Tired of getting parking tickets for forgetting to move their car on street cleaning days, a San Francisco engineering couple invented an app to help drivers avoid citations.
Pablo Felgueles and Mary-Louise Howell have been getting parking tickets every month since they bought their car seven months ago. The couple said they had at least 10 parking tickets worth about $900.
Users tell the app where they parked their car, and the app reminds them to move their car before they risk being caught. Alerts will be sent 45 minutes before the time is up and 10 minutes before the time is up.
The app does not have functionality for parking meters, loading zones, or other areas where drivers are at risk of a parking ticket.
Felgueles and Howell tentatively named the app “Street Cleaning parking.”
The couple said living in Nopa makes it difficult to understand street parking regulations. Residents without garages often have to park on different streets each time they travel, each with their own cleaning schedule. It’s easy to make mistakes and they can be costly, Felgueles said.
“We built this ourselves,” Felgueles said. “I did the coding. She did the coding. [user experience]”
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They built the app last weekend using open city data, including street cleaning schedules for every street in the city.
Felgueles first showed off the app on Reddit, where his post received 1,500 upvotes. Since then, 200 San Franciscans have signed up to beta test the app.
He hopes to have it available for download on Apple’s App Store next week. Felgueres said the app is currently exclusive to iPhones and has no plans to expand to Android phones.
Felgueres is available for a fee of $3 to $5 per month, with a free tier and additional features such as Google Calendar integration, the ability to set custom time notifications, and the ability to notify others where street parking is available. We are planning to prepare a frame.
Felgueres created a website where users can find more information about the app, as well as an email form to notify them when it’s officially released.
You might even consider moving beyond San Francisco. Some have asked him to consider expanding the app to other cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Montreal.
“I think it could be a problem. [people in] Other cities are doing that,” Felgueles said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.”
To become a beta tester and try out new apps, download the “Testflight” app from the App Store and click here to get the pre-release version. The beta version has a maximum of 1,000 users.
The San Francisco Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment.