In cities and crowded urban areas, driving a car can be stressful. Drivers rely on cars to commute to work and visit other areas, but parking becomes a headache since there are so many citizens on the road throughout the day. Circling around several blocks searching for an available spot is a commonplace occurrence. Additionally, you must be adept at maneuvering into tight spaces, with the constant possibility of bumping or grazing other vehicles ever-present. A lot of these frustrations can be eliminated, which is why we believe automated car parking systems are the future of urban parking. We illustrate how automated parking changes vehicle user experience below.
Assigned Residential Space
It’s unfortunate, but a significant number of apartments in urban environments lack any onsite available assigned parking spaces for residents. When people return home, they may find that there are no spots left on the street near their building and must then walk a long distance from their parking spot to their apartment. What is even more common is urban living removing parking requirements resulting in buildings with zero parking available. An automated parking structure can be created with a small portion of the property to provide a multitude of residents with parking by stacking cars on multiple levels. Just as apartments stack people’s homes upward to save lateral space, so too do automated vehicle parking structures. They even save more space than parking garages because their moving platforms carry cars into and out of spaces, whereas garages must make room for people to drive in and out. Often automated parking can bring more value to the property by moving the parking to less desirable locations in the building. This allows for increases in amenity space or additional living units.
Easier Urban Parking
Another issue that people run into in cities is a lack of parking when they go to work or drive to other establishments such as grocery stores, restaurants, and shops. Automated parking once again can solve these issues by providing a high volume of parking spots for relatively minor land usage. A new automated structure that stores cars in shelves and moves them can accommodate several nearby buildings that are in dire need of parking. There are also mechanical solutions available through valet assistance. It is very common to utilize multilevel mechanical stackers as a cost-effective way to create additional parking on open surface parking lots.
You may also upgrade existing parking garages or lots with semi-automatic systems that add a second level in which to hold cars aboveground. Within a garage, each level could double its capacity with those suspended car platforms. People will have a much easier time getting to and from places in the city since parking will be much less restricted this way.
Secure Storage
Part of how automated parking changes vehicle user experience is found in its ability to strengthen security. When a person parks on the street, their vehicle is open to potential damage from other automobiles, vandals, and theft. You always need to be careful that nothing seemingly valuable is visible on the inside. Even still, people can vandalize your vehicle on a whim. Furthermore, you may run into trouble if you accidentally hit someone else’s car while attempting to park, and vice versa.
Since automated and semi-automated parking systems stow away vehicles behind mostly inaccessible walls and/or gates, cars are physically safer from harm. Automated systems’ interior shelving may be underground or in a structure that people cannot walk or drive into. Only the owner of the vehicle sees their car when they drop it off and pick it up. Their presence is announced by identifying themselves at the entrance through a fixed interface or phone app. With semi-automated systems, users do need to park their cars themselves, but once the vehicle is inside and the driver has exited the space, a gate will fall in place to block anyone from getting inside where the moving platforms are positioned.