Parking Lots

These systems exist, and are very expensive to install in existing structures.

Mostly, they aren't worth it.

If the signs say there is more than one space left, most of the people will drive around looking for the one closest to the entrance.

The other drivers will be looking for double spots, far away from the entrance, so they can straddle the line to get big clearance on both sides of their car.

Chicago has electric signs on the interstate telling how many parking spaces are empty.

Can not complain about this information. I will have to read all of this quite a few times. Thanks

Bank teller queue systems, that do not issue a number often printed on a small sheet of paper, typically have an arrow/teller number display at the start of the queue with guidance on where to go for service.

Same thing could apply to parking lots, but maybe with software that promotes the 'more empty areas of the lot according to an appropriate algorithm' so you don't get disappointed if you are beaten to the 'one vacant lot'. Similarly, if travelling to the 'best chance' area, and you see an immediate opportunity to park, then park there. The display and algorithm still works.

The parking garage at Baltimore-Washington airport (BWI) has this exact system. They call it "Smart Park".

http://www.bwiairport.com/en/parking/information-rates/hourly-garage

When you pick up your ticket at the entrance, an electronic sign tells you how many open spaces are on each level. When you get to your desired level, each row has a numeric LED indicating how many free spaces are in the row, and when you look down the row, you look for a green LED to show you the open spaces. Occupied spaces are indicated with a red LED. It is very efficient, it helps prevent a lot of driving around looking for space and reduces traffic to the bare minimum.

All larger parking garages should have some variation of this navigation system.

In the immortal words of Tony the Tiger, "It's G - r - r - r - e - a - t !!"

It seems to me you could have an array of normally closed sensors, each sensor located in the center of each parking spot in a row. An empty spot would open a series circuit indicating an empty spot. It sounds like a good idea.

Actually it is all very easy....when you drive into the parking lot, onto the big pallet in the loading dock. Get out of your car, and insert your debit card into the appropriate slot to pay for your spot, and get the token. The lot takes over from there. The loading dock is a pallet which is then automatically shunts the pallet with your car on it to shelving built for the purpose. No walking through scary dark parking lots, no smelly pools of "whateva", no muggers lurking around the corner, no urine filled elevators...its the way of the future. Just go back to the well lit loading dock, insert your token, and your car is delivered right to your hand.

This allows for high density packing of motor cars for as long as you want to store them...ten minutes to ten years. This technology exists and is very common for warehousing applications. I presume it is used for automobiles too but I can't be bothered to google to find out if it is actually being used the way I described. If it isn't, it should be.

A lot more expensive and complex things are stored in warehouses in just such a fashion. Why not cars? Its not even a high tech solution.

Or did you have something else in mind?

Replying to Comment by Yusef1:

"when you drive into the parking lot, onto the big pallet in the loading dock. Get out of your car, and insert your debit card into the appropriate slot to pay for your spot, and get the token. The lot takes over from there"

But all the ideas cost too much. Suppose the driver is ASSIGNED a parking space upon entering the facility. Their ticket/stub even is printed with the space id and that is the only place they are allowed to park. A computer should be able to track inventory of "unsold" spaces and be able to make the assignments.

No wiring, no detectors, and the added benefit to some parking lot operators of being able to charge fees to those who are not parked in the assigned spaces. Yeah, I know, it goes against our god-given right to park wherever we damn please.

Well, I guess it depends on how important it is to be within a few hundred meters of your car all day. And the cost of the land, the cost of the multi story car park. And the availability and attractiveness of public transit, and a few dozen other factors.

If for instance, I owned, say three multi story car parks in down town Manhattan (or for that matter, Schenectady) , I would try to see what I could do to turn some of that space into condo's, yet still service the demand for parking. Parking would still be the cash cow that it is now, of course. The warehouse solution would pay real benefits, and would be a viable business model.

I had not heard they had done that in Munich....well there you go! I KNEW I never had an original idea! Something so obvious MUST have been done somewhere! Thanks Uli!

Hello This good idea is already realized in Munich. This carpark was build in a quarter of the city where due to older buildings car park was not available so the community build the car park below an existing road to rent out spaces to the residents in this area. There are around 250 parking "lots" in this facility. It operates according a "chaotic warehouse". The user parks his car on a platform and the system parks it somewhere in the subterrain multistorey parking area.

The car park access are 4 small garage type little buildings. The user drives the car on a pallet and inserts a smart card giving his ID and the system will write to the smart card the ID of the storage pallet then the car will decend into the storage "cave".

Indicating the number of spaces available is useful. Such systems are common in UK and in some cases are linked to displays on roads feeding traffic into the town showing which car parks have spaces and how many. The UK systems are usually operated using ticket counting as described above.

They do not help in locating the individual spaces within a car park. To do that you need a sensor for each parking slot and to connect the sensors to a CPU. There are many types of sensors available, ground loops, pressure pads, photocell, capacitative, camera. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Cameras provide an additional deterrent against theft of or from the parked cars, but are the most expensive. Pressure pads are cheap but subject to damage. Photocells need regular cleaning and ground loops are expensive to power up.

The cost of wiring all the sensors back to a central point could be reduced by a relatively new piece of technology. Energy harvesting sensors (see www.enocean.com) that use the pressure or motion of the vehicle to generate local power, fitted with a radio link to a local display at the end on each isle showing which spaces in that isle are vacant. This panel linked to one at the entrance to each floor showing which isles have vacancies, and these panels linked to the car park entrance showing the total number of free spaces. Given that such an expensive system would be recovered from the car park useres, would you be prepared to pay higher parking charges for saving a few minutes looking for a free space?

It's really very simple. I'm sure others have thought of it. A sensor counts the number of cars that enter the lot and counts the number of cars leaving the lot. The entrance is controlled by a gate. If the computer indicates the lot is full, the entrance gate will not open until a car exits the lot.

I can see that there a devil of a lot of good answers. Is it possible to ever combine all these good answers into a standard? Of course I might as well say the impossible. I guess one would have to choose and pick what ever one appeals to him. Perhaps there should some type of encyclopedia to list all of these methods. But how would one arrange them in some kind of system? I certainly don't know.

Nothing new unfortunately - In Sydney Australia almost all shopping centre parking lots have this technology. I sensor above or below the parking spot to tell the controller circuit if the spot is available. There is bicolour LED above/below the car space...green for available and red for unavailable. This can be seen from a distance in directions.

For multi-storey carpaking lots, we have LED signs to tell you how many spots are available (in real time) on each level as you ascend/descend. On multiple entry carparks, they even indicate how many are available in that section before you even enter.

The disabled parking lots are indicated by blue LED.

While all this sounds great (and it somewhat is), but on popular shopping days/nights (Christmas, Easter, public holidays) - you find that there are 100+ cars all fighting for that one available spot and everyone knows where it is! I do prefer sometimes to just drive around and 'get-lucky' - or stalk those walking towards their car.

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