1. Draft ITS-Park objectives
2. First cut at ITS-Park service specification
- Includes discussion of issues surrounding some of the key elements
3. Blog six weeks report
- Progress versus the originally defined blog purpose
- Where to go from here?
Posted by itsparker on December 4, 2009
1. Draft ITS-Park objectives
2. First cut at ITS-Park service specification
3. Blog six weeks report
Posted in What's Coming? | Tagged: blog report, ITS-Park objectives, service spec | Leave a Comment »
Posted by itsparker on November 30, 2009
I have perused a number of general articles describing the advantages and disadvantages of mechanical parking systems, as well as manufacturer’s reference materials. The material below is a summary of what I’ve found along with some unresolved issues.
Consumer Benefits
Developer and Land Use Benefits
Environmental Benefits
Disadvantages
Issues
My next post had been intended to compare salient characteristics of mechanical parking garages with self-park garages and ITS-Park garages. I have now decided that it is imperative to first provide an initial draft of ITS-Park objectives and an ITS-Park specification. These materials will become the basis for garage type comparisons later.
Posted in Parking technology trends | Tagged: consumer benefits, developer benefits, disadvantages, environmental benefits, issues, land use benefits | 2 Comments »
Posted by itsparker on November 24, 2009
Automated parking is available and in daily operation now, in the form of mechanical parking garages. Such garages are available from a number of different manufacturers, in a variety of sizes and designs, for underground installation or in heights of up to 20 stories.
Critical questions for mechanical parking garages: (1) Are they the appropriate answer to the world’s parking problems I’ve previously defined? Or are they just a niche solution to be applied to certain specific land use situations? (2) Are they sufficiently competitive with self-park garages? (3) Will they be competitive with smartcars related ITS-Park systems as they are developed and deployed?
Parking space is particularly difficult to find in high density Asian and European cities so they are increasingly installing large numbers of automated mechanical parking structures. The U.S. has also begin constructing such parking structures, using European technology, but at a much slower rate due to differences in land availability and cost. No statistics are available which define what percentage of all parking garages built are mechanical garages – for the U.S., Europe, Japan, or the entire world. I would guess that the percentage is low, maybe on the order of 1 or 2 percent.
Such systems are based on the stacking technology used in automated warehouse facilities. A car is driven into a special above ground stall, on top of a concrete pallet; passengers unloaded; the car carrying pallet moved to a stacker crane; the crane depositing it into a remembered parking location. Some systems, however, have been designed to eliminate the complexity of pallets. Two basic system designs have been developed – linear, or rectangular, systems; and rotary, or carousel, systems.
As of 1996 data, more than 500 such systems had been installed around the world, capable of parking over 1.3 million vehicles, according to a presentation by Don Monahan of Walker Parking Consultants: http://www.walkerparking.com . A conservative growth projection indicates that a total of five to six million mechanical parking garage spaces could be in use today. The largest mechanical parking garages in use are one of 849 spaces built in Korea; one of 612 spaces in Istanbul; and one recently opened in Dubai, containing of 765 spaces and advertised as one of the three largest in the world – and the world’s fastest. A press release indicates that an even larger mechanical parking system has been contracted for in Dubai, but I’ve been unable to find detail specs.
Recent data I’ve received regarding mechanical systems being built by Wohr Systems indicates describes six different series designs offered. Wohr data shows that it has installed some 136 systems, totaling 7,275 spaces, an average size of 54 spaces per system. Their three largest series include 43 systems installed, encompassing 4001 spaces, an average size of 93 spaces. Their largest is the previously mentioned Istanbul garage, installed in 2002.
A U.S. Automated and Mechanical Parking Association (AMPA) was established in the U.S, in 2001. I’m aware of two U.S. systems installed – one in Hoboken, New Jersey and one in Washington, DC.
Here are the URL’s of some of the leading mechanical garage vendors for your follow-up:
Wohr Parking Systems:
Robotic Parking:
Westfalia Technologies, Inc.:
Metro Parking Systems:
SpaceSaver Parking Co,:
Klaus Multiparking:
Park Plus, Inc.:
My subsequent posts will cover the pros and cons of mechanical parking garages and a comparison chart of mechanical garages, self-park garages and the expected relative goals of ITS-Park garages.
Posted in Parking technology trends | Tagged: AMPA association, automated parking, automatic parking, mechanical parking systems, parking data, parking questions, parking space, parking systems, parking technology, robotic parking | 6 Comments »
Posted by itsparker on November 18, 2009
The DARPA Urban Challenge competition’s challenges included meeting the following requirements, using technologies directly applicable to ITS-Park development.
Several months after the competition, three of the autonomous vehicles “drove” unmanned around the Toyota Grand Prix race course in Long Beach – with an audience of 180,000 people in the stands. That course is 2 miles long, with 11 left and right turns to be negotiated. Think of that length, and all those turns, as being equivalent to the aisles and ramps of an ITS-Park garage. All that was missing for that demo, to better represent an ITS-Park operation, was having half a dozen parking spaces for the vehicles to enter and back out of. Simplify the technology, bring the options cost way down and you have the smartcars based portion of ITS-Ppark!


Posted in Parking technology trends | Tagged: ACC system, adaptive cruise control, automatic parking, autonomous vehicle, car following, lane following, parking R&D, smart car research, technical evaluation | Leave a Comment »