Parking is a hot topic! And drivers have to deal with it.

Though an application helps drivers in New York and Boston finding a place to leave the car: that’s PrimoSpot wich has developed a database collecting pictures of thousands of parking signs. All the information is visible on an interactive map and the application delivers information on parking places, locations and even bike racks. PrimoSpot allows users to update information and the company is also planning to implement push reminders for users when parking time is about to expire.

Bryan Choi, sick of driving around his northern Manhattan neighborhood, Inwood, for finding a place to park his car has developed the iPhone Spotswitch application.

Spotswitch is a help network for parking. With its iPhone App and integrated website it locates fellow members leaving their parking spots. It will soon be available for other devices as well.

ParkingAroundMe is a free service that lets fellow drivers tell each other about available street parking through text messaging or Twitter. It started in Park Slope Brooklyn (focused on the area around New York Methodist Hospital) and plans to cover the rest of NYC very soon.

Parking is a problem for institutions as well as drivers. Congestion is oftend caused by parking inefficiencies. A study released in June by Transportation Alternatives, a public transit advocacy group, reported that 28 percent to 45 percent of traffic on some streets in New York City is generated by people circling the blocks (via New York Times). Solving the problem could have positive effects on transportation and the economy and environment.

Last fall in San Francisco 6.000 parking places where glued with a plastic wireless sensor. Drivers are alerted on empty parking places and can also pay for parking by cellphones.

Have you heard of any other interesting solution?

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The compressed air car, for instance, appeared several years ago and has been presented as a possible revolution in personal mobility but, as of yet, it has not turned out into reality and, on the contrary, many doubts persist on some technical aspects and on its energy efficiency.

Recently, a study published on the last number of the “Environmental Research Letters” states that the compressed air car beside having an extremely low energy efficiency, requires electric power to compress air and, therefore, its carbon footprint appears to be bigger than conventional fossil fuel cars.

However, last year the MDI, company that produces compressed air cars, introduced the concept named AirPod, whose production license has been purchased by the Indian giant Tata Motors and has announced its launch on the market by 2009.

Will we see soon a small “bubble” emitting air from its exhaust pipe or will there be another delay? Reality or chimera? What do you think?

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In the latest years a growing pressure has been exerted on cars manufacturers inside and outside Europe, as responsible for a growing share of CO2 equivalent emissions. However, automotive industry worldwide is making great efforts aiming at greening vehicle fleet and reducing the burden of cars on the environment.

In this line the International Federation of Automobile (FIA) launched an international environmental campaign called “Make cars green“, aiming at reducing the impact of motoring on the environment in 2008.

Several initiatives have also been taken by some car manufacturers worldwide going in the same direction, that is a reduction of GHG emissions and a growing energy efficiency of the engines. Remarkable steps have also been made on specific technologies such as electric and hybrid cars. Some governments have strongly invested in the expansion of LPG and methane filling stations network, and in providing incentives for car owners shifting to lower emissions vehicles. Possible policies and concrete initiatives are taking place in several regions, and a growing interest for testing low-carbon vehicles is to be found also in mountain regions.

Within the scope of application of the Alpine Convention, a private-public agreement was signed in the Principality of Monaco with the Nissan-Renault Alliance in 2009 to establish a network for recharging electric batteries of zero-emissions vehicles.

Is an increase of these types of solutions to be expected after the Copenhagen meeting which is taking place in December 2009?

We had the occasion to explore pros and cons of the available technologies in SWOMM 2008, where a specific focus was placed on the technological options for personal mobility. It would be worth analysing how things have been evolving since last year, and which actions might be delivered in mountain areas. Additionally, integrated planning seems capable to promote a model of city where intermediate solutions between private and public transport can be adopted (e.g. by means of the latest evolutions of cars, bikes and other vehicles’ sharing), where the freedom classically associated with private cars is gradually shifted to new types of public transport.

A fruitful discussion on this topic and on how things might change in a post-Kyoto more flexible perspective is likely to be raised in the afternoon session and during the round table of the 2009 SWOMM edition, where the participation of industry, governments and experts is foreseen.

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