I’m assuming most – if not all people – have heard of the traffic/direction app called Waze. When it came out a few years ago, it took a long time for people to understand the premise, and for it to gain enough customers for the community-based platform to actually work. The goal was to have users report accidents, heavy traffic, and even cops on the road for others to see (and hopefully avoid). My dad was a very early user, and swore by it. Now, years later, it’s one of the biggest community-based apps on the market.

Insert another one I found the other day: Spot Angels. They only have a few locations – mostly high density urban areas – where parking can be an absolute nightmare. The app let’s users report empty parking spaces (and rates for each). Their website also claims to warn their users of street cleaning warnings, snow plowing, etc.

I lived in Portland, and not having a designated parking space within my apartment building – and that city being majority biking and walking (aka not a lot of available spots) – I found parking to be horrendous, especially on weekends where there were big events going on downtown.

I find community-based apps to be really interesting. In the age of Amazon and Google, many people find people-oriented tech to be more reliable and connected. Although it rides on the average person being trustworthy and dependable (and people inevitably doubt the good-nature of those on the platform) I’ve found they’re usually pretty flawless. I’m interested to see what other community apps people come out with in the future.