Chicago Parking Meters, which owns the city's meter franchise, is launching a new free app that can help drivers find one of the city's 36,000 metered spaces.
The ParkChicagoMap application shows users areas where they are more likely to find available parking spaces, and helps them avoid areas where parking is scarce, said Dennis Pedrelli, CEO of Chicago Parking Meters.
The app shows the likelihood of finding a spot within a four-block square area, at a particular day and time, the company said. The app will display a green dot if there are likely to be three or more spaces in a block, yellow for two spaces and red for one or none.
"What we're doing is hopefully making this less frustrating for people," said Pedrelli. He said that if there is no parking, drivers may decide to take the CTA, park in a garage or find a meter farther away.
Using four years of past parking data, the system can determine how likely it is to find a spot on, for example, North Halsted Street near the Steppenwolf Theatre on the second Friday of May at 7 p.m. The app may show red on Halsted, but green on North Clybourn Avenue, if you are willing to walk.
Once you find a spot, you can use the separate ParkChicago app to pay, or just use the pay box.
Of course, ParkChicagoMap could take some of the sport out of parking, and remove a topic of lively conversation for couples. There's usually one person who wants to park at the first visible space, even if it's raining and five blocks from the restaurant, while the other person wants to risk circling around to find something closer. But they can always find something else to argue about.
The app, available for both iPhones and Android devices, will be available at the App Store and Google Play. To learn more, visit www.ParkChicago.com.
