My question is related to street parking in crowded urban areas (e.g.
Manhattan, London etc.). As we all know, it takes ages to find an open
spot. I would imagine that if there existed some kind of an automated
service to help a driver figure out the closest currently open spot to
his/her destination, it would be of great help. I want to know if
there exists such a service in any of the big cities of the world?
Alternatively, has there been any work (research, publications etc.)
looking into the technical or financial viability of such a service?

---

Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 07 Oct 2003 05:45 PDT

Dear rakrasnaya, 

In my opinion, this kind of service is possible mainly (or only?) in
parking lots, where you could control the incoming and outgoing cars.
In any case, I have seen it in several large urban areas, regarding
parking lots (but not "free" spaces in the streets, private lots,
etc.) . Would you like an answer regarding these systems?