0 Parking App Gains Traction in Boston

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Parking in Boston: we need and it and it can be hard to find and expensive. Spot Park puts private parking space owners in touch with those looking to rent them and charges a 15% fee. Boston has been the pilot city and having just raised under $1M Spot Park will be expanding to 7 other U.S. cities.

Founder and CEO Braden Golub notes in the Boston Business Journal that Spot Park “‘now has 14,000 Boston users…this is a perfect test market for us, because Boston is notoriously difficult to find parking in,’ Golub said in an interview. ‘We think if we can make it work here, we can make it work in other cities’…Through its mobile app, the company allows drivers to book and pay for hundreds of Boston-area parking spots available from homeowners and apartment-renters. Spot Park takes a 15 percent cut off of every transaction.”

You can read the full article on the BBJ, here.

0 Parking App Haystack Gets Boot by Boston City Council

Posted on August 23, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Credit: ExpiredMeter

Information is power, but the Mayor’s office has shut down Haystack in the city of Boston.

Eric Meyer, CEO of the Baltimore-based company, offered a statement in reaction to the vote, which was posted on the BBJ:

“Although we think that Ordinance 1310 should not apply to Haystack (as Haystack does not sell, lease or reserve public parking spots), it seems clear to us that City Council has passed Ordinance 1310, at least in part, to challenge and end Haystack service in the City of Boston. We believe that taking actions against new ideas and passing legislation based upon hypothetical concerns that have not materialized in the actual implementation of the Haystack app is premature and does nothing to help solve Boston’s acknowledged parking issues. The passage of this ordinance is a step in the wrong direction for parking innovation, and for innovation of every kind. Nonetheless, it is our company’s mission to solve parking issues collaboratively. Accordingly, Haystack will suspend service in Boston this week until further notice in the hopes of engaging with the Office of New Urban Mechanics and local lawmakers to identify a modified approach to parking issues that can be supported by City Hall.”

0 App for On-street Parking in Boston

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Business Journal

How would you like to Uber a parking space? App is trying to make it happen. Not too sure the Massachusetts driver would be willing to wait for the next owner of the space to show up and claim it. If I don’t have the App and see the person getting into their car and pull up behind them the old fashioned way can I claim it?

The BBJ described the app as follows:

“Developed by former Harvard Graduate School of Design professor Kostas Terzidis, the app lets drivers with a coveted space name their own price for a space. Then a driver, using the app, can claim the space by clicking it on a map and paying for it within the app using a credit card or bitcoin. The driver seeking the space can anonymously message or call the driver who has the space and let them know they’d like it. They can also watch the driver approach the space on a map within the app, much like users of Uber can watch their ride arrive. The person who has the space would wait until the other driver arrives and then the space swap would take place.”

0 Parking App SpotHero Eyes Boston Market

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston.com

As our working population grows, so does our parking demand. In Back Bay, a month parking pass at the Prudential has increased from $445 to $460, while Copley has risen from $320 to $360. SpotHero is trying to help those that are looking for spots.

“SpotHero, which partners with large parking lots and parking and valet garages around the city to offer users thousands of parking spots to choose from, plans to also expand to other neighborhoods in the greater Boston area this year…’Boston is a key market for us that we’re going to put a lot of time into, and that starts with getting inventory in the downtown area and expanding it from there,’ SpotHero co-founder and COO Jeremy Smith remarked to the Boston Business Journal.

The full BBJ article is available, here.