Park Your Car Quickly and Cheaply with Parking Panda

Meg Rayford July 7, 2011 Tweet

When it comes to parking spaces, city dwellers can be quite covetous. In major U.S. cities, it’s common to see parking spaces leased at a monthly rate equal to that of an apartment elsewhere in the country. A new smartphone app, called Parking Panda, is bringing people together around these hot pieces of real estate.

Parking Panda is a mobile, real-time parking discovery tool that enables parking space owners to rent out their underutilized spaces to a community of drivers. If you have unused space in your driveway, garage or yard, you can rent it out to make some extra cash. People in need of parking can save money and time by finding a place to park and paying right from their mobile phone.

Parking Panda is currently a mobile website with plans to expand to native applications in the near future. To pay, just enter your credit card information directly into your mobile device to pay for spaces on the go. You can also book spaces in advance through Parking Panda’s website, so you will know exactly where your spot is before you leave your house.

If you check out Parking Panda on Twitter (@ParkingPanda), you will be treated to an entertaining array of “Panda Facts.” For example, did you know that a blindfolded panda will always face north–due to the high iron content in their liver–which makes them slightly magnetic? Were you aware that in Egyptian hieroglyphics, the panda symbol means “notwithstanding?”

I had my suspicions as to whether some of these Panda Facts were actually Panda Fiction, so I asked Parking Panda co-founder Nick Miller. Nick told me that some of the tweets are factual, indeed, while others are jokes collected from various places on the web. Can you tell which ones are true? Founded in Baltimore and now moving to New York, check out this fun-loving company on Twitter and on their website, and be sure to sign up for a Parking Panda invite for convenient parking in your town.