1. Parking

Parking is a problem for many buildings, especially older ones that may have been built before everyone had at least one car if not two. While most complexes list parking as an amenity, the truth is that residents and tenants often have to deal with insufficient parking and a lack of guest parking, especially overnight. Residents who rent a car as needed often cannot park on the property. One solution is to offer multi-family smart parking, which allows you to better manage the parking you have, letting residents book guest spots in advance, open the gate with their phone, etc. Being able to avoid saying “Well, you can park on the street” can be a perk not many think about until it is brought up. Add a few electric car charging stations (with a smart system to reserve them when needed) and you can turn parking from a side note to something central to your business.

2. Hotel-style common areas.

Residents expect to be able to make use of common areas in new ways, especially if the apartments tend to be small. Offering comfortable seating is a plus. Offering computers for resident use has become standard, but you can get “bonus points” for enclosed workstations. Large screen televisions can attract residents and promote a sense of community. Offering events for residents and their guests can help ensure that these areas are used. The best location: The lobby. Top floor party rooms are great, but residents tend to forget they are there. If your climate allows it, outdoor “rooms” are important, such as roof decks or courtyards. Such multi-family amenities should be targeted to the demographic you aim to support.

3. Wi-fi.

These days tenants, especially younger residents, expect to be able to access fast, reliable wi-fi in common areas. This even includes outdoor areas. Wi-fi is at the point of not being an “amenity” so much as an “expectation” that landlords need to meet. If your building is a cave, then good wi-fi becomes even more important and you might also want to consider installing cell relays in problem areas.

4. Pet amenities.

Although some buildings are still anti-pet, in many areas being pet-friendly is something of a selling point. However, it has to go past “we allow pets.” If you have space, a dog park is useful. So is partnering with a dog walking service. Even small things like a jar of dog treats in the lobby will make your four-footed residents, and their owners, feel more welcome. A less common, but growing amenity, is the pet spa, a place designed for grooming and bathing pets. Furthermore, pet amenities often allow you to increase your rent more with a lower outlay.

5. Fitness centers.

Even if there is a gym down the street, some of your residents will use the on-site fitness center. More importantly, most of your new residents will think they are going to use it. Apartment fitness centers now have to go past putting a couple of treadmills and a multi-gym in the basement. Attract a fitness-minded demographic with a multi-purpose room that offers yoga and pilates classes, video classes for yoga, dance fitness and spinning, and modern equipment. Also, a lot of renters are interested in things like racquetball or tennis courts, walking trails (if your property borders a good trail, make sure to provide access) and other non-standard fitness amenities.

6. Excellent package managing.

More and more people shop online and receive packages. Having proper package storage and smart software will help reduce the number of annoyed residents. Although package handling may not be on the list of multi-family amenities you put front and center, with 47 percent of renters receiving at least three packages per month, including perishables, not having good package handling is likely to result in poor reviews and a higher turnover. Negotiating for an Amazon locker is one good move.

7. Sustainability.

Younger tenants want to know that their apartment building is sustainable. Green roofs and energy-efficient appliances are both particularly popular. For new construction, try to meet or exceed LEED standards. When renovating, consider how you can make the building more energy efficient (which also gives the selling point of lower heating and air conditioning bills).

When developing or running an apartment building, you need to provide the best multi-family amenities to your residents. If you are looking for smart parking solutions for your apartment building, Schedule a Demo/Call today.

The post 7 Multifamily Amenities Your Complex Needs appeared first on ParqEx.

Echo

The dominant player in the smart home tech sector is Amazon’s Echo, nicknamed “Alexa” because that is the voice command to activate the device. This unit allows users to search, buy products, listen to music, get weather and much more just through their voice.

Additionally, through its smart apps and integrations, the product integrates with the entire home. Consumers can turn on lights, adjust the temperature, run the dishwasher and much more. Amazon has recently unveiled an Echo with a screen that allows videos and visual search after the voice command.

Smart Kitchen and Drop Scale

The connected kitchen has long been a dream of homeowners. Imagine turning on the coffee maker or the toaster from your phone or by voice command while still in bed. That makes the morning much more pleasant. Many companies are now developing and launching these items including Samsung, GE and Kenmore.

