The parking gods can be cruel and capricious, as anyone who has ever spent half an hour or more circling their destination in a city centre looking for a space knows. A new app aims to relieve drivers in Moscow of this particular stress by not only showing them available parking spots, but also revealing the most efficient ways to get to them.
Parking in central Moscow is notoriously difficult, and paid street parking was introduced a few years ago. Photo: Flickr.
Pavel Titov, founder of Where Do I Park (Gde Parkovka), a new resident of the Skolkovo Foundation’s IT cluster, says the app has two key advantages: its simple, easy-to-understand directions, and its combination of data. Unlike other apps that show parking spaces, Where Do I Park combines parking availability with traffic and navigation information, as well as walking directions from the parking space to the final destination.
“Normally cities that have sensors on [parking bays on] the street have some sort of official parking app that they use to process payment etc.: you can open a map and see what’s there,” said Titov, explaining what sets his service apart from existing parking apps.
“But it doesn’t help you to navigate to your destination. When I was using such apps, for example, including in Moscow, I would look at a map, at 10 parking locations close by, and I’d have to click on each of them to be able to see how many spaces they have. Then I’d have to open a traffic map so I could figure out which one was faster to drive to. It’s not difficult as such, but it’s quite a lot of hassle. A lot of people just try not to drive to central parts of cities because of that,” he said.
Titov said he got the idea for the app, which works in both English and Russian, from his personal experience and from talking to other people.
“It seems most big European cities have massive problems in how to drive to very old areas with narrow streets and limited parking,” he said.
The app shows both available parking spaces and the best way to reach them in terms of traffic. Photo: Where Do I Park?
The app was first launched in Moscow, but also works in the City of Westminster, the central area of London that is home to the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Oxford Street and other London landmarks.
“Westminster council has installed sensors in many parking bays in the area, which includes Oxford Street and Regent Street, so it’s easier to get the data,” explained Titov, who used to live in London.
“Also, from a market perspective, it’s an interesting area in that there are a lot of people visiting shops and offices, but also a lot of people live there,” he said.
When the app was launched in Moscow, it also used real time data from sensors on Moscow streets, but the city system is currently being overhauled and the sensors have been removed, Titov said.
“Unfortunately there’s no data for street parking right now, so the app’s function [in Moscow] is basically limited to multistorey and underground car parks, but I have a letter from them [city officials] saying they’re about to roll it [the new system with sensors] out,” he said.
In the future, Titov plans to expand the areas and cities covered by the app.
“I have a list of about 10 other cities that offer similar things, but from a business standpoint it might make sense to see if there are opportunities to expand to more areas of central London, in neighbouring councils to Westminster,” he said.
The app is currently free, but Titov has plans to introduce a paid-for version that would show owners of residential parking permits what parking is available in their area, as well as subscriptions for drivers who commute regularly to certain areas.
“So there will probably be a free version, as it is now, with extra options on top of that,” said Titov.
Where Do I Park became a resident of the Skolkovo Foundation’s IT cluster in July. Titov said his company hopes to make use of the support mechanisms offered by the foundation for protecting intellectual property, as well as networking opportunities.