Smart Parking

San Francisco is implementing a two-year, 95-million-dollar network of wireless sensor “bumps” to digitally transmit what parking spaces around the city are free all any point. This will save time, fuel, frustration, and maybe even lives—San Francisco residents have been known to stab each other to death over parking spots.

Other cities, like New York, will look to SF’s “bumps” for their own streets if the system works; doubtless there will be some kinks to work out, but we’re on the right track here in terms of efficiency, and we hope for San Francisco’s sake it will have a more predictable success rate than our previous strategy of praying to the patron saint of parking while circling the block for the 400th time.