For example, Drop has introduced a smart scale that integrates with Amazon Echo and Google Home devices. The scale can be controlled by voice to turn on and off. It automatically weighs the food and matches it to a recipe you are working on. The scale can determine if you are over or under the amount prescribed in the recipe. This removes the cook’s anxiety of getting the recipe wrong.

Parking Devices

One of the most challenging and logistically confusing daily tasks is parking. Traveling around in cities or unfamiliar neighborhoods, drivers are wasting valuable time and money trying to find the ideal parking spot. At the same time, the home parking garage is still a piece of equipment that has yet to fully be integrated into the digital home.

However, ParqEx has developed a unique and innovative system for parking garages with their solution to smart home tech new innovations. From a mobile device, users can open garages for themselves or others. The system for the user to enter the garage is called Access+. This makes life much easier because you do not have to get out of your car or worry about a ticket. You also know the pricing clearly and can pay through your phone.

Similarly, GuestParq allows the user to open a garage or gate for a guest. In this case, the user may be opening their home garage to a guest that would ordinarily not have access. This makes life much more easy and convenient for the user.

Nest

The Nest kicked off the era of smart home tech. This beautiful device automatically adjusts the temperature in the home based on personalized settings and can be controlled by a smartphone. Google’s multi-billion dollar purchase of this company put additional fuel in the company’s growth. It is a core part of the Google system and works perfectly with the new Google Home device.

Today, Nest is a symbol for all things smart home technology including advanced home video recorders, lighting, doorbells, locks and fire detectors. Additionally, there are thousands of devices that may integrate with the Nest platform to create a comprehensive home management system.

ParqEx is a leading smart parking software platform which helps drivers find ideal spots while saving time and money. The Access+ and GuestParq features allow drivers to open gates and garage doors from the convenience of their smartphone as well. For more information, please contact us.

The post Smart Home Tech New Innovations appeared first on ParqEx.

Future of Mobility leaders in the Smart Cities Initiatives are convening in Chicago this Thursday, July 19th for the Smart Cities Conference hosted by BuiltWorlds. This event has been bringing together the best and brightest minds to BuiltWorlds most disruptable market which is cities and infrastructure. These discussions being held are going to cover an array of topics and the experts will help you make sense of the crucial changes coming to our cities, including transit, waste, water, energy, buildings, and social infrastructure.

The highlighted panel conversation on “The Future of Mobility” is moderated by Marketplace.city’s very own Chris Foreman. The supporting cast for this discussion features ParqEx’s very own Founder & CEO, Vivek Mehra, Alex Samoylovich from Cedar Street Ventures, Jerry Quandt, Executive Director, IL Autonomous Vehicles Association (ILAVA), and Sharon Feigon, Executive Director, Shared-Use Mobility Center. BuiltWorlds has shared the following on how this topic will be attacked:

“Autonomous and electric cars will place new demands on the electric grid, create new demands for charging stations and create new opportunities for developing the city in relation to a mobility strategy. This shift will have enormous consequences for how cities are planned in terms of where cars are parked and fueled. Hear from ParqEx Founder and CEO, Vivek Mehra, on how he plans to disrupt the process and what his partnership with Cedar Street Ventures means for the built industry. Gain insights on the impacts and benefits of shared mobility and hear about emerging opportunities related to the growth and utilization of AV technologies throughout the entire transportation network. During this session, panelists discuss the importance of investing in mobility solutions and technology advancements shaping smart cities of the future.”

The panelists in the discussion have quite the background and repertoire, becoming experts in their select fields. Their knowledge provides an in-depth look on what is to come for the smart cities initiatives across the United States. It is amazing to see the horizons they continue to expand on and the technologies used to push the bounds of innovation.

