» Parking News

May 4, 2012
Parking_Garage_Autostadt_Germany

Volkswagen's Autostadt—an automotive-themed amusement park—includes a car museum, driving courses, car-factory tours and these 20-story car silos.

When you think of a parking garage, you probably don’t think about much except for the entrance, how easy it is to find a spot, and how much the parking costs. But hold your horses, because Popular Mechanics magazine has just featured the World’s 18 Strangest Parking Garages. These Strange Parking Garages feature:

  • Car Museum
  • Retail shops
  • Rooftop restaurant
  • Skating rink
  • Concert hall

See more fantastical garages.  Read more…

Filed under: Parking News — Tags: , — mtohn @ 5:09 pm
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Any parking garage we’ve used or heard about charges customers based on how much time the vehicle is in the parking garage. In a NYC parking garage, for example, you can pay an expensive per hour rate, a lower rate if you enter and exit by particular times (early or late in the day), or a flat rate for 6, 12, or 24 hours at some NYC parking garages.

But a Boston parking garage is taking a new approach. This parking lot is charging customers based on how much their vehicle impacts the parking lot and the world around us. For example:

  • Vehicles that get less than 15 miles per gallon will pay a 10% surcharge,
  • Hybrid or electric vehicles will get a 10% discount.

According to www.fastcoexist.com, ‘Scott Oran of Dinosaur Capital Partners (the company behind the lot) rationalized the move to the Boston Herald: “A big SUV has a cost both in terms of the environment and in terms of being a heavier vehicle that causes more wear and tear on our lot,” he said. “We think that should be reflected in our price.” ‘

Filed under: NYC Parking,Parking News — Tags: , — mtohn @ 11:37 am
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April 30, 2012

A few months ago I wrote how I had received, then beat, a NYC parking ticket. Parking Today magazine was intrigued by my story and asked me to write an article with ways that cities and towns could help both residents and visitors not get parking violations. And if someone did get a ticket, how to ensure that the regulations and signage were so clear that the ticket couldn’t be dismissed.

Some of my recommendations included:

  1. Place the signs so people know which part of the street that sign refers to,
  2. Create regulations that make sense,
  3. Have clear and simple language on the signs,
  4. Make sure the signposts are sturdy and installed well enough so the wind can’t turn around the sign,
  5. traffic enforcement must submit a ticket that is correctly filled out, and
  6. fix all broken parking meters.

The response to my article has been great! Read the full article here.

Filed under: NYC Street Parking,Parking News,Parking Tickets — mtohn @ 11:30 am
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April 27, 2012

Streetline NYC parkingYour dreams of finding better and/or cheaper NYC parking faster is one step closer to coming true. Streetline, a company we’ve written about before, just got a $25 million line of credit from Citibank.  Here’s the scoop:

When Streetline moves in to a town or NYC, it puts sensors in every NYC street parking space. When you park, a real-time database knows that space is occupied. Ideally, you can register your car and pay remotely, and even add more time to the meter up  to the maximum time you can park at that NYC parking meter.

All that real-time data will tell the city where there are available spaces to park on the street, and where the streets are full. The city can raise or lower the street parking meter rates to balance out the supply and demand so there is an occupancy rate of 70%, or 80%, or the level that is appropriate to make sure that you can find a parking space. Kind of cool, huh?

The next step is to involve NYC parking garages, so you can choose to search for street parking or get a guaranteed space in a NYC parking garage. It might cost more that parking on the street, but you’ll save heaps of time circling for a spot.

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March 27, 2012

Streetline_Sensors_GraphicSan Francisco parking has been testing out parking meters that can increase or decrease the  parking meter cost depending on how many parking spaces are available. The logic is simple: when the parking spaces are all full, increase the meter rate to encourage turnover; when a street is empty, reduce the parking rates so people will park there.

Streetline technology is providing the real-time data by placing sensors in each San Francisco street parking stall and relaying that data to a central processing area.

According to The New York Times, initial data is showing that streets that used to have no street parking available are now showing more available spaces.

The pilot is being funded by a federal grant and is also being test in NYC’s Roosevelt Island and parts of the Bronx.

