Seoul joins with Kakao to expand real time parking information service

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Tuesday it would work with Kakao to expand the real time information on available parking spaces at privately-run paid parking lots in the city.
Kakao will be in charge of maintaining and controlling the system by collecting real time parking space information and providing them to the information service provided through smartphone app Seoul Parking Information.
The app has been running since Feb. 2014 to offer locations, costs and hours of operation of 3,037 public and private parking lots in the city. Information on available parking spaces at the lots were also provided for 140 of them.
Kakao Mobile Service System will make necessary preparations and test the service within the first half of the year.
“This public private partnership is expected to be the first step toward the smart parking era. ... Expanding the scope of available parking information and stabilizing the system requires information accuracy and we will ensure that through regular monitoring,” said Yoon Joon-byeong, chief of the city’s urban transportation headquarters. (jiminy@heraldcorp.com)