Don’t we all hate driving around looking for parking? Before an important meeting, during a night out, or even worse when it’s raining, finding parking can be the worst. In fact, UCLA Professor Donald Shoup conducted a 15-block, 1-year study and found drivers looking for parking drove more than 950,000 miles—four trips to the moon—wasted 47,000 gallons of gas and produced 730 tons of carbon dioxide.

Now startup company Streetline in partnership with Cisco is working to end that chore with its real-time parking app.

Streetline’s system works why installing parking sensors in the sidewalk next to parking spaces nationwide. Its mobile app is then able to provide up-to-date availability of parking throughout a city. The sensors utilize magnetometers and light sensitivity to determine if a car is present. The sensors operate on a mobile mesh network which then relays signals back to the cloud, making the information available through the Streetline Parker app.

Streetline has launched its Parker app in San Mateo and San Carlos, Calif. to start, but hopes to expand to other cities. According to Techcruch, it currently has deployments in 25 to 30 municipalities and universities across the country, and charges a monthly fee for them to use its technology.

The Parker app offers a wide range of features, as well. It not only allows drivers to choose from on-street or off-street parking, but it provides voice guidance to locate a parking space. Drivers can search for parking by address or points of interest and toggle between availability or price. Drivers can even pay for parking from the app, therefore they don’t have to leave their activity to return to feed the meter. The Parker app even allows drivers to make advance parking reservations. It also provides a convenient car locator to use after an activity is completed to eliminate long treks searching for a car.

[Image via Streetline]