PencilPark — street parking route planner and spot finder

Chat your way to a circling route for street parking in cities like NYC, so you stop wasting laps

Problem

A developer on HN built Find Street Parking in NYC, showing that street parking is a real pain: drivers in Brooklyn and other boroughs circle repeatedly looking for a spot, wasting time and fuel. Existing maps and parking apps rarely optimize for the "street parking only, finding a spot now" case.

Solution

Enter your destination, arrival time, and acceptable walking distance, and the tool generates an efficient circling route covering blocks and time windows with higher parking probability. Users can mark "just saw an open spot" or "full" as they go. Start with one borough in one city and expand based on feedback.

Users

Car owners without dedicated parking in big cities like NYC, commuters and delivery drivers, and anyone driving to an unfamiliar neighborhood

MVP

Choose city and destination; generate a street-parking circling route; highlight high-probability blocks; let users mark open or full spots; start with one borough in one city

Revenue

Free basic routes plus paid advanced filters by time and block type; local merchant recommendations; a subscription ad-free tier

Why now

Mapping and routing APIs are mature, parking data can be crowd-sourced over time, and AI lowers the cost of route generation and simple recommendations—well suited for city-by-city replication by a solo builder