Complex rules are easy fodder for code. Would be awesome to have an app that simply answers:
"Can I park on this street right now? (and until when)"
"Can I park on this street right now? (and until when)"
Why should people require a smartphone to figure out whether they can park on a street or not?
My solution: KISS! European countries show that it's totally feasible to make easy-to-understand parking signs, in 2015, without any Silicon Valley tech at all.
Just something small and useful that would be convenient for users from my perspective. I received a ticket in San Diego a couple month's ago because I didn't walk down half a block to see a sign that mentioned street cleaning on certain days.
I really wish there was some sort of public works API where you could pull sign data, traffic lights data, etc. Seems like there could be some very interesting applications developed from that.
http://a841-dotvweb01.nyc.gov/ParkingRegs/ViewController/Loc...
CSV and shapefiles can be found here:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/about/datafeeds.shtml#parki...
Using OSM brings all the problems of redundant effort and crowd sourcing in, but it solves the 'in one place' part of the problem.
There's also the issue that OSM focuses on the geo side of the data, so it is usually pretty awkward to encode complex data (like multiple parking regulations or traffic signal plans)
They might be slightly more expensive, but you could just install them on the curbs where there is more than one rule.
I need to know how much it will cost to park there, and how long I can stay in that spot. Do the rules change if I have a resident parking permit? etc.