Seoul to Launch Parking Space App Covering Private Parking Lots

Since its release in 2014, Seoul’s parking space availability app has been limited to public parking spaces, but the new move to integrate privately owned parking lots is expected to make the app more useful. (Image: Kobiz Media)

SEOUL, July 25 (Korea Bizwire) – The Seoul Metropolitan Government has revealed plans for an update to its parking space availability service, which will expand its scope to cover scores of privately owned parking lots across the city through the mobile app scheduled to be released later this year.

According to Seoul government officials on Monday, the app will see the city’s parking space availability service cover some of the areas where the service was previously unavailable, namely some privately owned parking lots that have recently agreed to work with the municipal government, with the change taking effect from September.

A first round of 77 parking lots that have been equipped with the smart parking system courtesy of South Korean IT company Parking Cloud will appear on the app, while the government plans to extend the number of parking lots registered on the mobile app to 120 by the end of this year and 540 by the end of 2018.

As part of efforts to get more privately owned parking spots on board with the IoT technology-based system, the Seoul government plans to cut around 10 percent of the city’s fees as incentives offered to so called ‘traffic-inducing facilities’ such densely populated buildings and large parking lots if they agree to cooperate.

Since its release in 2014, Seoul’s parking space availability app has been limited to public parking spaces, but the new move to integrate privately owned parking lots is expected to make the app more useful.

Hyunsu Yim (hyunsu@koreabizwire.com)