The Who’s Who

Sharon Feigon is a founder and the executive director of the Shared-Use Mobility Center, a non-profit public-interest organization working to foster collaboration in shared mobility and help connect the growing industry with transit agencies, cities and communities across the nation. As executive director, Sharon leads SUMC’s work, which includes conducting innovative research around the impacts of shared mobility, developing pilot projects to test shared mobility strategies, and providing advice and technical assistance to cities and regions in order to help extend the benefits of shared mobility for all. SUMC was also recently awarded a contract to develop the Innovation Knowledge Accelerator in partnership with the Federal Transit Administration to assist cities undertaking Mobility on Demand projects.

Jerry Quandt is the Executive Director of the Illinois Autonomous Vehicles Association. The Association is a privately funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of autonomous vehicle technologies within the State of Illinois. The organization’s focus is to establish Illinois as the leader in the development, design, and application of the system-of-systems that will transform mobility as we know it. He has worked most of his career in marketing and business transformation in a variety of verticals. His passion is to continue to create consumer-centric solutions leveraging bleeding-edge technologies to increase people’s quality of life.

Alex Samoylovich is the founding partner, Chief Executive Officer of CEDARst Companies.  Over the past ten years, Mr. Samoylovich has sourced, invested in and managed in excess of hundreds of transactions and has been instrumental in the acquisition and disposition of real estate with a value in over $1 billion. Utilizing a “fully integrated real estate development” (IRED) approach, Mr. Samoylovich and his partners have seamlessly interwoven acquisition, construction, finance, management, interior design and marketing under one company. In the past 15 years, CEDARst is considered one of the most active acquirers of distressed assets in the greater Chicago area. Under Mr. Samoylovich’s leadership, the company has carved out a niche strategy for the adaptive reuse of underperforming assets through bankruptcies, foreclosure, note purchases, and other distressed situations in the Chicago area; covering a span of product types from multifamily, office, mixed-use, and hospitality. Mr. Samoylovich has cemented a well-earned reputation as a tenacious deal maker capable of closing the most complex and demanding real estate transactions and returning superior risk-adjusted returns to his investors.

Chris Foreman as Chief Executive Officer of Marketplace.city Chris drives the company’s revenue and growth by building their powerful network of technology providers. Prior to Marketplace.city, Mr. Foreman served as CEO of the Americas for AvePoint, Inc. While at AvePoint, Mr. Foreman helped lead the company’s growth from a small team to over 1200 employees in 15 countries and drove the expansion into government by launching an independent subsidiary, AvePoint Public Sector, Inc. where he served as CEO and Chairman. AvePoint won 3 consecutive Microsoft Partner of the Year awards during Foreman’s tenure. Previously he worked at Nutech Integrated Systems where he oversaw enterprise sales initiatives focusing on healthcare, archiving, e-discovery, and records management. He has actively worked in the enterprise software industry for 15 years.

Vivek Mehra as Founder & CEO of ParqEx will be one of four panelists on the Main Stage discussing “Future of Mobility.” ParqEx is a private parking platform that gives the opportunity to connect renters with new avenues of parking with local individual owners that have underutilized spots. Our mission is to solve a huge problem by disrupting the entire market – and we’re doing so in a way that benefits the people of every community. We believe that people of every urban community can help solve the parking crunch by sharing what they already have.

What To Expect?

Chris will challenge the leaders to focus on topics which center around the outlook for autonomous vehicles and the need for parking spaces. What trends will come to the forefront and how cities will need to make necessary design structure implementations to adapt. What kind of burdens will residents, companies, and cities face in the short-term and long-term?

ParqEx collaborates with BuiltWorlds on a couple publications and was featured in 50 hottest technologies for smart buildings. We are excited to be on this panel discussion for this annual smart cities conference and looking to further our relationships with the real estate technology community.

The post Future of Mobility…It’s A Smart Movement appeared first on ParqEx.

Cities like Chicago are getting smarter, and not just in a metaphorical sense. Urban areas are becoming increasingly connected, with the express aim of making life easier for both residents and anyone working downtown.

With its Smart City Initiatives, Chicago has been at the forefront of a trend that has swept the nation and even got an official endorsement and federal funding from the White House last year. But what does that mean for you? Among many other things, these initiatives may have a significant impact on your neighborhood parking spots.

