Stress-free parking is now one click away with a student-built app

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Finding a parking spot tin beryllium hectic, stressful and frustrating. For commuters, students and families, circling for parking tin crook a tiny travel into a tiny disaster.

“Parking has been ever a nightmare,” said Hooman Bolandi.

That’s wherefore helium helped retired Sameer Saran, a San Jose State University graduate, make an app to assistance that anxiousness and frustration.

They built an app called ParkStash.

The conception came to Sameer Saran aft his archetypal time of schoolhouse astatine SJSU started with stress. He spent astir $200 for a field parking permit, but inactive had occupation uncovering a spot.

“It took maine 30 minutes to find 1 abstraction successful their garages, and erstwhile I talked to the students nearby, they virtually came astatine 6 a.m. successful the morning, slept successful their car for 2 hours, and past went to the classes,” Saran said. “I said that, ‘Hey, Sameer, this cannot beryllium your life. you request to find a solution.’”

So, helium entered an thought to marque parking easier into a assemblage entrepreneurship competition. The archetypal time, helium didn’t win. But, helium worked connected the conception until the adjacent year, and helium won. That 2nd thought helium had was the ParkStash app, and it’s however helium and Hooman Bolandi, 1 of the judges of the competition, started moving together.

“What we built, is the AirBnB of car parking,” said Saran.

“Our ngo is astir improving prime of beingness and environment,” said Bolandi.

Here’s however it works: section businesses, flat complexes, churches, adjacent homeowners tin rent retired their parking spots oregon driveways.

The operator tin take to parkland for arsenic small arsenic an hr oregon reserve the spot for weeks oregon months astatine a time.

Spots person reviews and amenities listed, truthful you tin find the safest, astir convenient one.

The app besides comes with enforcement capabilities, truthful homeowners and businesses tin spot if a car has paid to parkland successful their spot oregon not. The app allows you to scan a licence plate, which volition beryllium capable to cheque the app database to marque definite radical aren’t stealing escaped parking.

Additionally, the app has a diagnostic to wage citations.

“Now, I tin travel present and parkland successful this parking abstraction without immoderate headache, without immoderate stress,” said Saran, lasting successful a religion parking batch that offers spaces adjacent San Jose State University. “By the way, it's cheaper than the meters. It's a dollar and our meters are 2 bucks an hour.”

The spaces are helping churches and family-owned businesses gain immoderate other currency for parking spaces that were conscionable sitting empty. It helped Oscar Arguello’s spot absorption institution marque it done the pandemic.

“Before, we were losing $1,000 to $1500 monthly. Now, we are earning that magnitude of wealth without fundamentally doing nothing,” Arguello said.

It’s besides giving students rushing to people immoderate bid of mind.

“I was astir crying 1 time reasoning that I whitethorn person to miss the class, miss an important lecture,” said postgraduate pupil Fabiha Roshni Khan.

With parking reserved successful advance, Kahn tin absorption much connected her electrical engineering grade and little connected her driving.

“This is decidedly reducing my accent and anxiousness and connected the different side, expanding my productivity. I consciousness similar I'm portion of a section assemblage solution,” she said.

ParkStash besides helps students spot the minute-by-minute capableness of the on-campus parking garages. Its partnership with San Jose State University has helped support large postulation jams from happening arsenic radical participate the campus.

“We person astir 35,000 students successful immoderate fixed day,” said Charlie Faas, the CFO astatine SJSU. “The capableness for those garages is mode little than each the radical that are coming in.”

Faas said this concern is astute for students and the environment.

“It gets radical to their parking faster. Now, erstwhile radical cognize the Fourth Street store is afloat and the Tenth Street store is open, they tin redirect and spell straight there. The circling stops, the CO2 emissions travel mode down.”

Faas said the field Office of Sustainability reports to him, and it is pleased to spot less students wasting clip and emissions circling field looking for parking.

Eric Cross manages the parking services astatine SJSU. He said this app is helping module find parking, too.

“You could easy beryllium precocious for oregon miss a class,” said Cross of however agelong students and module walk looking for parking. “If that's occurring for a pupil is simply a calamity successful itself. However, if that's a module member, you've present impacted arsenic galore as, you know, 40 to 100 students who are depending connected this idiosyncratic to impart connected them the lessons that they're going to request for graduation.”

Cross said the app has made a immense quality for ample events similar commencement arsenic well.

“It conscionable has truly been a game-changer for us," Cross said.

What started arsenic 1 pupil with a imagination has present turned into a nationwide enterprise. Cities crossed the U.S. and Canada are present utilizing this technology.

Saran and Bolandi are moving to commencement partnerships with much universities, businesses and sports stadiums crossed the country. They already person thousands of users, but 1 day, they anticipation everyone successful the federation volition cognize astir ParkStash.

“It brings a grin to my look each azygous time present due to the fact that we person had a batch of sacrifices going into these past 3 years, and I, particularly aft the pandemic, we were truthful debased you wouldn't judge it,” said Saran “I mean, gross conscionable went down to nothing. But still, we kept connected going due to the fact that me, Hooman and the full ParkStash squad cognize 1 thing, 1 happening that we don't quit. We would ne'er discontinue nary substance what happens.”

In Canada, Saran and Bolandi person partnered with 1 metropolis to make harmless parking spaces for motortruck drivers. Thousands of motortruck drivers successful the U.S. and Canada bash not parkland successful a harmless abstraction each nighttime to sleep. ParkStash is creating those spaces for drivers.

The ParkStash squad besides partnered with the Woodward Dream Cruise successful Michigan to make a park and thrust system for the car cruise. They said visitors enjoyed the ParkStash strategy truthful much, the Dream Cruise squad is already readying to spouse again with them adjacent twelvemonth arsenic well.

Faas said the occurrence of ParkStash is inspiring.

“It's been truly rewarding to person idiosyncratic similar Sameer travel successful and triumph a competition, you know, arsenic a student. It each started present astatine San Jose State, wrong the concern school, wrong moving successful a competition. And you privation to promote radical to instrumentality risks, to make caller technologies to clasp what a occupation is and spell lick it. This is what they did. And truthful it's truly rewarding to spot them succeed.”

If you privation to spot if ParkStash is successful your city, cheque retired the website HERE. You tin usage it with some Apple and Android systems.