Patent ID: 7783530

Claim:
A parking reservation system for a parking lot comprising a plurality of individual parking spaces, comprising: a plurality of object detectors, at least one in communication with one or more of the parking spaces in a parking lot comprising the plurality of individual parking spaces, wherein the object detectors are configured to detect if a parking space is vacant or occupied; an electronic database of an inventory of available parking spaces in communication with the object detectors; and at least one processor in communication with the electronic database, the processor being configured to: (a) accept input regarding a request for a reserved parking space for an event specific and/or date specific need; (b) automatically reserve a parking space for an occasional use patron of the parking lot upon receipt of a payment therefor; (c) generate a confirmation of the reservation; and (d) automatically adjust the database of the inventory of available spaces based on the reservation and data from the object detectors, wherein the processor is configured to relay the inventory of parking spaces to the computer network in substantially real-time based both on the spaces detected as being open by the detectors and spaces being unreserved based on electronic reservations.