Chicago’s Smart City Initiative

Last year, the office Mayor Rahm Emanuel stated his goal to make Chicago “the most data-driven government in the world.” The goal is to use WiFi spots to report data back to the city and improve efficiency as a result. For example, sensors can keep park lawns from drying out, improve air quality, and more.

Smart City Initiatives are on their way across the globe, with cities like London, Barcelona, and Singapore leading the race to ultimate connectivity. Chicago is a relatively late entrant to the race, but has already established itself alongside them as a leader thanks to the initiative that the city calls “Array of Things.” Here’s how our government describes the project:

The Array of Things (AoT) is an urban sensing project, a network of interactive, modular sensor boxes that will be installed around Chicago to collect real-time data on the city’s environment, infrastructure, and activity for research and public use. AoT will essentially serve as a “fitness tracker” for the city, measuring factors that impact livability in Chicago such as climate, air quality and noise.

Technology Maximizes Efficiency

The description of the AoT as the city’s ‘fitness tracker’ is particularly descriptive in how it communicates the project as maximizing efficiency through technology. Anyone who wears a Fitbit knows just how important simply tracking your daily activities can be. You may not have been aware of how many steps you take during the day, but if you do, you will forego the elevator for the steps at the end of the day just to reach your daily goal.

The Internet of Things has become more common and is expected to continue rising in importance drastically in the near future. More and more, common household items are being connected to the internet to maximize efficiency. It’s no longer a surprise or science fiction to see stories about refrigerators ordering new food automatically on your behalf through smart connectivity.

By 2020, researchers estimate that $1.7 trillion dollars in consumer spending will be directly connected to internet-enabled household devices. Perhaps even more relevant for the purposes of this article, 90% of cars will be connected to the internet in the same time frame.

The Internet of Things as a City Connector

Take the IoT concept and apply it to larger urban areas, and you have Chicago’s Smart City Initiative (or Array of Things, depending on what you prefer to call it). The core concept is identical: the more connected you are to the environment around you, the more your life will improve and the more efficient you can be.

The success of that endeavor, of course, requires civic participation. As the City of Chicago outlines,

As smart cities embrace and deploy innovative technology embedded in public spaces, residents voices need to be represented. To prevent disconnect between residents and their city’s technology, broad engagement is key — not only to inform residents of innovations, but to take inventory of public concerns and questions associated with them.

This Smart City Initiative, then, is more than just an abstract concept deployed by the local government without direct impact on its residents. Instead, it’s a comprehensive project that depends on and benefits from constituency input. With that information, the Array of Things transforms into a powerful tool to improve your life and work. And that benefit is perhaps nowhere more obvious than in the ways in which parking connects to the project.

How Smart Parking Plays into Smart Cities

Whether you live or work in Chicago, you know how problematic parking can be. It is either expensive or impossible to find. The parking spots are there, and some of their owners may even be desperate to give them up to anyone who asks. But without a way to connect the spots to the drivers who seek them out, major inefficiencies remain.

That’s where parking connected IoT enters the equation. More specifically, the recent initiative to turn Chicago into one of the world’s smartest city could be a godsend for your parking needs. As we’ve outlined in a previous post,

If we had a way to predict where people would need and want to be in the near future, we could add living spaces as well as parking spaces in the places they will be needed most… With the right data and predictive systems, (we) would have the ability to relieve parking issues by adding parking solutions in the neighborhoods and other parts of cities that need them most.

Much like food-ordering refrigerators, this scenario is not necessarily science fiction anymore. Already, the Internet of Things is reducing parking woes in the city of Chicago. Rather than having to rely on intuition and past knowledge in finding a parking spot, apps like ParqEx can provide you with real-time updates on vacancies to minimize the time it takes to search for a spot.

As far back as 2012, experts on the subject predicted that the Internet of Things might find its most beneficial application in solving the parking problems for many of America’s downtown areas. As no less than 30% of all drivers in downtown areas are simply looking for parking, imagine the benefits of a solution that gets drivers off the street, reducing both pollution and traffic congestion at the same time.

