San Carlos Brings Real-Time Parking Information To Laurel Street

SAN CARLOS, Calif., Dec. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The City of San Carlos teamed up with Cisco and Streetline to make it easier for residents and visitors to park downtown and enjoy all that the city has to offer. Using sensors and a free consumer app from Streetline called Parker™—and intelligent networking technology platform from Cisco—motorists will be able to view real-time parking availability in the downtown San Carlos area on Laurel Street between Olive Street and San Carlos Avenue.

Advanced TechnologyThe advanced technology uses an end-to-end Cisco Wi-Fi Network in Downtown San Carlos (SSID: "Local Wi-Fi") to display real-time parking space availability to drivers via Streetline's free Parker app for Apple and Android-based smartphones. Cisco's smart routers communicate with Streetline sensors to aggregate sensor data and communicate with Streetline cloud center to deliver the availability of the parking spots. The intelligent network platform captures the data and publishes it into the application. In the near future, this data will be available for laptop and desktop computers with web browsers as well.  The system also helps the city identify parking usage patterns.

San Carlos City Manager Jeff Maltbie said, "The city is looking forward to the Smart Parking project with Cisco and Streetline.  Cisco's intelligent network in Downtown San Carlos, which was provided by Cisco and currently delivers free Wi-Fi to residents and visitors, will also provide them with a new way to quickly find available parking on Laurel Street."

Sensors Identify Available ParkingSensors that provide real-time data have been installed in approximately 100 parking spaces on the first three blocks of Laurel Street in downtown San Carlos.  This allows residents and visitors to quickly and easily identify open parking spots near their favorite San Carlos shops and restaurants.  Local businesses will also reap the benefits of this system through increased parking space turnover and decreased traffic congestion. 

Key FeaturesSome of the features of Parker include:

• Real-time information to guide customers to open and available parking spaces.  Parker updates automatically when a car is parked or leaves
• Hands-free voice navigation system that safely guides drivers to parking facilities using an audible cue when available parking is nearby
• Easy access to time limits for on-street parking spaces and a self-timer that shows the amount of time left to park at that location
• Ability to enter an address or search by points of interest including local stores, restaurants and transit
• The ability to enter an address within Parker and view parking options nearest to that destination
• Mark areas on the Parker map to keep track of where a car is parked (and later get directions back to the car), set reminders and take notes about the location.  Parker also saves parking history data for easy access later

Smart Parking BenefitsThe Smart Parking system will provide clear statistical data that enables the city to make data-driven decisions on how to better manage parking in the downtown area.  This is designed to increase availability downtown, leaving parking spaces open for customers of downtown restaurants and businesses.  It can also decrease traffic congestion, as experts estimate that 30% of city traffic is due to motorists searching for parking.

"We are delighted to partner with Cisco to deliver Smart Parking services to the City and citizens of San Carlos," said Zia Yusuf, president and CEO of Streetline.  "Using sensor-enabled applications we can now rethink one of the most pressing challenges in an urban setting – finding and managing parking – the Internet of things is becoming a reality and Cisco and Streetline are leading the way."

"Smart Parking services such as the projects being launched today in San Mateo and San Carlos have the potential to significantly reduce congestion around key downtown areas, and create a completely new experience for city visitors, businesses and residents," said Wim Elfrink, executive vice president, Industry Solutions and chief globalisation officer, Cisco. "Using the intelligence of the network as a way to connect what were previously unconnected areas opens up a number of new service opportunities for developing smarter communities. In Paris for example, the average motorist spends 4 years of their life just trying to find a parking space.  Our belief is that the network can provide a smarter way to address this challenge, and help create new ongoing monetization streams for city government."

For more information on San Carlos' Smart Parking technology and to download the free Parker app, please visit www.theparkerapp.com.

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