Rev up your computer and park

In the competitive world of Westside retailing, Santa Monica hopes that a new website will curb the frustrating circle-and-search game by alerting potential visitors to available spaces in downtown parking structures and beach lots.

Introduced Tuesday just as the holiday shopping season begins, the novel real-time site, parkingspacenow.smgov.net, will be updated every five seconds and display numbers of available parking spaces for public garages and surface beach lots. People thinking of venturing into Santa Monica’s congested central area will be able to check their computers beforehand for information that could help steer them to the best location.

The unusual offering arrives as shopping areas throughout the region are seeking to impress customers with the latest merchandising trends and technologies. Westfield Century City is undergoing a massive overhaul, with a battery of new upscale shops and an award-winning al fresco dining terrace where restaurants serve food on real plates. Westside Pavilion, meanwhile, is building a new theater complex.

Even tony Beverly Hills is looking to spiff up its Golden Triangle shopping area, with plans to adorn sidewalks on Rodeo Drive and surrounding streets with Kenoran Sage granite pavers instead of concrete.

Beverly Hills also expects in about a year to install equipment that will be able to keep tabs on parking spaces, said Chad Lynn, the city’s director of parking operations.

Both Westside communities are in good company.

The International Herald Tribune reported this week that Paris plans in December to launch a service allowing harried drivers to use their cellphones or global positioning system navigation devices to find out in real time whether parking spaces are available nearby. A French parking official said the service should improve traffic flow in a city where, at times, up to 25% of vehicles are in search of a parking space.

Cities have reasons other than convenience to help shoppers find parking. Strong retail sales help boost city coffers, and Westside communities have for decades jockeyed for high-end customers.

Over the years, shopping districts including Melrose Avenue, Robertson Boulevard, the Sunset Strip, Abbot Kinney Boulevard and Montana Avenue have vied for the title of hippest shopping spot. A few months ago, Beverly Hills’ city manager cautioned that Westfield Century City, the Grove shopping center in the Fairfax district and other destinations were “eroding” Beverly Hills’ cachet.

Parking has long been a major headache for shoppers in Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade area, and city officials expect that the website, also accessible on wireless laptop computers, will reduce the annoying need for motorists to spend precious minutes cruising parking-garage ramps so that they can pounce on an open space. Plans are in the works to allow the system to work on BlackBerry devices.

“This is just being responsive to the community,” said Jory Wolf, Santa Monica’s chief information officer, who came up with the parking idea. Wolf said the goal was to “make the traffic and congestion problems go away or at least try to alleviate them.” Urban planners estimate that motorists searching for parking are responsible for as much as 30% of downtown traffic.

Jim Eshraghi, whose San Fernando Valley firm, Hitech Software Inc., provided the system’s software, said this was the first such program to be available online. Another of his clients is the city of Brea, which expects to have its system up in January.

In addition to posting numbers online, the system allows real-time updates on electronic signs in front of Santa Monica’s public garages. Sensors at exit and entry points in every lot and structure keep track of cars going in and out and send that information to a server in the city’s parking office, Eshraghi said. The data are then posted on the Internet.

The system goes beyond another parking innovation introduced a few years ago at the Grove shopping center, where electronic signs on parking levels alert shoppers to spaces. A spokeswoman said the system has helped speed traffic flow.

It’s unclear just how much Santa Monica’s new service will alleviate the downtown area’s congestion.

“Parking downtown is a crunch,” said Ruthann Lehrer, a longtime Santa Monica resident. “The city parking structures are often overcrowded, with too much demand for available spaces.”

She said the electronic signs listing the number of available spaces at garage entrances are a help, but she suspected that few people are discouraged by a “FULL” notice.

Doris Sosin, another longtime resident, said smoother sailing with parking won’t solve the problem of too much traffic. She no longer parks in the city’s structures if she is headed to an evening movie or dinner because “we will be stuck going toward the exit for 40 minutes.”

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martha.groves@latimes.com