD had a previously established concept, CRGI founder and CEO Gregory C. Curtin said the Downtown app wasn\u2019t modeled off any existing parking applications. He said its inception was more organic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real inspiration for ParkItDTSD was San Diego\u2019s own desire to build a mobile and web foundation for creating a truly \u2018connected\u2019 Downtown \u2014 a \u2018smart\u2019 city that connects parking, transportation and getting around, events, local business, tourism, arts and culture, etc.,\u201d Curtin said.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a>
The app shows drivers where their parking options are Downtown (Courtesy ParkItDTSD.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The app now includes 75 percent of all Downtown lots and garages, according to Shook, including CivicSD\u2019s two garages.<\/p>\n

Many ambitious improvements upon the framework of the app are on the way, too. The first update, expected next summer, is to show real-time garage capacity. That is, how full the garages are at any given time.<\/p>\n

CivicSD\u2019s two garages already do this, Shook said, and now the nonprofit is working with the other garages included in the app to help them install the same technology, which simply counts and reports cars coming and going from the garage.<\/p>\n

Synchronizing this large amount of data is no easy task though, said Curtin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe various parking providers employ a wide range of disparate data and information systems to manage their parking facilities \u2014 these different systems don\u2019t \u2018talk\u2019 to each other,\u201d Curtin said. \u201cTo their credit, the various public and private providers involved in the ParkItDTSD implementation collaborated wonderfully and provided access to their data and information so that it could all be brought together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other updates to come in the future are more complex. Last year, San Diego replaced approximately 200 traditional, coin-operated parking meters Downtown with \u201csmart meters.\u201d The new, electronic meters allow drivers to pay with credit card, and, more importantly, they allow for remote monitoring. This makes meter parking more easily policed, but it also allows policymakers to gather data from the meters to study Downtown parking trends.<\/p>\n

Shook said she hopes to integrate this monitoring capability into the app, to show what metered spots are available. As smart meters are expected to become a more common sighting in San Diego, this would significantly increase the amount of parking spots available to the app\u2019s users.<\/p>\n

Another interesting idea they are looking at \u2014 which would require much deeper integration with privately owned lots \u2014 is the creation of an online payment portal, where users can go to the site, find a spot, pay for it remotely through the website, and then drive there to park. This would also provide another route of self-supporting revenue for the site, Shook said. CivicSD also plans to launch a free trolley similar to the one in Hillcrest and monitor it in real time on the map feature as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge of creating a real-time parking application is ensuring that it fits into this bigger mobility and connectivity picture, rather than serving simply as a standalone parking app that doesn\u2019t connect to anything or further the city \u2018experience,\u2019\u201d Curtis said.<\/p>\n

Important to the app\u2019s basic functions and any tools embedded on top of that, Shook said, is the primary goal to serve a wide demographic: both residents and visitors to the Downtown neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cSay if you live outside of Downtown, you may think there is no parking, so this will help demystify those reservations,\u201d Shook said. \u201cBut also if you work, live or are familiar with Downtown, this may open up some new options for you too.\u201d<\/p>\n

To use the website for yourself, visit ParkItDTSD.com<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n

\u2014Comun\u00edquese con Hutton Marshall al <\/em>jhuttonmarshall@gmail.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New website leads visitors and residents to parking options By Hutton Marshall The hunt for parking is a familiar practice for any car-owning San Diegan. Some in fact, may still be recuperating from trying to find a spot in the Gaslamp Quarter during Comic Con.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":237871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"A Downtown driver\u2019s new best friend","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11552,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-opinion","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}