iPhone App Helps Elgin Residents Cope with Odd/Even Parking Program

February 18, 2010



In 2008 the city of Elgin implemented the experimental and controversial Odd/Even Parking Program. On May 13, 2009 the City Council voted to exand these regulations to year-round in Gifford/Summit Park and a portion of the Southwest Area Neighborhood (see http://www.conceptmill.com/parking/ ). Although some portions of Elgin have recently opposed extending the program to their areas, it is a daily fact of life for many residents.

To quote from the City of Elgin's web page: "The odd/even parking regulations require that car owners either:

Park on home driveways or in garages OR

When parking on the street:

a. Park on the side of the street with home addresses ending in an odd number (one, three, five, seven, or nine) on odd numbered days (first, third, fifth, etc.) AND

b. Park on the side of the street with home addresses ending in an even number (zero, two, four, six, or eight) on even numbered days (second, fourth, sixth, etc.)

The parking regulations are in effect from 2 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday through Saturday.

A $50 citation will be issued to those not in compliance."

Because of the age of the housing stock in these historical neighborhood, many residents have insufficient off-street parking for the number of cars owned by members of their household. These residents must make use of on-street parking.

Amid the bustle of daily life, the seemingly trivial task of determining on which side of the street to park can become irritatingly complicated, and can easily become expensive particularly for families with multiple cars that must be parked on the street.

Depending on the time of day when a resident arrives at home, he or she may need to consider the NEXT day's date in determining where to park. Or if arriving home after midnight that resident would need to consider the CURRENT day's date. Further complicating things is the scenario where the current days' date is ODD, yet the subsequent day's date is ALSO ODD (consider January 31st, followed by February 1st).

To eliminate this frustration and possible expense, local resident Jason Musser has created an application for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices which does the thinking for him.

Priced at $1.99, the app determines on which side of the street the user should park. The app will tell the user, for example, "Park on the EVEN side of the street." as well as reminding the user that "EVEN is usually the NORTH or WEST side."

The display is also color-coded: when the user should park on the odd side of the street the background is orange (O for Odd, O for Orange). When the user should park on the even side, the background is emerald green. "After a couple of days I found that without trying to, I had actually trained myself to know which side to park on just by looking at the color" says Musser, "Now as I approach my house I don't have to break my train of thought to try to figure out where to park. I just tap the icon on the home screen of my phone and in a second I know where to park. It's great because it's on my phone which I usually have visible on the dashboard as I drive anyway. And for people with the iPod Touch device it's also good--because they are very likely to have their iPod Touch out playing music as they drive."

Musser acknowledges that some people may think the app performs something so simple that there is no need for it, "But for me it is great. I work full time, plus for a lot of years I was also playing bass in various bands around Chicago and the suburbs. So I might have worked a full day then played a 3-set long show on a Friday. When you drag yourself home in the early morning after that, you are not always in the most lucid state of mind!'

Musser's application, called "Elgin Parking", is available for purchase and download from Apple's App Store. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/elgin-parking/id355743532?mt=8#

For more information about the app (for iPhone as well as Android, Blackberry, and J2ME phones) and about the developer, visit http://www.replikon.com/elginparking