Parking needs to change, our cities are littered with underused parking spaces meanwhile we don’t have enough space for housing and transport. If you’re starting from afresh or simply upgrading here is how we’d build a car park for the future
Step 1: Less Space Is More
By some estimates, 30,000 square kilometres of land is devoted to parking in Europe. However, with technology we no longer need this amount of space.
Robotic multi-storey car parks are amongst the high tech options but they might be out of budget for some. Simpler options include digital parking tools like Parkpnp who can now introduce fluid pricing to help maintain revenue from a smaller amount of space allowing you to earn more from less space. Ensuring that you don’t have empty spaces 90% of the time just so you can make extra money during that peak hour or two at the weekend.
Step 2: Be Available
Today’s consumers want information fast and they want them now. So car park owners need to be available 24/7 to cater to the needs of drivers looking for parking. It is physically impossible to handle large amounts of queries and questions about your car park.
Turns out, apps like Parkpnp can host your car park on a 24/7 online platform making it easier for drivers to find your car park and reserve a parking spot with ease. More often than not, car park spaces go unused because drivers are not able to ask questions about it or don’t know its there. It saves car park owners both time and money to list their car parks in universally accessible site that is available 24/7.
Step 3: Technology Oriented
Technologies like robotics are transforming the way car parks are being designed. Easier said than done for the majority of car park owners, as making upgrades like these will cost more than an arm and a leg. But that hasn’t stopped some car park developers from creating fully automated car parks.
There is no human interaction whatsoever at these car parks. The driver brings in the car and leaves it on the palate and a robot takes it from there. This might seem like something from a sci-fi but these car parks really exist in parts of California and Japan. Robots are slowly taking over, one parked car at a time.
Car park owners can take baby steps on their path to future proofing their car park. They can start with using automated payment technologies like the one Parkpnp offers, where drivers can just pay with their smartphone at the entry point or reserve a space before hand and pay remotely through the app.
Step 4: Give people something to look at
Most of today’s car parks look quite bleak. They are just empty spaces, adding virtually no aesthetic value to the city. There are never any car parks featured in travel brochures for any city, even though parking maybe of the top priority for many tourists.
Car parks of the future, will not only serve a purpose but also look good while doing it. Some car parks in the United States have served as a canvas for street artists to showcase their talents, and the car park owners have let the artwork stay on adding to the aesthetics of an entire city.
The future seems like a while away, but it’s coming fast. Slowly but surely, car parks around the world seeing the value like automation in both infrastructure and payment systems. The car park of the future will make it easier for drivers to park and car park owners to manage their car park. It will only be a matter of time when an parking meter will be a thing of the past.
Alan O'Donovan
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