CarPark2022

Have you ever been flummoxed by parking in Pittsburgh? Our app CarPark can help!

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Prize Category

We are submitting our CarPark site to the Smart Cities/Urban Planning category. Also we are entering the PNC challenge of making our city more inclusive by consolidating mobility-related information when choosing where to park.

Inspiration

While there are many things we love about Pittsburgh, navigating the complicated parking system is not one of them.

  • If you need a handicapped space or need to limit the amount of walking you do to your destination, how are you supposed to find parking besides just wandering around hoping for the best?
  • If you need free parking, how can you remember the rules (ie parking is free on Sundays and sometimes other days but only after 6pm)?

Our site CarPark is here to help!

  • Once you enter a few options/inputs into the site (which is mobile-friendly), CarPark returns information to help you make informed choices!
  • With CarPark, we wanted to make a tool to help make parking in Pittsburgh more inclusive by giving the user a place to find all the information they need to park safely and cheaply!

What it does

CarPark2022 will show you parking zones near your destination that fit criteria you decide: ADA-compliant, free parking, walking distance to your destination. With this site you can have more information about your parking options and make the choice that is best for you!

We also believe that being inclusive is not a one and done. We also need to ensure the system works. This includes preventing people from parking in spaces meant for accessibilty parking, or even misusing Handicap Permits. Accessible parking abuse is one of the most common issues faced by those who need it. In fact, 84 percent are interested in actions aimed at preventing misuse of accessible spaces. More broadly, accessible parking abuse has been witnessed by 74 percent of participants in recent U.S. survey.

How we built it

There are three components:

  • Front End - We designed the front end in Figma and Anima
  • Back End - Pittsburgh city data was scraped from ArcGIS and collected into tables using Python. The csv files obtained from ArcGis were then converted into json, for later use in React. We built a React app and integrated the React Leaflet API. We used the json data to get the longitude and latitude points of meters within the city of Pittsburgh. We restricted these points to only include meters within the Oakland area. Lastly, we attempted connection between the backend and frontend, that will eventual allow the user’s input to affect a route to destination meter.
  • Hardware - Physical demonstration of how our IoT backed solution would work in the future.

Challenges we ran into

  • Determining the best arcGIS data to use since there are many different collections available
  • Combining front-end and back-end components
  • Integrating routing API provided by MapQuest
  • Working with the RFID RC522, it finally didn't work and we had to settle for using buttons instead

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our team began with an outline of the product functionalities, requirements, scope, time, and cost. With a strong foundation of project management, our tasks were very clear from the start and we had a realistic idea of what we could and could not accomplish. From there we were able to break off independently and showcase our own respective areas and talents. The additional inclusion of a mechanical feature, our sensor, was a bonus that we felt gave our solution the upper edge.

What we learned

  • There are extensive free arcGIS datasets about many topics for the city of Pittsburgh
  • The compatibility of output file types from the front end and back end portions helped us tie them together
  • How to use Google Maps Geocoder, Leaflet JS, and Mapquest APIs
  • More about the React framework
  • Connecting two Particle devices by ensuring one is able to read the sensor readings collected by the other, forming the true basis of connected devices.

What's next for CarPark2022

CarPark has plenty in store for the future.

  1. Though our current scope is the city of Pittsburgh, we hope to expand to other cities like Philadelphia and Washington D.C., which also suffer from rather confusing parking policies.
  2. Seeking partnership from web mapping platforms like Google Maps, which would offer a directive to our app similarly to the way they give directives to Uber and Lyft.
  3. Integrating autocomplete for metered locations with MapQuest API.
  4. Plan on implementing profiles to not only store user preferences, but to offer real time data on available parking spaces and to create a buyer/seller market for residential parking spaces.
  5. With user input and combined data we also plan on using predictive modeling to provide more accurate probabilities of available parking spaces.
  6. Instead of just misuse of permits or wrong parking, we should also be detecting obstructions to and at accessible parking spots (for e.g snow/debris) to make CarPark truly empathetic to everyone's needs.
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