From Kristin Eberhard’s Blog,NRDC
“Have you tried parking in Santa Monica recently? You probably found it helpful to see the electronic signs outside public parking structures telling you how many spaces are available. But did you know that, if you have a smart phone, you don’t even have to drive by and look at that sign? An app called SaMo Park lets you see all parking structures in Santa Monica, their prices, and real-time space availability. How cool is that?
Say you are approaching downtown… you pull up SaMo park and see (screenshot below) that a few structures are already full (the red pins), but many still have availability (the green pins). (The purple pin means the lot is getting close to full).
You click on a green pin, and the address and number of spaces appears (see below: 556 spaces available at 215 Colorado Ave. – great!).
You then click on the blue arrow to the right of the address and it takes you to a screen showing the operating hours and pricing info for that parking structure.
Now you can go straight to that lot, assured that there is a space and you know exactly how much you need to pay.”
The technology saves time and air pollution, says Kristin.