Archive for the ‘parking’ Category

Here at TCC, we cover a lot of applications for mobile devices, and at the risk of sounding like shills for Apple, we've stumbled across another one that could come in handy -- especially for mall mavens during the coming holiday season. The app is called "Car Finder", and it's designed to help you, well, find your car in a parking lot. After taking a photo of your vehicle, the app uses GPS and a digital compass to help you find your way back. We haven't given this one a test run yet, but at just $.99, chances are pretty good that'll happen -- as soon as we upgrade to the necessary 3GS handset, of course. [BoingBoing]

A number of cities large and small are coming around to think of public parking spaces not as a subsidized right but a privilege worth a fee—more specifically, a sliding fee, depending on the demand for a particular spot.

As the LA Times reports, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. have already phased in market pricing systems that vary the cost of spaces depending on the neighborhood or street, or even the time of day.

The city of Santa Monica is one of many smaller cities phasing in such a practice. It found that nearby business employees were using the short-term shopping spaces and simply moving their cars every few hours,...

For drivers in congested urban areas, nothing is quite as frustrating as finding a parking spot. Yes, traffic is a hassle, and the countless construction detours inspire unprecedented levels of road-rage, but finding that elusive spot on your block or just around the corner is by far the biggest headache -- especially when it's just too snug to squeeze into. But a clever driver in Cairo, Egypt has devised a solution to the problem of parallel parking -- or at least made it more interesting to watch. [YouTube via BoingBoing]