Parking nightmare!
Does your parking nightmare look like this?
- local residents fight new development because of the lack of parking?
- side streets are crowed with parked cars.
- retail outlets and malls are vast unbroken area of unsightly pavement.
- shoppers and restaurant goers can’t easily find parking.
Parking has long been the bane of many local residents, shoppers, restaurant goers and city/village planners. The good news is, the parking industry has responded to consumer demands for more attractive and convenient parking options and you might be surprise to hear technology is behind the emerging trends.
Consumers are creating a demand for improved parking information, such as mobile-accessed parking pricing and space availability. The demand for cashless or electronic payment is a driving force in the changes we are seeing in parking facilities. According to a survey by the International Parking Institute featured in Building Design+Construction magazine, “smartphones will increasingly be used to improve access control and pay fees, providing real-time communication regarding pricing and space availability”.
The Mayor of Chicago recently announced that O’Hare Airport will undergo a $14 million parking technology upgrade. Among the upgrades, motorists will be able to reserve a parking spot and pre-pay for it on their mobile phone and home computer before driving to the airport.
The parking industry has responded by developing lots and structures loaded with innovative technologies which have improved the automation of information, access, control, and payment in parking facilities.
Three of the latest parking products:
- Electronic signs, created by companies such as Trans-Tech, are installed at the entrance to parking lots to enable drivers to view the open spaces prior to entering the facility. Once motorists enter the facility, clear digital signage displays parking availability by level or aisle. Individually marked parking spaces can provide further clues as to which spaces are occupied.
- On city streets and parking lots, high-tech parking equipment such as convenient card operated parking meters, manufactured by companies such as Duncan Solutions, is replacing the old coin operated meters of the past. Some innovative meters text motorists when the meter time will expire and motorists can add time to the meter from their smart phones.
- Although in its infancy in terms of industry adoption, the proponents of automated robotic parking, including Boomerang Systems, tout its ability to increase parking capacity by 100%. Increased capacity allows for a smaller building footprint.
Community planners have also heard residents loud and clear by increasingly focusing on providing efficient parking service, balance with attractive green space. In the past, vast unbroken areas of pavement were standard in retail outlets. Today, conveniently located retail parking is frequently hidden below grade or nestled within landscaped grounds.
With advances in parking planning and technology could parking problems could be a thing of the past? We are certainly moving in that direction.