The most frustrating part of that statistic may be the fact that these parking spots are actually available. Drivers just don’t know how to find them, leaving their owners without revenue and the cars on the street.

The key to success in changing that problem consists of two variables: visibility and timeliness. Parking situations can change in a second, meaning that any potential solution has to communicate availability instantly and reliably. That, in addition to a platform that allows parking spot owners to share their vacancies and drivers to find them, is crucial to reducing the number of people simply looking for parking spots.

Turning Chicago into a Smart City, in this case, will also improve the automated efficiency with which anyone looking to go downtown can look for (and find) a parking spot where they need it, and without paying a fortune. In other words, this Smart City Initiative will have benefits for literally anyone entering or driving around the city with a car.

And that’s why we’re so excited about the Array of Things currently transforming the city of Chicago. Executed correctly, it will not just improve the efficiency with which our local government can manage the city, but also improve livability for each of its residents. To learn more about our contributions to that cause, and how ParqEx is using the Internet of Things to improve your ability to find a parking spot, contact us.

The post Chicago’s Smart City Initiative and Its Impact on Your Neighborhood Parking Spots appeared first on ParqEx.

The High Cost of Parking 

One of the most common complaints of people in large urban areas, whether tourists, business travelers, or locals, is that there’s a lack of parking. Parking that’s available is often very expensive – ranging anywhere from $25 a day in Chicago to $65 a day. For condo owners, parking spaces can cost a fortune. A Center for Neighborhood Technology report reveals that, in Chicago, the cost to build a personal parking spot can be more than $37,000 – and purchasing a parking space to own can cost over $50,000 in some of Chicago’s high-rise condo garages. Similar situations exist in other large cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The absurd truth is that parking spaces cost more than some people earn in a year. This means that, in many cities, only the affluent can afford adequate parking.

The exorbitant cost of parking often makes it difficult and impractical to build new parking spaces. Quite simply, many communities can’t afford to provide more parking. One study of 12 American cities found that the average cost to build a parking space is $24,000 for above-ground and $34,000 for below-ground spaces. These prices assume that the owner already owns the land. Because of this, residents ultimately pay the costs of new parking facilities. This is one of the causes of rising rents, even for people who don’t own cars. So-called free parking is not a solution. Access Magazine reports that free parking requirements raise the cost of housing and reduce density. In other words, the cost is invisible but people are still paying it. And according to CNT, the supply of parking in 4 cities (Chicago, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Seattle) far exceeds demand. Buildings offer two spots for every 3 units, and in reality (due to the ~33 percent average vacancy) they only need one for every three.

The Environmental Impact of Parking

When people talk about the environmental costs of automobiles, they’re usually talking about moving vehicles. Parking, however, creates its own environmental problems. For one thing, the current parking model is extremely wasteful. People are paying high fees for spaces they only need during certain hours. The above-cited CNT report found that one-third of off-street residential parking spaces are empty at night. If the average person uses these spaces for work, that means that they only need the space for 40-50 hours per week. In a world where, particularly in large cities, there’s a lack of space for affordable housing, this is a significant issue.

There’s also the fact that free parking encourages people to drive. When downtown areas, for example, provide lots of parking access, people who might otherwise take a bus, tram, or train are more likely to drive. A study by Chris McCahill of the State Smart Transportation Initiative found clear evidence that excessive parking causes more driving. This not only means that people with cars tend to drive more, it also influences people’s decisions to own a car at all. In urban areas with extensive public transportation, owning an automobile is often a choice rather than a necessity. More driving, of course, creates a variety of environmental problems, such as air pollution. There’s also the less measurable factor of stress that accompanies traffic jams, which impacts public health. And according to Donald Shoup’s study released in 2011 titled Free Parking or Free Markets, 30 percent of cars in congested downtown traffic are searching for parking. If these “searches” booked their parking in advance, traffic and pollution would be substantially reduced and time and gas would be saved.

It’s safe to say that the current parking paradigm is outdated and full of serious problems. The solution is not to build more parking garages. It’s similar to the supposed solution of building more roads to control traffic. Evidence shows that more roads lead to more traffic. The same is true for parking. What’s needed is a completely new way of handling parking.

