Sustainability, Climate, Parking and Land Use

Author: Royce Monteverdi, Founder of Robotic Parking Systems, Inc.

As an inventor and engineer, I have found that the discussion on parking, climate, and land-use misses some important points–points that make the difference on whether future city planning around parking is a success or a failure.

Minimum or maximum parking rules or mandates aside, any development–in order to be a successful one–must satisfy the parking needs of its users.

For example: If a residential development provides 100 off-street parking spaces but there will be 120 residential vehicles, 20 cars will need to be parked on nearby roads or other open places. Regulatory rules do not help here; the marketplace needs to resolve individual issues very differently and cannot be mandated with “one size fits all.”

It is the investor / developer who bears financial responsibility when too many or too few parking spaces are provided. Studies done by the DOT, IBM and others over the past few decades have shown that not providing sufficient parking creates additional congestion. Insufficient parking also causes pollution with all its negative side effects, including a 4% loss in GDP. The idea that building parking attracts more traffic has been scientifically disproven: it’s just the opposite.

In fact, studies have found that moratoriums on parking garages and limitations in places where there is a real need for parking–as some metropolises in the US were practicing in the past–creates problems for community members, creates monopolies, and curtails free market flow.

And, mobility needs are not going away. Most people regard ease of mobility as a right–be it via mass transit (buses, rail, car sharing etc.) or individual modes of transportation (bikes, scooters, or personally owned vehicles). Though personal choices regarding modes of transportation will naturally evolve, what will not change is people’s innate desire for freedom in their mobility choices and ability to move from point A to B.

Here are the issues:

Public and shared transportation cannot fully replace mall, supercenter or other parking lots / garages though there is good reason to replace both. Massive asphalt parking lots for malls and supercenters are heat islands and contribute to general urban sprawl. Concrete garages not only consume a lot of land, their production wastes energy and their demolition fills up landfills. However, all these parking needs cannot be completely solved with mass transit or a reduction in the number of parking spaces.Anyone who has transported bags of groceries on a public bus understands the challenge of storing groceries on the bus and then transporting them home once they get off. This may work for the young single, but for a parent of multiple children and older individuals, this simply is not practical.And, while research has shown that there are benefits from the use of carsharing in reducing emissions and pollutants, the benefits are limited compared to the emissions of circulating fleets.

While the reduction of toxic emissions from vehicles is being addressed proactively, the reduction of toxic emissions and the negative environmental impact of parking garages and lots are not being addressed. Electric vehicles are estimated to have a market share of 50% by 2030–cutting toxic emissions from vehicles in half. A proactive approach also needs to be done with parking. Concrete garages waste land and energy, and also create problems in their disposal; parking lots create black heat centers. Both concrete garages and lots suffer from a myriad of issues ranging from security, safety, and recycling issues to name a few. And, because electric vehicles create even more tire dust than an internal combustion engine (ICE) due to being heavier and having more torque, there is no reduction of these toxins in a traditional concrete garage and lot. So, there are some uncomfortable challenges which require real conversations.

The Solution to Parking Woes

Participants in the development processes–from planners to politicians to developers and business owners–and the general public as occupants and stakeholders, need to be aware that there ARE readily available solutions to parking problems. One long proven solution works and provides the answer to the problems of pollution, congestion, sustainability and waste of precious land.

What is the solution? It is automated parking! Fully automated parking dramatically reduces land requirements–20 times less when compared to an asphalt lot, and 5 times less when compared to a concrete garage. Heat islands gone! Waste of precious land gone! Long walking and searching for your car, gone! Security problems gone! Pollution in parking eliminated! Sustainability problems – gone!

Here an example of changing the dynamics of land use by utilizing automation:

Existing prime downtown location:

3 concrete garages with 1,000 spaces each.
Total parking inventory is 3,000 spaces.

Substitute existing 3 garages with one robotic parking 3,000 space system:

Create a green park.
Plus, 400 room hotel, or equivalent 150,000 GFA development.
Gain 4.5 acres of land.

By implementing SMART technology, we free-up, gain, create, whatever you want to call it–NEW, never before available land. And, at the same time, this technology retains the parking capacity required to reduce congestion.

The chart below demonstrates the elimination of toxic emissions resulting from replacing just one 1,000-space concrete garage with a fully automated garage. These huge numbers speak for themselves. These are toxic emissions that parkers will no longer inhale and which will not become environmental pollution. The use of the fully automated garage also results in a savings of thousands of gallons of high-priced gasoline.

(Fact: did you know that tire & brake dust together are more toxic than all other exhaust gases combined?)

Automated Parking Creates User-Friendly Experience

Not only does automated parking offer huge environmental benefits, it offers a superior user-experience as well. Fully automated parking offers valet-style service, allowing the user to simply leave their car in the entry/exit terminal and walk away–with their keys! And, because no public ever enters the parking area, the opportunity for crime and accidents, common in traditional parking structures, is eliminated.

Fully automated parking also allows architects to create designs and facades that are not possible in a regular concrete garage.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE PLAZA

THE FIRST AND LAST IMPRESSION COUNTS.

Automation makes Parking a Joy

In conclusion, the real beauty of fully automated parking is that it transforms what was once an obstacle to sensitive urban development–public parking–into an asset. Fully automated parking offers a convenient and joyful parking experience to users like never before.