The traffic problem in urban cities is majorly(30%) caused due to the cars hunting for parking spaces and some of the most valuable real estates goes hidden beneath parked cars.
Enter Streetline, a 30-employee company in San Francisco that creates and installs wireless sensor networks to monitor parking spaces. Each sensor uses a magnetometer to detect the presence of large metal objects nearby. The sensors communicate wirelessly, signaling whether spots are occupied or vacant, gradually collecting data to reveal local parking patterns. That information allows cities to price their parking spaces according to their actual value, factoring in supply and demand as they would with any other piece of real estate. With that data, cities can both help ease congestion and boost their meter revenue.
Streetline charges its clients a monthly usage fee of $25 to $30 per sensor. The fee covers installation, maintenance and management of the software that collects and distributes parking data. The company does not publicly disclose financial information, but Streetline is now raising its second round of funding and expects to see its annual revenue rise by 75% for 2011.
So far Streetline has set up networks in areas including parts of Los Angeles, Roosevelt Island in New York City, the parking lots at Fort Totten Metro station in Washington, D.C., and a garage at the conference center in Salt Lake City's Temple Square. The company has also released an iPhone application called Parker, which shows drivers how many parking spots are available on blocks within the sensor network. An Android version is in development.
Streetline was launched in 2007 by a team of five entrepreneurs; in 2010, the company was named IBM's Global Entrepreneur of the Year. IBM executives were highly impressed by the potential of real-time parking data to help cities to solve major problems.
More cities are coming around to his way of thinking. During its first four years of business, Streetline closed only two deals. In the past six months, it closed six of them. So the idea is getting popular and we can hope it to see in our cities as well in a year or two eliminating traffic rush and parking problems which is increasing day by day.
Enter Streetline, a 30-employee company in San Francisco that creates and installs wireless sensor networks to monitor parking spaces. Each sensor uses a magnetometer to detect the presence of large metal objects nearby. The sensors communicate wirelessly, signaling whether spots are occupied or vacant, gradually collecting data to reveal local parking patterns. That information allows cities to price their parking spaces according to their actual value, factoring in supply and demand as they would with any other piece of real estate. With that data, cities can both help ease congestion and boost their meter revenue.
Streetline charges its clients a monthly usage fee of $25 to $30 per sensor. The fee covers installation, maintenance and management of the software that collects and distributes parking data. The company does not publicly disclose financial information, but Streetline is now raising its second round of funding and expects to see its annual revenue rise by 75% for 2011.
So far Streetline has set up networks in areas including parts of Los Angeles, Roosevelt Island in New York City, the parking lots at Fort Totten Metro station in Washington, D.C., and a garage at the conference center in Salt Lake City's Temple Square. The company has also released an iPhone application called Parker, which shows drivers how many parking spots are available on blocks within the sensor network. An Android version is in development.
Streetline was launched in 2007 by a team of five entrepreneurs; in 2010, the company was named IBM's Global Entrepreneur of the Year. IBM executives were highly impressed by the potential of real-time parking data to help cities to solve major problems.
More cities are coming around to his way of thinking. During its first four years of business, Streetline closed only two deals. In the past six months, it closed six of them. So the idea is getting popular and we can hope it to see in our cities as well in a year or two eliminating traffic rush and parking problems which is increasing day by day.
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