In less than 3 months more than 25,000 parkers have taken advantage of the program

The City of Walnut Creek in East Bay, California approached portfolio company Smarking to bring its cutting edge parking solutions to the city residents. As is the case with many central city hubs, Walnut Creek’s downtown area is bustling with restaurants, shops, attractions and, thus, a high demand for parking spots.

Smarking started by analyzing the data for parking meters closest in proximity to downtown and subsequently those in peripheral zones. They found the average occupancy for the two-hour timed spots was more than 85% downtown versus 60% occupancy in the peripheral. To incentivize what they predicted to be a large number of employees parking in the downtown section, Smarking worked with the City to open up peripheral parking zones with no time restrictions.

The results? More than 25,000 transactions, a 14% growth, in the peripheral zones. From a citizen perspective, this opens up more spots for short term visitors, while saving the hassle of reparking every two hours. For the City, parking revenues fund public safety initiatives, downtown events, capital needs, and a variety of other downtown enhancements so the growth in transactions make a significant difference.

We’re excited to see the great changes Smarking has made for Walnut Creek in just three months!