Parking in urban areas is becoming a big concern for its environmental and economic implications. Smart parking systems are considered essential to improve both city life in terms of gas emission and air pollution, and motorists life by making it easier to park. Supporting technologies are emerging at the industrial level to easily locate available parking spaces, to automate parking payments, and to collect useful data on consumer demand. Most of the research projects concerning smart parking systems focus on ways to collect and publish live parking information and many companies are developing electronic parking systems allowing for a wide variety of available payment methods.