Nifty Web Widget Makes Parking Downtown Easier
Ann Arbor April 17th. 2008, 11:57amIn March, our company (Inner Circle Media) built a web-based tool for the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority that allows visitors to the DDA website to see how many parking spots are available in each parking structure downtown. That means that right now you can check the DDA site to figure out where to park before you make the trek downtown. Isn’t that nifty?!
Last year the DDA and Republic Parking invested in equipment (signs, servers, etc.) to display the number of available parking spots on electronic signs outside each structure. We worked with Republic Parking to make this parking information available online. Right now the DDA site is the only spot to find this info, but soon other downtown organizations may incorporate our widget into their sites as well. Read an interview with Stephen Smith (IT Manager at Republic Parking + DDA technology consultant) on Teeter Talk where he explains the project (and yes, he did the interview while on a teeter totter with a storm approaching).
During the next phase of the project, we’ll make the widget accessible for hand-held devices (PDAs, phones, etc.). Neato!
May 8th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
hey, do you know that the widget is already accessible from mobile phones that have internet access like my blackberry.
visit http://a2dda.org/parking.php from your mobile phone and it’s quite readable.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:48 am
I created a Windows Vista gadget and a Mac Dashboard widget based off your online parking widget. I would be happy to send you a copy if you would like.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:46 am
Hey, the page I mentioned above
“visit http://a2dda.org/parking.php from your mobile phone and it’s quite readable.”
is gone. what gives?
January 22nd, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Hi Ed. The info has always been available on the DDA site at:
http://a2dda.org/parking__transportation/available_parking_spots
The other URL you reference was never publicly accessible, you found it by looking through the source code of the parking page. But we’ve since removed it because the process for gathering and displaying parking data on the DDA site has changed a bit.