The Virginia Department of Transportation is evaluating a new free mobile app that lets drivers view real-time parking availability in six commuter lots, including two in Stafford County.
The ParkZen app helps motorists find and drive to unoccupied parking spaces. During the evaluation period, availability data will be reported for three VDOT commuter lots and three Virginia Railway Express station parking lots, including those at Brooke Road in Stafford and Leeland Road in Falmouth. The other lots are in Woodbridge, Springfield and Centreville.
With a combined capacity of more than 5,000 parking spaces, travelers can use these lots to transfer to buses, carpools, vanpools or VRE trains.
“Commuters have told us that not knowing whether parking is available at commuter lots is a deterrent to using transit, carpools, vanpools and slugging,” Amy McElwain, program manager for VDOT’s Office of Strategic Innovations, said in a press release announcing the app. “We know that taking the guesswork out of parking makes it easier for commuters to get out of their single-occupant vehicles. However, the challenge has always been finding the resources to install and maintain reliable counting technology.”
ParkZen does not require the installation of counting equipment and allows users to instantly determine whether parking is available at a given lot, helping them navigate there with turn-by-turn directions. Leveraging crowdsourcing technology, ParkZen collects anonymized data from users when they visit the selected commuter lots, in order to inform other drivers of occupancy levels.
“Through this app, commuters can optimize the parking experience for themselves and others, enabling everyone to park quickly and catch buses, trains and carpool rides,” McElwain said. “The more drivers who use the app during the trial period, the better job we will be able to do to validate this technology before scaling up to more locations.”
The parking technology will be available in the six designated lots for early adopters during the evaluation period, which runs through January.
The free app is available in the App Store for iOS devices and the Google Play Store for Android devices. Top users will have a chance to earn a $50 Amazon gift card from ParkZen.
If the trial is successful, VDOT will evaluate rolling out the technology for other commuter lots in the Fredericksburg and Northern Virginia areas, starting in the spring.
