San Mateo's Solution to Downtown Parking

On-street parking spaces in San Mateo will become easier to find thanks to new technology created by the city in association with Streetline, Inc., a company based in Foster City.

The Smart Parking system was unveiled Tuesday by the City of San Mateo with Streetline, Inc. and Cisco Systems.

The system uses sensors, and the free consumer app 'Parker'™ from Streetline. It works in conjunction with the intelligent networking technology platform from Cisco.

Motorists will be able to view real-time parking availability in downtown real-time parking availability of 135 on-street parking spaces in downtown San Mateo near the intersection of 3rd Avenue and B Street. 

"I'm pleased that San Mateo was chosen for this project to bring innovative parking technology to our city," San Mateo Director of Public Works Larry Patterson said. "This tool is consistent with San Mateo's strong technology industry and is an example of the City's commitment to efficiently managing parking to support our downtown." 

Sensors embedded in the pavement of select parking spaces can detect when a space becomes available.

Cisco's smart routers communicate with Streetline sensors to aggregate sensor data and, at the same time, communicate with Streetline cloud center to deliver the availability of the parking spots.

The network platform captures the data and publishes it into the free mobile application, Parker, which displays real-time availability of these spaces, as well as locations of off-street parking garages and lots. 

"By deploying this cutting-edge Smart Parking technology, San Mateo has taken a great step towards becoming a Smarter City," Streetline CEO Zia Yusuf said.  "We are pleased to be working alongside Cisco to bring this technology to San Mateo and hopefully resolve one of the most pressing concerns facing today's cities; parking."

Before joining Streetline, a Sutter Hill portfolio company, Yusuf rose to become Executive Vice President at SAP AG. He left the company in 2009.

Some of the notable features of the Parker by Streetline app include:

• Real-time availability of select on-street parking spaces to guide consumers to 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
• Ability to toggle between availability and price, including real time updates as prices are changed or updated
• Easy access to rates, hours and time limits for both on-street spaces and off-street parking facilities metered and on-street parking where available
• Ability to enter an address or search by points of interest including airports, universities, shopping centers, featured neighborhoods, transit and hospitals
• 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 guidance back to the car), set reminders, take a picture of a car and take notes about the location. Parker also saves parking history data for easy access later

"Parking is important to the success and vitality of our downtown," Executive Director of the Downtown San Mateo Association Jessica Evans said.  "This technology will help customers find parking more easily and attract more people to enjoy all that downtown San Mateo has to offer." 

In October 2012, Streetline was named a finalist for the prestigious 2012 World Technology Awards.  For more information on the company, visit their website.

For more information and to download the free Parker app, please visit www.theparkerapp.com

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