What parking garage?

[BobSch]

Complicated but an interesting idea.

http://www.woehr.de/en/projekte/budapest_m730/index.htm

[LCHIEN]

Complicated but an interesting idea.

http://www.woehr.de/en/projekte/budapest_m730/index.htm

that is very neat application of technology. For crowded spaces like beneath the downtown square you get the maximum of convenience - no hunting or waiting or racing for a spot. No one has to walk any farther than the next guy - very single spot is equal in distance from the entrance. Every spot is 100% secure. Very little risk of damage from bad drivers clipping your fender. no door dings!

If they can keep the machinery working its great. The probably get $5 per hour for that kind of location and service. Should be enough to pay for it. Better than valet.

[Uncle Cracker]

Don't think it would work here in FL... Water table too high. (But maybe a 5-story underground marina would work...

[cabinetman]

Pretty incredible. That's what NYC needs.
.

[iceman61]

Amazing, simply amazing.

[pelligrini]

Wow, that's certainly a lot of moving parts! I wonder what the fees are like? I'm sure it's highly subsidized by the Govt. as well.

A few years ago we looked into going down a couple extra levels for some parking under a mixed use condo/business building that was on a fairly small lot near downtown. It got pretty expensive. I think it worked out to around $400 per square foot of parking space, and that was without all the moving parts.

[LCHIEN]

Wow, that's certainly a lot of moving parts! I wonder what the fees are like? I'm sure it's highly subsidized by the Govt. as well.

A few years ago we looked into going down a couple extra levels for some parking under a mixed use condo/business building that was on a fairly small lot near downtown. It got pretty expensive. I think it worked out to around $400 per square foot of parking space, and that was without all the moving parts.

In downtown areas of course real estate is very expensive most places.
An automated parking lot like this one can almost double the number of cars in a given area, halving the real-estate and building/excavation costs compared to a garage. This one has four rows of parking with a center lane for the conveyor/lift.

I don't think this idea is entirely new. I recall some garages years ago in NYC that had a lift that went up and sideways to park cars in an array of spaces that was 2-dimensional at least - went up and sideways. Don't think the degree of automation was as advanced.

A regular self-park garage would have to have two ramps and two driving lanes on each level that could not be used for parking. The spaces can be narrower since the doors don't have to swing open. Very possibly the overhead clearance can be smaller (depends if they have to make it handles tall SUVs and vans - don't forget they laser scan in all dimensions to make sure that the car fits.) Like I said, the car density can be twice as much offsetting the cost of machinery as well as the other advantages I mentioned before.

[jdon]

Reminds me of the old puzzle where you had to get numbers 1 to 15 in order on a 4 x 4 grid by sliding the tiles vertically or horizontally.

[tung tied]

Reminds me of the parking "ferris wheel" they had in Ann Arbor over 30 years ago. Don't know if it is still there or not.

[jussi]

I wonder if there are car size requirements. I think Americans on average have much larger cars.