The Parking Alternative

Companies like ParqEx, SPOT and JustPark use the Airbnb model to address the urban parking challenge. The basic idea behind all sharing or collaborative economy platforms is to provide services as needed in a fast and efficient manner, by using technology. Consider the difference between the hotel model and the Airbnb model. A hotel has a static number of rooms, whether anyone is using them or not. Meanwhile, Airbnb lets travelers rent space in people’s homes as an alternative to hotels, motels, and B & Bs. In addition to providing people with cheaper rooms, this reduces the need for more hotels and allows people to make some supplemental income.

One major benefit of this type of arrangement is the convenience for consumers, who simply order services by using an app. With these sharing economy “marketplace” apps, users simply search for a parking space and book the spot directly from the app. Not only does the renter gain access to more affordable and convenient parking, but he/she knows there is a spot waiting for them upon arrival. While companies such as SpotHero and ParkWhiz are primarily aggregators of commercial parking garages in downtown areas, the Airbnb model approach allows for individuals, businesses, churches, schools, anyone with a private parking spot(s) to list them on the app/website by the hour, day, week or month – whenever the spot(s) is available. Not only are parking spot owners making supplemental income from their underutilized parking spots, but they are helping their communities by opening up more parking supply in the neighborhood.

With many private parking spots being located behind garage doors or gates, ParqEx differentiates itself from its competitors with its innovative IoT solution called Access+. The Access+ system allows renters and approved users to open any garage door or gate with a click of a button on their smart phones. Implementing Access+ increases rental opportunities, improves transparency into garage usage, and provides great convenience for both owners and renters.

From a parking spot owner perspective, sharing economy parking apps provide a new source of income. Most owners are renting out spaces they already have, so they’re earning money on space that was previously unused. Owners can set their own prices, however, prices are generally lower than commercial parking lots or garages. This is generally true of Airbnb or other sharing economy models of business (like Uber vs. Taxis). Owners and renters engage with each other directly, eliminating the middleman. Since the service providers are not corporations and are using property (e.g. living space, vehicle, or parking space) that they already own, they can afford to set reasonable prices.

How The “Airbnb Model” is Transforming Parking

There are some significant benefits to society as this Airbnb of parking model becomes more and more mainstream.

Faced with a variety of challenges, urban planners are increasingly looking for ways to create “smart cities.” This involves collecting lots of data and finding innovative solutions to issues such as housing, transportation, crime, and other social issues. In some cases, the best solutions don’t require an expensive, centralized solution. ParqEx, SPOT and JustPark provide a smart parking alternative that only requires owners and renters to install an app. Some of the long-term benefits of using this type of smart parking include:

• More affordable, convenient parking for commuters, travelers, and city residents.
• Less need for additional parking facilities.
• More efficient use of resources may lead to less driving and traffic congestion.
• As more people use the app, even conventional parking options are likely to become easier, with less crowded free parking and lower rates for commercial parking.

The way the public has embraced other sharing economy services suggests that people are eager to find new and innovative solutions. More and more services are disrupting conventional business models. In addition to Uber and Airbnb, there are now collaborative solutions in healthcare, web-based services, and many other industries. It only makes sense that there’s also such an alternative for parking.

The post Make money with these new parking apps appeared first on ParqEx.

Want to know more about these awesome advancements? If so, you’ve come to the right place! In this article we will explore three of the most exciting new trends in vehicle technology, how they might affect your day-to-day life, and how they’ll change your habits for the better in the near future.

Vehicle Communication

After a long 12 years of research, vehicle-to-vehicle communication will officially hit the market this year via the 2017 Cadillac CTS. While the technology will be extremely limited at first due to a lack of similarly equipped vehicles on the road to “talk” to, it will still give the driver some advantages, such as communicating with certain traffic lights.

Moreover, it will pave the way for even more of this incredible new technology in the future, which will eventually have the ability to prevent accidents through the use of cameras and other information-gathering systems and an advanced wireless car-to-car communication system.

While it may take a while to grow to that point, Cadillac is taking the most important and most difficult baby steps in the right direction.

