Inspiration
Finding long-term parking arrangements in urban environments has always been a hassle for both individuals and companies. Both employers and employees would benefit from access to an easy, reliable way to check which parking arrangements are available around their workplace, allowing them to pursue long-term parking agreements that are the best case scenario for all parties involved. Using Inrix data, we knew we could make this service into a reality.
What it does
We created a website that easily connects people searching for future parking arrangements with various parking lots around their intended location. The user can filter the results by distance, cost, and spots available. They can also select from certain conditions such as EV charging, high clearance, or lighted parking. This allows our users to find the optimal long-term parking for their needs.
How we built it
We pull data from the INRIX API lot function, which provides a json file with the information we need. We use Google’s Distance Matrix API to also factor in the walking distance from each lot to the location. We compute a score for each lot based on the parameters inputted by the user and sort in order to create a ranked list of the parking arrangements that meet the user’s search requirements.
Challenges we ran into
One challenge we ran into was figuring out how to use Inrix API keys in our application. As none of us had used APIs before, we weren’t sure at first how to hide the key from the frontend and make sure the keys were always valid. We also wanted to incorporate Inrix’s Occupany / Probability APIs but weren’t given access to them.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Because our team is made up of mostly beginner coders, there was a big learning curve. However we are all very proud that everyone was able to contribute to the project and learn new skills, like coding in React and Flask and APIs.
What we learned
We learned a lot about how to integrate APIs, and build a program that solves real world solution using data that we are given. As mentioned, our members also learned new coding languages, skills, and gained experience for future hackathons or coding projects.
What's next for AutoLot
AutoLot can be improved by collecting more data and developing new filter/sort functions. This would improve the user experience as they would be able to easily select exactly what they are looking for in a parking arrangement. Another important next step is to connect with the managers of the parking lots in our system as this would allow us to potentially negotiate lower rates and ensure long-term availability.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.