Looking for parking? | Here's how underground sensors aim to help drivers find parking in Arlington

ARLINGTON, Va. — Do you struggle to find parking in Arlington, Virginia? Well, you might be in for a little relief from the way the county plans to revolutionize the way you park. 

Anyone driving in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia knows that parking on the street is a hit or miss. You can spend half an hour circling the streets looking for that elusive spot. 

Or, if you’re lucky, you could find a spot with enough space for that perfect parallel park within seconds.

“We wanna try a new technique for helping people find the best spot available,” Melissa McMahon from Arlington County’s Parking and Curbside Initiatives said.

McMahon oversees the biggest revolution for curbside parking in Arlington: parking space sensors.

“They will basically tell our system the car is there or the car is not there,” she said.

This week the county installed more than 4,500 parking sensors in the neighborhoods of Rosslyn and Ballston and then over in Crystal City and Pentagon City. They went into spots on the curb and in parking lots. Eventually will connect to a mobile platform for drivers.

“A customer will be able to make a decision in the neighborhood or in advance about where they may want to find parking when they enter the neighborhood,” she said.

This is just the pilot program. The mobile platform is still being developed. When it starts, McMahon said they hope it won’t just make parking easier, but the streets safer.

“If we have folks circling for parking or double parking it makes it less safe for bikers and walking,” she said.

Another benefit the county hopes for is to change the pricing of parking based on the information the pilot program will generate about parking spots. They believe the data from the pilot will help to figure out ways to incentivize certain parking spots.

The timeline for the pilot to take off is still months away and the program will run for nearly three years before it can be implemented fully.