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A group of Park Slope activists are employing social networking — normally useful only for obnoxious status updates and stalking ex-lovers — to engineer a solution to the neighborhood’s notorious parking woes.
If the project, called “Roadify,” succeeds, Park Slope drivers will share real-time intelligence about available parking spaces through text messages on their cellphones.
“It’s like a transportation Twitter,” said Nick Nyhan the founder of the company. “If people could share what they know about parking, couldn’t it help a lot of people? It would reduce circling, wasted time and wasted fuel.”
The system works like an automatic phone tree. A driver prowling the Slope for a spot pulls out his cellphone and texts “Get” to 95495, which activates the system. Any parking spaces that have become available in the last 15 minutes will be sent in a text response — and if any others are entered in the system in the following 15 minutes, they will be sent as well.
But there is one catch: The system depends on the generosity of others.
In order for the whole scheme to work, users must text information about parking spaces they have just left or are about to leave, as well as spaces they see as they walk around the neighborhood.
In other words, you’re constantly relying on the kindness of strange drivers.
Around 12:30 pm on Monday, no Slopers were feeling too generous, apparently. A test by The Brooklyn Paper of the Roadify system only yielded the response: “No spots are available at this time.”
Nyhan realizes that the pilot project — which works on any cellphone — hinges on Park Slopers remaining attentive and altruistic.
“There is a social experiment aspect to this,” Nyhan said. “Will people help each other with a pressing problem? We’re giving them a platform, it costs nothing, will they do it?”
Thus far, only 460 people have signed up, and the system is useful mainly during prime parking times from around 4 pm to 8 pm during the week, according to Nyhan.
The project’s peak usage thus far — 150 available spots over the course of a day — certainly didn’t make a dent in the absurd number of cars cruising Park Slope for parking. According to a 2007 study, nearly half of the cars on Seventh Avenue are simply looking for a parking space.
In an effort to resolve the terrible parking in the neighborhood, the city raised parking fees during peak periods to open more spaces.
The founders of Roadify came up with their idea through work in Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, which succeeded in large part due to grassroots activism.
“In the campaign we saw that people will respond if you give them an opportunity,” said Nyhan.
Still, political campaigning is one thing — but a parking campaign?
“The Slope prides itself on its activism,” Nyhan said. “This should be a neighborhood that would rise to the challenge of a platform that allows people to help each other.”
©2009 Community Newspaper Group
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