The increasing demand for parking space is unfortunately not being met by urban planners and developers who know the money is in sellable or rentable square footage. Parking, which was once a common feature of apartments, condominiums and even homes, is now a major selling feature making the difference between potentially thousands of dollars extra for homes with a parking space, and up to a hundred for apartments. Parking is no longer a given, so homes or apartments with a single parking space and multiple cars are looking in new directions to solve this problem by maximizing their current spot. Businesses too are feeling the pinch of increasing number of cars and inability to expand parking. Many of these businesses undergo expansion and land that was formerly parking becomes part of the businesses real estate, further stressing the parking supply. Businesses too are looking for new solutions to handle the issue of parking by maximizing their current parking real estate.
The developing and growing market for parking equipment has seen rapid growth as these demands for additional parking are going largely ignored, forcing home and businesses owners to tackle the problem themselves. These pieces of parking equipment come in many styles, types and functions and each has a different application.
Stack Parkers
Stack parkers, like the name suggest, allow the stacking of cars by taking advantage of space above or below. Examples of using a stack parker include above space such as in a high ceiling garage, or even outdoors. A car drives into a spot and then using a lift system to either put the car up several feet allowing a second car to drive in under it, or drop the car down into the subfloor and a car can then park on top. These systems can even do both in many instances allowing the parking of three cars where formerly only one could be. This parking equipment is ideal for homeowners and sometimes apartment dwellers.
Semi-Automatic Parking Systems
The semi-automatic parking systems are a piece of parking equipment that partially automates parking. In these instances, a driver can park their car in an open port and walk away. From there, these systems will automatically shift the car around to allow other drivers access to park in open spaces. Typically capable of handling between 6 and 25 cars, these systems are more suited to businesses with a few dozen employees.
Automatic Parking Systems
The automated parking system is a unit designed to allow the driver to leave their car in a parking bay and walk away, having their car safely parked automatically within a freestanding building. The major benefit of these systems is their efficiency, safety, and space saving design. While they are currently constructed to hold up to about 1000 vehicles, the amount of space they require compared to traditional parking garage is often a 50% reduction. The benefits of these systems are immense and are now typically less expensive to build and operate than the current car garage. This parking equipment is ideal for developers, city planners and other parking heavy areas.
Parking equipment has options for all markets from homeowner to small business and even to city scale. Combating the problem of less parking real estate has never been simpler with the application of parking equipment.