by Shane Henson — September 3, 2012—The BMW Group has taken the pain out of finding a parking spot with its recently launched ParkNow mobile parking solution, and has launched a flexible premium car-sharing service, DriveNow, both of which are currently debuting in San Francisco.
ParkNow enables users to pay for parking in advance, with guaranteed access and clearly defined rates, based on their personal preferences, says BMW Group. Customers can search for parking using ParkNow’s mobile app or Web site, reserve, pay and then be navigated directly to the parking facility, reducing time spent looking for parking, as well as extra emissions from the searching time.
There are currently 14 ParkNow locations in and around San Francisco piloting the system. Stations are located around the city, close to BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), Muni (San Francisco Municipal Railway) and bike-sharing stations, as well as at San Francisco International Airport and Oakland International Airport, and in Palo Alto. Four ParkNow partner operators, ProPark America, Towne Park, ABM Parking and California Parking, will launch more than 100 additional ParkNow locations in the coming weeks, the company says.
With an estimated 505,000 vehicles in San Francisco, but only 448,000 parking spaces available at any given time, this mobile parking solution seems to have been introduced at an opportune time for the city. According to BMW, San Francisco’s total vehicle population increases by approximately 35,000 on weekdays, and an estimated one-third of all downtown traffic on weekdays is due to vehicles searching for a parking spot.
Launched in June in San Francisco, BMW’s DriveNow service is a unique premium car-sharing program that features a fleet of BMW ActiveE all-electric vehicles (BMW’s first) with zero-emission driving. The fleet of 70 ActiveE vehicles is located at eight DriveNow Stations around San Francisco, with two additional stations in Palo Alto and at the San Francisco International Airport coming soon. After registering online or in-person, customers can locate and book an available car using the DriveNow Web site or mobile app. They can then return the car to the same—or any other—DriveNow Station, allowing for convenient one-way trips, if desired.
Stations are located around the city, close to BART, MUNI and bike-sharing stations. Through a partnership with California-based Coulomb Technologies’ ChargePoint network, reportedly the largest network of independently-owned electric vehicle charging stations, drivers can easily locate a nearby charging station if they need to top-off during the course of their rental, which has no time limit. Parking and charging is free at DriveNow Stations.