Filed under: Parking News — Tags: , — mtohn @ 11:03 am
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NYC parking lotEven a six-year old knows what a parking lot is for: parking your car. We each have our own way of tracking down that perfect spot — the one closest to our destination’s entrance, the one that doesn’t get too much sun and isn’t under a tree with birds, or the one where we won’t get hit by another car — and our strategy:  circle, follow a person carrying keys, or stay in one place and wait for a car to leave.

But Eran Ben-Joseph, a professor at Urban Planning at MIT believes that parking lots are actually:

‘public spaces that have major impacts on the design of our cities and suburbs, on the natural environment and on the rhythms of daily life. We need to redefine what we mean by “parking lot” to include something that not only allows a driver to park his car, but also offers a variety of other public uses, mitigates its effect on the environment and gives greater consideration to aesthetics and architectural context.’

His recent Op-Ed piece in The New York Times explores the other uses of outdoor parking lots. Ben-Joseph notes the toll on the environmental cons of parking lots such as Read more…

Filed under: Parking News — Tags: , , — mtohn @ 9:13 am
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March 14, 2012

NYC Monthly_Parking_Sign,_$622We knew it was true, but hoped it wasn’t so.

NYC has the most expensive monthly parking rates* in the U.S. 

Here are the top rankings (these are median rates):

  1. New York City: $533 (Downtown) – $541 (Midtown). Ranges from $800 – $300.
  2. Boston: $438. Ranges from $520 – $320.
  3. San Francisco: $375. Ranges from $550 – $200.
  4. Philadelphia: $304. Ranges from $464 – $175. Read more…
Filed under: Monthly Parking,Parking News — Tags: , , — mtohn @ 12:17 pm
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February 7, 2012

One reason you can’t find NYC garage parking may be that real estate developers are buying up the outdoor parking lots to build hotels and residential condo buildings.

A New York Times article by Marc Santora reports that 92 garages have been sold and redeveloped in just the past six years (source: Property Shark).

And when a new residential building goes up, the developer doesn’t have any real incentive to add a parking garage. In fact, the current zoning rules actually discourage adding parking because a developer needs special permission to build a large garage, one that has enough parking spaces for more than Read more…

Filed under: Parking News — Tags: , — mtohn @ 4:02 pm
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NYC Parking TicketNew Yorkers can stop complaining about the cost of NYC street parking, at least for a few minutes.  The news just came in that Vancouver street parking is actually the most expensive street parking in North America, at $5.75 per hour.

But NYC and Chicago are close behind at $5.00, and then San Francisco at $4.25.

And if you overstay your NYC parking meter? Then you, along with folks in San Francisco, will be paying the highest amount for your NYC parking ticket, at $65 each.

The survey, done by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, showed that:

Hourly Parking Meter Rates

1. Vancouver — $5.75 (lowest rate is 1.00)

2. New York City & Chicago — $5.00 ( NYC’s Greenwich Village is highest while lowest rate is $2.50 in downtown, Chicago’s lowest rate is $1.50) Read more…

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January 22, 2012

Tired of driving around NYC for street parking? It might get easier, with NYC testing out sensors that will tell you — on your smartphone — if a NYC street parking space is vacant or available. Right now, the test is happening at 177 street parking spaces at E 187th St & Belmont in the Bronx. The test is to see if these street sensors can withstand a NYC winter of snow and street cleaners. If that goes well, then NYC plans to implement a full test.

Do we like this idea?

PROS

  • You can find a vacant spot and beat other people to it.
  • Based on how the technology works, we all could find parking quicker, decrease congestion from all that driving around, and reduce pollution from car exhaust.

CONS

  • You could get a NYC parking ticket for using your phone to check the street parking. That could cost you up to $100 and even points on your license for a ‘Distracted Driving’ ticket.
  • Depending on how many other people are looking for NYC street parking, that vacant space could become occupied right after you see it’s vacant, so you’ll be driving around even more looking for parking.

Read the full article in the NY Daily News.

Filed under: NYC Street Parking,Parking News — Tags: , — mtohn @ 5:06 pm
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