Downtown Parking is Going 21st Century
Soon enough, your never-fail top secret downtown parking space may be a thing of the past.
City of Austin
The City is undertaking this movement as part of a larger "wayfinding" system, which is a set of comprehensive, standardized signage systems to make it easier to navigate Austin's streets. Recent data has shown that off-street parking is being underutilized largely because of unclear and insufficient signage to alert drivers of additional spaces.
The plan will, in later stages, include electronic message boards to provide up-to-the-minute parking information, in an effort to reduce congestion and help visitors find parking quickly and easily.
There's even a prototype for a Smartphone app, which will highlight available parking spaces in whichever area the user specifies. The city has a static version of that map available here.
The City is looking at the private sector to eventually take over the mapping and data control for the real-time parking application.
Current revenue from the city's parking meters is paying for the wayfinding measures currently going into effect, but future changes will be funded by the revenue from extended hours on parking meters (which start in August).
