Gridlock Drives Launch of E-Business.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic and scarce parking are grim facts of life for Los Angeles motorists. And that has one dot-com entrepreneur convinced that there's money to be made by aiding frazzled commuters.

Devin Wade, founder of San Francisco-based Wiredcommute, plans to release a Web-based platform in L.A. on Jan. 1 that aims to let commuters reserve parking spaces, access traffic reports and maps, and even pay for traffic citations and monthly parking fees -- all from a PC or wireless device.

The platform will be rolled out nationwide, but Wade expects L.A., which he acknowledges as "the nation's commuter capital," to be Wiredcommute's highest-potential market.

"Wiredcommute won't eliminate gridlock, but it will let drivers search, reserve and pay for parking and alert them to which roads are jammed," he said.

Gridlock and scarcity of parking, already a major hassle for L.A. motorists, will only worsen in the months and years ahead, according to recent reports from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

MTA officials project that L.A. County's population will leap from about 9.6 million in 1998 to 13.1 million in 2025, when officials expect that 72.9 percent of all trips to work will be made by motorists traveling alone.

Just 17.2 percent of trips to work will be made in carpools and 9.9 percent by mass transit.

Exposure for parking industry

Wiredcommute is the first platform and Web site to link the parking industry with more common online applications, like map searches, citation payments and traffic reports. The latter applications all have been available for some time on sites like the popular Traffic.com.

As planned, the Wiredcommute platform will be accessible by logging onto the firm's own Web site (www.wiredcommute.com) or sites operated by partnering parking companies.

Wade won a crucial group of allies before launching his service: the nation's parking industry heavyweights, including Central Parking Corp., APCOA/Standard Parking Inc. and AMCO System Parking.

Those parking operators, which are among he handful that control most of L.A.'s parking Facilities, agreed to implement Wiredcommute's software, creating a virtual network of parking facilities that could be at the fingertips f commuters.

To secure those partnerships, Wade tapped Jerry Skillet, the L.A.-based president of Mone Advertising and M2Software and a former senior vice president of Central Parking.

For parking operators, Wiredcommute's applications offer a rare opportunity for them to market themselves to commuters, who usually come and go at the lots with little or no interaction with company workers.

"Parking companies need another communication channel with their customers," said Skillet, who is serving as an advisor to Wade. "Now, they interface only when there's a problem or when (customers) pay bills."

Wade said each of the operators can now use the Web presence to put their own spin on their operations.

"We provide parking operators with a platform they can use to develop and evolve their own Internet initiatives," said Wade, who previously worked in management for Central Parking. "It gives parking operators a chance to build direct relationships with their customers."

APCO-Standard Parking is currently running a pilot program with Wiredcommute applications in Santa Monica.

"We thought it'd be great for our municipal parking garages in the city of Santa Monica and at the Santa Monica Pier beach parking," said Steve Resnick, regional vice president of business development for APCO-Standard Parking. "There's no capital outlay for us. It's just an added customer amenity."

Commuting capital

Wiredcommute collects no up-front costs from parking operators to use its platform, but the company does take a cut of the parking fees generated via the platform. Its other main revenue source will be licensing fees paid by companies like MapBlast! and TrafficStation, which provide online search tools and traffic reports as part of the Wiredcommute platform.

MapBlast and other such companies agree to pay Wiredcommute a licensing fee, and provide commuters with free access to their online search tools and traffic reports because the companies believe that being linked to Wiredcommute will increase the number of visitors to their sites. That jump in online traffic, in turn, will enable such companies to charge more for banner ads on their sites.

As for outside financing, Wade said he completed raising a round of angel funding earlier this year and is currently in talks with venture capital firms. A second round of funding, he said, will be complete by the first quarter of next year. He would not disclose the amount of cash raised in the angel round.

Meanwhile, Wade is positioning Wiredcommute for the burgeoning wireless market. By 2003, wireless devices will be commonplace, he said, and vehicles will be equipped with navigational systems suited for the Wiredcommute platform.

At some point, the system may also be voice-activated. To develop that capability, Wade has partnered with Voice Access Technologies Inc., a Los Gatos-based company that develops such applications for wireless devices.

"It will take longer for us to get the word out in L.A. because the city is so spread out," Wade said. "Market penetration will be easier in cities with higher density, like San Francisco. But L.A. is the nation's commuter capital. It will take a little longer for us to come to fruition in L.A., but it will be our best market."