Every major city in Australia struggles with parking issues. Whether you are in Melbourne or Parramatta you will find the streets are paved with parked cars. Part of the issue is the fact that the number of cars on the road is increasing year after year. The rest of the issue is the fact that private car parks are so expensive and on-road parking is a cheaper option.
Of course, the ultimate goal can be to remove the need for cars. However, at the moment, no matter how good the public transport system is, cars are simply more convenient. This is especially true when you work erratic hours.
The answer is to look at how car park design can be improved
Making Use Of Available Spaces
One of the first things that should be noted is that there are actually plenty of spaces in most cities that are not being used. These are generally spaces in housing blocks. In most cases, the parking is under the building and half the residents don’t have cars although they are allocated a space. Renting these spaces out through a firm specializing in parking will help to ease the parking issue. It is still significantly cheaper than the private car parks.
Space Sizing
Cars are generally getting larger and space sizes haven’t changed. In other words, spaces that used to be great for large vehicles are now only suited for small vehicles. Owners of larger cars either don’t park or risk damage being done to their car and complaining to the management.
Car park spacing needs to be redesigned with a mixture of space sizes and drivers need to park in the right range of spaces for the size of the vehicle. It will build confidence in the parking system.
Build New Car Parks
Land is at a premium in the cities but you don’t need a large site to build a car park. Instead of going up, car parks should be going up and down. There is plenty of space to build downward and it is even possible to build under structures such as other buildings and even a river.
This will create vast new areas of parking without the need to have large spaces above ground in the city. Of course, this is a technical and costly way to build as you may be going under the foundations of other buildings.
Smart Technology
Potentially a more practical approach is to use smart technology. This can be used to regulate pricing in car parks and direct drivers to the nearest available parking space. Approaching it in this way will force the price down for the drivers and reduce congestion as people will be heading straight for a designated parking bay.
That is only the start of what smart technology can do. Developments in parking are moving rapidly forward, soon it will be possible to leave your car and a machine will park it in the slot within a car park, reducing the need for spaces between vehicles to a bare minimum.
