Integrated Parking Spot Analyzer

Particularly in urban areas, street parking restrictions can be incredibly confusing. For example, on the street outside where I live, the multitude of signs posted collectively indicate something along the lines of "No parking except by permit, except for two hours between 8AM and 6PM on weekdays (including holidays), except on street cleaning days when no parking is permitted at all between 8AM and 11AM on THIS side of the street (except on holidays)." Needless to say, parking enforcement officers regularly patrol the area like sharks aroused by the smell of chum, looking to hand out citations to anybody who fails to adequately comprehend this morass of regulations. And yet, this is one of the least complicated sets of parking restrictions you're likely to encounter in this city. To add insult to injury, in many cases failing to comply with posted parking restrictions, even by a few minutes, results in your car not only being cited, but towed as well.

Nowadays, however, many cars have GPS navigation, which often knows such nice things as what the speed limit is on the road you're currently on. Similar information could be collected as to parking regulations, such that your car could simply tell you whether you're allowed to park wherever it is you currently are, and for how long. A compass reading could be used to help determine which side of the street you've parked on, in case the GPS isn't quite accurate enough. By integrating the parking system with a wireless network, as more and more cars seem to be capable of, your car could even alert you remotely when you're about to run out of time in the spot you've parked in, or if you've forgotten to move your car for street cleaning this week.