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Car Talk

Lisa Cramer,





Here in San Francisco, we have 47 square miles and 700,000 citizens–and the city actually grows immensely during the course of the day, as it’s the center of most of the commerce and tourism in the area. So we have as many as 1.3 million people in the city during the course of the day. With that comes a great number of automobiles, and it has created congestion issues that impact our pedestrians, our bicyclists, and ultimately our transit system because it delays trips.


What information will the wireless sensors provide to the city?

They’re going to provide real-time information about where parking is available. Ultimately, we can use it to implement demand-responsive pricing. By adjusting parking prices based on the time of day, location, and availability, we hope to keep 15 percent of the city’s parking available at all times. And another benefit–clearly, less circling around means less greenhouse emissions, which is part of the whole environmental strategy on this.


The sensor transmits a wireless message to digital readers we’ve installed, and that information is then wirelessly provided to us in the form of a database–a graphic interface that we’ll be able to use to observe the availability of each parking spot. We did an inventory of all of the parking spots in the city a few months ago, so we have that clearly documented.

So the sensor can tell when a car arrives and also when it leaves. And then you’ll analyze which times of day the space is in use and how long a car stays?


How was this technology developed?



We are not going to develop the app. We think that the private market will take care of that. What we will do from our side is make the information we’re receiving available to the rest of the world through our open government projects. And then some smart person out there will start developing applications to spread that real-time information. We have a similar situation with our transit operation–we provide real-time data through our Next Muni system, and we have seen numerous applications designed to spread that information.

How else is San Francisco using GPS technology?

All of our transit vehicles are outfitted with GPS, so we have real-time information on vehicle location, and that helps us manage the system. As we replace all of our transit shelters over the next two years, we’re going to set up displays that provide vehicle prediction information right there where people are waiting. We also have automatic passenger counters on 30 percent of our vehicles, and coupled with the GPS information we’re receiving on vehicle location, we’re able to pull information about ridership sampling.

Can you tell me a little bit more about that? What does ridership sampling do, and how does it benefit the city’s overall plan for transit?


Do you have preliminary findings on the results of the redesign–are you carrying more passengers? Is it more efficient?




We also have cameras that help detect congestion issues. We have crosswalks that actually register if someone is in the crosswalk and hold the traffic signal. And so between SFgo, SFpark, and GPS on our transit, we’re moving to a holistic transportation solution. We like to call it integrated mobility management.


I think that’s a great observation. But one of the challenges we have right now is that people are distracted looking for a parking spot. So if we’re able to provide that 15 percent availability, then we hope you won’t be in a situation where you’re circling around the block looking for a parking space, creating a safety hazard with that activity. If we’re able to do this, we think we’ll cut down on some of the anxiety that’s caused by looking for a parking space when there’s not one available.

Image credit: Donnaphoto/Flickr