This App Could Solve NYC's Parking Problem, Founder Says

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — For Jose De La Cruz, the nightmare of parking in New York City didn't really hit until he moved to Washington Heights two years ago.

"I was like, 'Jesus Christ, it's really, really bad out here,'" De La Cruz said. "I would be circling for like two, three hours looking for parking."

Like most New York drivers, De La Cruz, who used to pay for a parking spot at his building in the Bronx, started to accept that the wasted gas money, time and air pollution from searching for parking was just a daily part of city life.

That was, until he came up with an idea.

The new WaHi resident joined a WhatsApp group that let drivers in the neighborhood coordinate finding open parking spots.

The chat, which he would eventually take over running, made De La Cruz wonder if there was a better way for New Yorkers and all drivers to solve the parking problem.

That's when he came up with Parking Heaven, an app where drivers can search for people who plan to leave their spot soon to find parking even before they start to search.

"Right now, when you go home to find a parking spot, it's all luck — you're driving around aimlessly," De La Cruz said. "If you have the app you're going to go directly to where you know there's going to be a parking spot available."

Like the group chat — which has hundreds of Washington Heights residents and iterations in the Bronx and Inwood now — drivers on the app would report when they plan to leave a spot, whether that be in five, 10 or 15 minutes, De La Cruz said.

The soon-to-be empty spot would then show up to drivers searching for parking in the area and those drivers can use a digital, free token on the app to "pay" the other driver for their spot.

The tokens will ensure that people using the app aren't just using it to look for a spot, but reporting when they leave, too, since the only way to get a token will be to give up a spot for one, De La Cruz said.

He also hopes the model, which he developed as his thesis at Columbia University, will get around the potential legal issues of paying for or holding public parking spots.

"I think that's the best way to make it work," De La Cruz said. "It's more about people working together as a community to solve a problem that we’ve had for years."

Police have long cracked down on drivers who illegally use cones, their own bodies or other methods to hold parking spaces and the moral debate about the practice has its supporters on both sides.

The NYPD did not immediately reply to a question about whether De La Cruz' app would violate the no-holding laws.

Either way, the app will be ready to test that out in a few months.

De La Cruz has raised more than $1,000 of the money needed to develop the app through a GoFundMe and will send the first payment to a development company this week. If all goes well, the app will be ready for launch in eight weeks, he said.

The plan is to have the 250 or so Washington Heights group chat members test out the app, and then release it to the rest of New York City and eventually cities around the country or world.

"I want this to be a global thing," De La Cruz said. "It's not just a New York or us problem."

Drivers in New York City spend the most time and money per year searching for parking — 107 hours and $2,243 per driver, according to a report by Inrix — but other big cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C. are not far behind, De La Cruz found. Overall, Americans spend $72.7 billion on wasted fuel, time and emissions looking for parking every year.

De La Cruz contends that the parking problem also leads to a financial loss for local businesses, who suffer because customers can't find parking nearby. He plans to target local restaurants to advertise on the Parking Heaven app in the hopes that it can help drivers find spots near them and also learn about their business.

"I've had a bunch of feedback — everyone is thrilled to be honest," De La Cruz said. "Everybody is really excited in the parking group that someone is going to take the initiative and get this thing done."