SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Searching for a parking spot in parts of San Diego is a surefire way to make your blood boil.
But a San Francisco start-up hopes to relieve parking pains with its app AirGarage.
"The reason we started it was because we felt the pain of trying to find parking as students," said Jonathon Barkl, Co-founder and CEO of AirGarage.
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Barkl and his partner came up with the idea when they were students at Arizona State University. He says annual parking permits for campus parking structures can cost upwards of $800 to $1,000.
They teamed up with homeowners, small businesses, and churches, places that often have vacant parking spots.
Through the AirGarage app, customers can find those vacant spots for cheaper.
"We charge basically whatever is a fair rate for the area, so usually we'll look at the hourly rate for parking in the area and charge 50 or 25 cents less than that."
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The parking lot owner gets to keep 70 percent of the earnings.
Barkl says a church with 50 parking spots was able to earn over $26,000 in October alone.
Customers can also earn free parking through the peer enforcement system, also known as the Space Force. App users scan license plates in the parking lots to check for any violators.
San Diego's first AirGarage is in Ocean Beach; Barkl expects about five more in the coming months.
