ParkNet: drive-by sensing of road-side parking statistics

Urban street-parking availability statistics are challenging to obtain in real-time but would greatly benefit society by reducing traffic congestion. In this paper we present the design, implementation and evaluation of ParkNet, a mobile system comprising vehicles that collect parking space occupancy information while driving by. Each ParkNet vehicle is equipped with a GPS receiver and a passenger-side-facing ultrasonic rangefinder to determine parking spot occupancy. The data is aggregated at a central server, which builds a real-time map of parking availability and could provide this information to clients that query the system in search of parking. Creating a spot-accurate map of parking availability challenges GPS location accuracy limits. To address this need, we have devised an environmental fingerprinting approach to achieve improved location accuracy. Based on 500 miles of road-side parking data collected over 2 months, we found that parking spot counts are 95% accurate and oc...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: MOBISYS
• Authors: Suhas Mathur, Tong Jin, Nikhil Kasturirangan, Janani Chandrasekaran, Wenzhi Xue, Marco Gruteser, Wade Trappe
• Keywords: Computer Networks, MOBISYS 2010, Parking, Parking Availability, Parking Spot