Mississippi State University (MSU) is making parking more user-friendly with the addition of a new parking guidance program on campus utilizing the award-winning motorist guidance application, Parker by Streetline, and parking publishing platform, ParkEdge.

In collaboration with California-based Streetline Inc., the new app and Web browser tools provide near real-time insight on available parking, including policy information for specific campus lots.

Mike Harris, director of parking and transit services, said MSU's unprecedented growth in recent years has created a challenge for students, employees and visitors looking for available parking.

"We believe this partnership with Streetline provides immediate answers to questions on campus parking in a convenient format that's accessible to all MSU stakeholders," Harris said.

Successful testing of the program began during the 2012 fall semester with an expected outcome of both improving parking experiences and reducing the environmental impact of campus vehicular traffic.

Streetline's innovative technology allows MSU Parking and Transit services to communicate parking information using their existing resources and infrastructure by leveraging the SaaS-based ParkEdge parking publication platform. Parking staff members monitoring the various lots can communicate space availability to the office, where the information is then updated via ParkEdge. Within seconds, the new parking status is available to users via Parker and the Web-based ParkerMap.