The Company

ParkingCarma is pioneering new ground by using technology to improve quality of life and the environment, while solving one of today’s largest metropolitan issues: Parking. SmartParking is the application of information technology to improve parking, thereby mitigating the environmental impact of vehicles. ParkingCarma™ is a patented SmartParking Information Network (SPIN) that enables SmartParking and other services. The network uses wireless sensors and interfaces to gather, organize, analyze, and process parking information from off-street parking facilities, and then distribute it to drivers and local organizations in a convenient, easy-to-use manner.

Background

Launched in 2001, ParkingCarma’s innovative SmartParking technology allows drivers to determine the real-time availability of parking spaces from their cars, homes or offices. Recognizing the need for a parking solution, Rick brought together a proven team of both community and technological leaders to form ParkingCarma, Inc.

The Carma Team

ParkingCarma has been made possible because of the hard work and dedication of our team:

Rick Warner, ParkingCarma’s CEO and veteran innovator of technology in the transportation industry, draws on over two decades of knowledge in areas that range from high-strength/low-weight materials for aerospace to providing real-time information to users of ’smart phones’ and PDA’s.

His past responsibilities include: product design adapting aerospace materials for use in trucks, venture-capital fund-raising for several companies, management of R&D teams in wireless communication and sales in a variety of arenas. Prior to founding Acme Innovation three years ago, Rick led the development of Action Engine and was named Computer World Smithsonian Laureate for his work with this innovative wireless company.

He received an undergraduate degree from Michigan State and an MBA from the University of Washington. Rick serves on the Transportation Research Board’s New Transportation Systems And Technology committee and is a resident of Emeryville, CA.

Christian McCarrick is the Chief Technology Officer at ParkingCarma. Prior to Co-Founding ParkingCarma, Christian was Vice-President of Technology at EscapeHomes.com and TotalMove.com. Christian has led technology teams at Sybase, NetCentric, LiveCapital (Dun & Bradstreet), and has started and sold several technology startups, most notably, Hosting.com.

Christian has proven expertise in many technology areas including: high transaction web applications, mobile application development, interactive speech applications, data center operations, security & privacy compliance, search engine optimization, desktop applications, mapping software, and Intelligent Transportation Systems. Christian holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Biology from Holy Cross.

Vision

ParkingCarma's vision is to make people’s lives more productive and support sustainable development by improving the experience of finding a place to park from one of uncertainty, frustration and fuel-wasting searching to one of ease and confidence.

Fundamentally, the top 20 US cities face increasing congestion problems because of steady population growth and the lack of property to build additional parking. This makes commuting, going out for an evening, or even finding a parking spot in your own neighborhood more and more frustrating!

ParkingCarma will help improve the quality of life and increase community development and productivity.

Partners

The California Department of Transportation strives to be the highest performing transportation agency in the country. In pursuit of our mission, we continue to build a talented and diverse team and to strengthen ties with our partners. To keep California moving, we commit ourselves to these goals and values.

California PATH was established in 1986. It is administered by the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), University of California, Berkeley, in collaboration with Caltrans. PATH is a multi-disciplinary program with staff, faculty and students from universities statewide, and cooperative projects with private industry, state and local agencies, and non-profit institutions.

An analysis by researchers at UC Berkeley shows that without BART, traffic jams from Bay Area bridges would spill back to most of the East Bay and San Francisco street networks.