Parking in Melbourne: The Find a Park App

Finding parking is an important part of city life. However, according to our recent survey, parking in the city of Melbourne is hard to find, expensive, and the parking times on the street are so short it is not realistic to use them every day. Often people have to park inconveniently far away from their destinations on a daily basis.

Mobile apps have the potential to change the future of parking in Melbourne, making it relatively easy and stress-free to find the best available parking space. This newest proposed app allows users to filter available information about the nearest available parking based upon price, proximity, and convenience. The app will also give the user a 15 minute notification when the parking time is about to end so the driver can move the car before getting a ticket.

There is clearly a strong interest in such an app, as evidenced in survey comments such as: "The parking times on the streets are pretty short, so it isn't realistic to park in them for a whole day. Parking is very expensive, way more than buying a train ticket." 92% of participants in the survey found parking to be too expensive in Melbourne. However, some other respondents indicated "I don't care how much the cost of parking is as long as it is close to my destination." The fact that the parking app allows for a variety of priorities, depending on the user's needs, makes it especially useful.

Although parking will never be a pleasurable experience, the use of mobile technology can at least make it as hassle-free as possible. People are looking more and more to smartphones to improve their lives and this is yet another example of how a simple and inexpensive application can make a world of difference to users, buying them both time and money with a few taps on their phones.