Its becoming clear that the multi-level parking garage — that huge, unsightly structure fraught with security risks — is no longer tenable. Urban real estate prices keep climbing by the day, so developers must find ways to do more with less. Still, few people are willing to settle for a space that doesn’t provide accommodation for their personal means of transport.
With that in mind, it’s fair to say that automated/robotic parking systems couldn’t have come at a better time. These structures employ electro-mechanical lifts and turntables to stack cars inside multi-level lots. If that sounds interesting enough, let’s see how your upcoming project could benefit from an automated parking system.
Space Efficiency
Conventional parking garages must, in addition to allowing vehicles circulate in both directions, provide room for drivers to open car doors and walk into/out of the facility. Ticking all these boxes means space must be allocated for access ramps, dividers, slabs, and a few other bulky installations. On the other hand, an automated garage only needs to accommodate the equipment used to move cars in and out. Doing away with the aforementioned space hogs allows for better utilization of the available square footage.
Enhanced Profitability
Automated parking facilities don’t just take up less space than their traditional counterparts — they’re also cheaper to put up as well. They can also be located in areas where regular garages just wouldn’t fit (e.g. irregularly-shaped spaces and narrow corridors confined in between buildings). Combining these 2 aspects means developers can vastly enhance their returns-on-investment by choosing the automated route.
Minimal Environmental Impact
Almost everyone has been there at some point: having to drive up and down a multi-storey garage in search of an empty slot. Multiply this by just a few hundred cars, and it’s easy to see how huge a toll traditional parking facilities exact on Mother Nature. In other words, developers can make a huge contribution towards sustainability by installing smart parking systems.
While such facilities still need energy to run, the environmental impact is reduced by having cars stored and retrieved with their engines switched off. Proprietors also get to save on lighting and ventilation as well.
Improved Security
Securing a normal parking garage means keeping tabs on the constant streams of vehicles and people. This can range from difficult to downright impossible, even with the best infrastructure/personnel. The solution? Switch to a robotic parking system. With no foot traffic on the inside, it becomes possible to prevent unauthorized access with the help of motion sensors. That means you can pay more scrutiny to the vehicles coming in, and ensure each is retrieved by its rightful owner.
