By Carol Walker
Our daughter and her husband just had their fourth baby. They are giving up the Durango for an older Suburban to accommodate car seats, booster seats and groceries, but bigger vehicles make for challenges in parking. I have noticed our daughter choosing her parking spots more carefully these days.
New technology related to parking may be helpful to her in the future, if she ever has a car new enough to be equipped with the necessary electronics. With tourist season just around the corner, the same might be true for local residents and visitors to Hill City who know that summer means parking places are at a premium in downtown Hill City. Last weekend, with the Art Extravaganza and Black Hill Film Festival in town, people had a foretaste of what is to come, in what many are saying could be a record year for tourism.
I understand Ford Motor Co. already has a “Parking Assist” package available that uses ultrasonic sensors, enabling vehicles to parallel park themselves. Now, working off that existing technology, Ford is embarking on the test phase for a program called “Parking Spotter.” Partnering with Georgia Tech, Ford has developed a crowd-sourcing database that maps parking spots all over the United States. According to what I read, as people drive through an urban area, censors or cameras matched with GPS coordinates of parking spots enable drivers to find available parking spots with less driving up and down streets. Research by Ford shows that 20-30 percent of fuel emissions are due to individuals driving back and forth looking for a place to “land.” Those looking for parking places are usually traveling at a slower pace, creating more congestion on city streets.
Ford geo-mapped all the available parking spots in the United States. If a car crosses the GPS coordinates, it can be determined that it is moving into a parking place on the streets or in a parking lot. A driver can then access a cloud database app to find an appropriate parking place.
Move over, George Jetson, we are coming through! It won’t be long and we’ll all have our own hover-craft.
The article I read did say “every” available parking spot in the U.S., whether that means only larger urban areas or really everywhere — like Hill City — I don’t know. Ford is planning to equip a fleet of test cars with the technology this year and find out if it is truly a feasible business plan for them.
We do know it won’t be available yet this year, for this tourist season, but perhaps in the future. We know our traffic congestion is only for part of the year and we know how important the tourists are to the local economy, so for now we will be thankful for every car that comes to Hill City and share the streets and parking places in town. It might be a good summer to park farther away from downtown and walk — it’s good exercise.