App Lets You Find Parking and List Parking Spots Around Missoula

If you happen to live in a part of town where parking spaces are hard to come by - this could be a pretty handy tool to help you make a little extra money. Or, for those looking for a place to park - this could become a must-have app once it really gets up and running in Missoula.

I was sent an email about a company called Prked beginning to offer services in our area. I was intrigued and looked into it a bit. Their website says:

The simple way of looking at it is you're able to use an app to find unused parking spaces that individuals, businesses and more are looking to rent out. Picture going to a Griz game on a Saturday and the streets are lined with cars the closer you get to the stadium. Somebody living close to campus could list a spot in their driveway as available and you can claim it on the app and have a rock star parking spot you wouldn't have known existed. And of course, the other side of it is you could be the one with an in demand location and list your parking space for others to find - and make some extra money doing it.

The following is from the press release announcing that Prked is expanding their services to Missoula:

"With the current pandemic, public transportation is seeing a decrease in usage which means more vehicles on the road as people try to stay socially distanced. Prked’s contactless booking and payment system brings peace of mind to drivers by allowing them to bypass parking meters, ticketing machines, and parking attendants so that they don’t have to break social distance or make contact with any heavily touched surfaces."

I downloaded the app and was poking around a bit. But, because Prked has yet to officially do any sort of marketing effort to support their expansion into Missoula - you might not see any parking spaces available because the service isn't widely known. However, the program is active and if you have extra spaces available you could become one of the first to list them.

Will it be successful? It'll be interesting to see if Prked will become something that catches on in Missoula and helps those on both sides of the parking battle.