It has recently been all over the media that there is a waiting list of people willing to pay $225,000 for one of five private parking spaces at a condo on West 17th Street. This makes me wonder: How rich must a person be to agree to pay that astronomical fee when it is not only possible but likely to find either an inexpensive or free Manhattan parking spot?
Continue reading "Why Would Anyone Pay $225,000 for a NYC Parking Space?" »
Another automayed parking garage is schedules to be built, this time in Boston. It is scheduled to be completed in early 2009.
Here's how it is supposed to work:
Drivers enter the garage, park their vehicles in a transfer cabin on the ground floor, turn off their engines, and leave. The vehicle, parked on a pallet, is moved through the entire automated garage by a computer-operated system of robots that store each vehicle in an available parking space. Because no person has access to the actual storage garage, there is no risk of dents, dings, or vehicle theft, as well as no risk of personal harm or robbery. Vehicle retrieval, which can be activated by swiping a monthly card, takes 1 to 2 minutes.
These garages hold alot more cars in alot less space than the traditional parking garages and parking lots. Yet some people feel a little nervous with the idea of everything being handled by machines - maybe a little
Continue reading "Robotic parking garage to be built in Boston" »
Here's another really good article about the new robotic parking garage that has opened in the Chinatown district of NYC. The article is at http://www.i4u.com and includes a link to a really cool video that shows you this parking garage in action. Read my post about the automated parking garage here. This could be the wave of the future.
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A while back, I posted about the new automated parking garage that was launched in Manhattan's Chinatown in February. The New York Times has posted a slide show showing how this parking garage works. You can see it and read more info about it at Autoblog by clicking here.
What do you think? Share your thoughts by entering them in the comments box below and hit the "post" button.
Want to get email updates every time a new post is added to this blog? Enter your email address in the box on the top left of your screen and click the "get email updates" button and you'll be among the first to know what's happening in the parking scene.
I wrote last week about an automated parking garage that will be opened in Manhattan's Chinatown in March.
As per Carol Fletcher's article in last friday's The Record , it seems that Wallington, New Jersey's Park Plus Inc is planning to open an automated parking lot of...
Continue reading "Another automated parking garage for Manhattan" »
Don’t know if you’ve heard yet, but Automotion Parking Systems is opening a "robotic" parking garage in Chinatown in Manhattan next month which parks your car without human hands touching it. Actually, the word robotic isn’t so accurate - there are no robots, it’s more like an automated garage. As the driver, you’ll pull onto a ramp, get out and close the gate behind you. A sensor will then know that it’s safe to park your car, which happens by lowering it into the guts of the parking lot, where it finds an empty parking space for your car. The garage manufacturers claim that 67 cars can be parked in a space that would normally only fit 24.
When you return to pick up your car, the system will then get your car using the same method, which may require shuffling cars around so that yours can be retrieved. It even turns your car so that the nose is facing the street, eliminating the need to back out of the garage.
You may have heard some bad things about robot parking garages, but this company has a decent track record overseas. Another company, called Robotic Parking Systems Inc., built a robotic garage in Hoboken that had some major difficulties in the last few years. The garage dropped a Cadillac six floors in 2004 (no one was in it) and a Jeep four floors (also unoccupied) in 2005. Early last year, a malfunction trapped cars inside it for 26 hours. They know say that this parking garage operates at "99.99 percent efficiency."
Automotion Parking Systems claims that the rates to park in their soon to be launched Chinatown parking garage are competitive - about $400 monthly or $25 per day. Hmmm, that’s ok, but I think we all know that we can find cheaper garages than that, don’t we? Maybe it’s worth it to some to pay extra for the robot feature. What do you think?
I plan to check out this robotic parking garage when it opens and to post a full report, including pictures.
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