Parking wasn’t as standardized as it is today, with all the laws and regulations that come with vehicle ownership in most countries around the world. However, it does come with a rich history.
Today, we take a closer look at one of the underappreciated parts of vehicle ownership: parking. Believe it or not, a lot has changed over the years!
We look back at what was once standard roadside parking to the future of parking in Australia.
The History of Parking
The most common type of parking that many people have all been used to is residential parking, where they usually keep the vehicles that they own. However, when it comes to actually using their cars in public spaces, this is where it all changes.
Over the years, drivers have been parking in commercial parking spots usually provided by business owners that we are transacting with. For example, if you go to your local store, there is a parking slot for customers, and if you go to work, there could be employee parking provided.
However, crowding has started to become an issue, especially in major centers of human activity such as central business districts, or even just significant business activity occurring in a particular area. More humans always equaled more vehicles, and since space became an issue, regulation soon had to follow suit.
One of the first solutions that was implemented was paid parking meters, which allowed to create order amongst vehicles in densely populated areas with lots of activity.
However, this was not enough as there just wasn’t ample space to accommodate vehicle influx in significant cities. Soon came the rise of commercial parking spaces, which allowed for more vehicles to be packed into concentrated areas of land. Thereafter, parking buildings soon became the norm.
Paid parking meters, though, remained relevant even with the rise in paid parking space.
Parking Today
Nowadays, parking is being built into high-rise buildings, with commercial parking being extremely viable enterprises because of the need of people for vehicle real estate. Almost all business establishments will factor in the influx of people with vehicles coming into their enterprises and prepare for the flow by allocating parking to their cars.
However, there remains the problem of people needing parking on demand and an overflow of vehicles on the road. Some highly populated cities want to advocate for regulation wherein a buyer cannot purchase a vehicle if they don’t have private parking in their residence.
Technology, however, is playing a pivotal role in the way drivers are going to park their vehicles in the future—and that’s not about cars that can park themselves.
Parking in the Future
Parking is getting expensive and is becoming a great luxury to have, in fact, some places even offer to park in advance because of demand.
Buildings with automated parking systems are not exactly a thing of the future anymore, as some countries already have them. Car manufacturers take advantage of this to make sure that vehicles are not wasting space once they’re done from the factory floor. Another advantage is that the manual labor required to park these new vehicles is kept to a minimum.
However, we might see more of these systems in major cities around the world because it saves a lot of space by allowing a “robot” or automated machinery park your car. There is the concern that machinery may break down and disable the access that you have for your vehicle, but with the advent of technology, it seems as if these problems might be mitigated if given enough thought.
This sort of automated car park technology has been in use in Japan for at least a decade now. We are seeing this technology being implemented in some cities today, where it takes about three to five minutes for a car to be retired.
By utilizing this method, you can pack four times as many cars into one space.
There has also been a rise in parking applications for drivers, and this seems to have been fueled by the need for people to find parking spaces on the fly. This has propagated due to the number of smartphones and better internet access across the board. Increased connectivity options have made this possible.
The connectivity revolution has even allowed people who are moving houses to stay connected regardless of the journey. Check out how people are staying connected whilst moving article.
Innovation in parking will continue to be something motorists and even vehicle owners look forward to. As we move towards a future with more advanced vehicles, we should see either a rise in automated parking and the ways smart cars will be stored. They could be underground, or they could just drive themselves around!
