This week we have come across three new mobile phone applications, all designed to assist with parking in some form or another.
Help2Park is an Android smart phone app that allows users to locate nearby parking stations. The user can set the radius within which to search from their current location, and they receive a map showing nearby parking stations, including addresses, and distances. At this stage it is not able to detect on-street parking.
Park Circa is an online community, designed to connect members who are looking for parking with those who have private facilities available. Whilst the idea of utilising private parking (in driveways or off-street parking spaces) is not new, Park Circa links the available spaces with drivers as they are searching for a parking space.
The new PlugShare app is designed to address a condition known as ‘range anxiety’ – the anxiety that an electric car driver might feel about the location of the nearest charging station. The app includes both a directory of publically available charging stations, as well as a network of friendly strangers who are willing to offer you a charge.
With all this additional information available on mobile phones it will be interesting to see how they impact on statistics of car accidents whilst using a phone…