Boston Parking Meters to Get Smart

It's no secret that there is abundant space for urban parking innovation. Curt Woodward writes, "Researchers from MIT's Senseable City Lab, who have tested parking-spot-finder technology on the school's campus, say the average American spends about 50 hours per year just looking for parking, wasting fuel while increasing air pollution and traffic congestion."

In a step forward for the digital city, smart parking meters will spread across Boston over the next two years. From the article: "Boston already has rolled out a pilot program in the Back Bay neighborhood, called ParkBoston, that lets drivers pay for their metered spots with a smartphone app. San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles also have tested projects that tap into smartphone technology to make parking more convenient [...]"

Multiple start-ups are vying for the private parking market, and several more - like Boston's Haystack - have even tried to sell access to public spots. City officials and entrepreneurs alike seem confident Bostonians won't need those bags of quarters much longer.