Snag a Parking Spot on the Web
With developers endlessly gobbling up parking lots for new condo and retail developments, parking in the city can be hard to come by. Even when you do find one, life doesn't seem to get any easier.
This can be especially frustrating for those looking to rent a spot monthly, or annually, since many lots can charge ridiculous prices for these coveted patches of pavement. Thankfully, there's a new Web-two-point-oh site on the scene, ParkingSpots.com, that hopes to alleviate many of the headaches prospective renters and owners experience trying to connect with each other.
The site is currently offering service across the US and Canada, making use of some nifty Google Maps integration to make tracking down a nearby spot a fairly trivial matter for renters. What this means is that you can fairly easily search in the area of your choosing by address, intersection, or by just dragging the map around.
Availability of spots in downtown Toronto is fairly limited at this point, but will surely grow as the site gains traction.
When it comes time to actually requesting to rent a spot, ParkingSpots.com acts more or less like a real estate broker, taking a 10% cut of the rent for short term rentals (up to 6 months) or a one month cut of the pie for longer-termed rentals.
It's free to list your spot on the site - you only pay once they connect you with a renter. The bonus here is the renters only need to pay the owner of the spot, and can use the site for free to track down parking.
This is one of many useful Google Maps Mashups that we're sure to see more of as time goes by and Toronto's condo boom continues.
Let us know in the comments if you've used ParkingSpots.com and what you think of it.
Photo by blogTO Flickr pool'er photoderek
Comments (7)
not sure if I agree that finding parking in dt is hard.. the parking lot on bay street is always half empty, esp the one at the residences of college park.. even with more condo buildings built on these lots, they were still have parking spaces underground after the building is finished.. in terms of price.. gosh, parking is dirt cheap in toronto.. you should look at how much for parking in manhattan... people in hk need to get a mortgage in order to buy a parking spot downtown, probably costs more than a bachelor apartment in toronto
Ok, temporary parking aside, I really take issue with the statement "Toronto is built for cars." Have you spent ANY time on the 401 or DVP lately?
Sure you may be able to find a spot downtown, but how much easier and cheaper is it to connect with a spot where you pay a flat fee per month to have guaranteed parking at the same place, every day? For years I have spent $12+ per day to park my car...that's upwards of $240 a month. Ridiculous! This is a great tool that is definitely going to save a lot of people time and hassle. Brilliant idea.
Big H, you should check out Craiglist.. there are tons of parking spots available for rent in downtown for like $100 per month
yes, Toronto WAS built for car.. then the city changed its mind and started to find ways to penalize drivers while at the same time, making public transit users' life difficult by not improving transit for like the last 20 years..even a city like hong kong had better public transit in early 70's than toronto today
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