Autonomous Driving

As proven by Tesla, Uber, and a few other companies in 2016, self-driving cars are here to stay. Not only that, but they are set to make some big advancements this year.

For instance, Volvo will be releasing 100 autonomous cars onto Swedish roads in the next year in order to 1) give the public a chance to experience a ride without a driver, and 2) test this new technology in the quest for a “death-proof vehicle”. The company hopes to make this ultra-safe car available to the public by the year 2020.

Additionally, companies such as Ford, GM, and BMW will be releasing self-driving fleets of their own. Finally—and most impressively—Tesla is scheduled to send a self-driving car on a trip from New York to LA before year’s end.

Improved Electric Cars

As if self-driving cars aren’t cool enough, it looks like 2017 will be a big year for electric cars as well. Hopefully this advancement signals the beginning of the end of our dependence on fossil fuels, and a step toward a greener, brighter tomorrow.

Not to be outdone by the Nissan Leaf—which was upgraded last year and now boasts an impressive 107-mile range—Chevrolet has announced that its new Bolt EV will have an increased range of up to 200 miles. This is an incredible step in the right direction for electric vehicles, as the longer range makes them a far more practical option. Additionally, the Ford Focus Electric will become a 100-mile car, meaning those looking for a lower-priced option will not be disappointed with the range possibilities in their budget category.

Smart Parking

Clearly, vehicle manufacturers have seen just how important it is to keep up with the demand for newer and more efficient technology. We at ParqEx have seen the light as well, and we’re taking steps to make parking easier than ever through the use of “internet of things” technology. We hope to work with car manufacturers toward an ultimate goal of less traffic congestion and a hassle-free driving experience for all.

Are you interested in learning more about Using Internet of Things and new trends in parking technology? Please have a look around our website or contact us with questions. After reading more about us, we are sure you will want to sign up for an account right away in order to take full advantage of our peer-to-peer sharing platform and our amazing new technology.

The post Technology is changing the auto industry appeared first on ParqEx.

One of the most amazing things this data could do for us would be to predict to the rise and fall of crowd levels in any given location.

This newfound ability would be profound in that it would provide cities the opportunity to cater to the needs of rising numbers of people in a particular place. For instance, an area that is predicted to see a sudden spike in residents could be prepared with places to acquire food and drink, as well as additional security measures. Moreover, buildings and outdoor spaces could be designed in such a way as to better accommodate and control crowds.

Crowd and population prediction is an enormous step in the right direction and could help communities around the world better distribute their resources. This is something that will become more and more important as the population grows and resources become more scarce.

Besides food and drink, another resource that could be better distributed based on this data is space. As populations grow, land becomes harder to come by. From new apartments and houses to additional parking lots, land is snatched up left and right, and the new homes and parking spaces are filled more quickly than they can be built.

One way to help alleviate this problem is through the use of big data and smart city design. If we had a way to predict where people would need and want to be in the near future, we could add living spaces as well as parking spaces in the places they will be needed most. Obviously, this would reduce the number of issues we see with lack of living and parking space.

ParqEx is a perfect example of a business that is set up to take full advantage of this smart city data and provide people with what they need, when they need it. With the right data and predictive systems, ParqEx would have the ability to relieve parking issues by adding parking solutions in the neighborhoods and other parts of cities that need them most.

Additional parking would solve more than one problem. In addition to opening up more options for the growing crowds, it would also relieve traffic congestion that is so often caused by individuals searching — sometimes in vain — for a decent place to park. This is due to the fact that parking places found on ParqEx are found and reserved online, therefore completely removing the searching aspect of parking a vehicle.

As we move into the future, it will be interesting to see where data-driven smart cities will take us. The ease of parking offered by ParqEx and improved flow of traffic in public spaces are just the beginning of what could happen should we continue to improve upon the idea of the smart city. Who knows? The smart city may be just what we need as we move into the future of our world.

If you are interested in putting ParqEx to work, or if you would like to learn more about how we believe we could use big data and smart cities to the advantage of our customers, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are always happy to chat about the future of both our business and the world.

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