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. 

This Michigan theater was retrofitted by removing the mezzanine and balcony to create the space for a three-level parking garage

This Santa Monica LEED-certified parking garage has solar panels and charging stations for electric vehicles

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.” ‘

• 12,750 miles of sidewalk,
• 1,153 NYC sidewalk cafes,
• 150 miles of sidewalks taken up by construction sites,
• 8.3 million residents,
• 50.2 million tourists annually,
• 10% increase in NYC pedestrian traffic at major intersections since 2007,
• 5,100 food cart permits,
• 6,892 permits for ‘sidewalk sheds’ — for newsstands, shoe shines, etc.,
• 12,720 sidewalk pay phones,

Thanks to Crains New York Business for these statistics.

Governor Cuomo signed legislation in January 2012 allowing the sale of NYC taxi licenses for street hails in NYC outer boroughs, and NYC’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) approved rules for this new fleet in mid-May 2012. After May 29, 2012, NYC will accept applications for the first 6,000 licenses, with another 12,000 licenses becoming available over two years. According to The New York Times, 20% of the new Big Apple taxis will have to be wheelchair-accessible.

Not everyone loves the new green. It’s also being described as ‘mint’, ‘warm wasabi’, and ‘big, pastry green.’ Personally, it seems most like ‘sea foam green’, ‘Crayola lime’, or ‘celadon’ to us.

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.

How is he doing it? All on his own time, this owner of an internationally recognized transportation and engineer firm has designed a plan to bring peace to the roads and underground of NYC. The plan includes:

• $5 toll on all bridges and tunnels coming into Manhattan below 60th St to spread out the congestion on the currently free bridges — Williamsburg Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and Queensboro/59th St Bridge — and the currently tolled crossings — Queens Midtown Tunnel, Brooklyn Battery Tunnel,
• $5 charge to enter Manhattan below 60th St if you haven’t used any of the tolled crossings, and
• $1 surcharge on all taxi trips below 60th St.

During his career as NYC’s Traffic Commissioner, Sam saw it all. Read more about Sam’s career and his love for NYC.

That’s what Charles McGrath found out when he rented a Ferrari and took it for a spin in NYC. Things we learned:

• Ferraris don’t do well with potholes and metal grates,
• A 24 hour rental will cost you $1,100,
• You can drive a good stretch without hitting a traffic light on Lafayette St north of Houston,

Read more about the ups and downs of driving a Ferrari in NYC.

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.

According to the NY Daily News, here’s the scoop on how much it will cost you in time and money to shake the Smart Boot.

1. A city marshal will be deployed with teams of PayLock employees. The marshal will verify that a car has more than $350 in judgments, then authorize PayLock to boot it.
2. The scofflaw can either call a toll-free number and pay his bill immediately by credit or debit card or go to a city payment center to pay the tickets and fees in cash, and get the code to self-release the boot. 
3. A motorist who owes $355 in parking tickets, for example, will have to pay an additional $180 for Paylock’s “boot fee,” $70 for a marshal’s “execution fee,” plus a “poundage fee” of 5% of the entire bill. In this case, that would be another $30. And, if the driver pays by credit card, he or she will be charged a small additional “convenience fee.”
4. Drivers would be forced to shell out nearly $300 on top of the original $355 in tickets. That’s virtually the same amount as under the current towing system — even though the city will be towing far fewer cars.
5.  If the motorist doesn’t pay within two days, however, the booted car will then be towed, and the owner will be charged both a $180 booting fee and a $185 towing fee.
6. The motorist who pays on time must also return PayLock’s boot to a city payment center within 24 hours or face additional penalties of $25 per day — up to a maximum of $500, the documents show.

Under the current system, a driver who fails to immediately reclaim his car from a pound is charged a storage fee of only $10 per day for the first three days and $15 per day afterward.

Seems like it’s much cheaper to just pay the NYC parking ticket, doesn’t it?

City Valet has licensed, insured professional drivers who will drive you where you want to go — in your very own car. It’s great for:

• airport drop-off and pick-up,
• showing clients around the city,
• bringing your car in for a service or inspection,
• driving to your weekend or summer house,
• running errands,
• bringing kids to and from school,
• evenings out.

Just $26/hour, with a 3 hour minimum. Think of how much you can get done once you don’t have to hail a cab, wait for a bus, or trek down to the subway!

Your driver will meet you in your NYC parking garage, load up your luggage, and off you go. For airport runs, the rates are:

• $65 to LaGuardia
• $80 to Kennedy