New parking app could help London drivers find their parking space

New app being introduced to London drivers could help reduce the amount of time spent looking for parking spaces.

A new ‘smart parking’ app will be introduced to drivers across London’s West End next week, and could drastically reduce the amount of time drivers spend looking for a parking space. On January 20th Westminster Council will work with parking technology firm Smart Parking to roll out 3,000 infra-red sensors in ‘paid for’ and disabled parkings bays in the West End. Drivers will be able to see the parking availability on a map using a downloaded app called ParkRight. This will then be able to direct them to an empty space.

Westminster Council is investing £889,395 in the project, and the first phase of the rollout is expected to take three years. If it’s successful we can expect a further 7,000 sensors installed across the rest of the city. 

Councillor Nickie Aiken, Westminster City Council Cabinet Member for Street Management, said: “Parking bay sensors are a simple concept that will deliver major benefits for people visiting Westminster as well as those living and working here.”

The project certainly seems to hint at what parking in the future could be like. Clive Longbottom, co-founder of analyst firm QuoCirca, said: “By creating the app which shows people where parking spaces are actually unoccupied, I think it’s really helping the driver, it’s helping London, it’s helping Westminster.”

The current version of the app is available for iOS and Android devices, and can be bought on the Apple store. and Google store. 

So do you reckon you’ll use it? Let us know by posting in the comments below.