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Forget
the Apocalypse: When something as mundane
as the trusty old parking garage goes high-tech,
it’s a sure sign the New Age has dawned.
With that in mind, Tampa-based Robotic Parking
is currently building the country’s
first automated parking facility. The 324-space
modular structure is being built for the
Hoboken (N.J.) Parking Authority, and is
expected to be operational this summer.
The concept is simple: Vehicles are driven
into a loading bay and onto a pallet; after
the driver exits the vehicle, it is “lifted”
and stored in a parking space. When the
driver returns, the vehicle is removed and
lowered back onto the loading bay.
Because
they require only about half the space of
a traditional parking garage, Robotic Parking
facilities are popular in countries throughout
Asia and Europe, where space is at a premium.
Robotic Parking’s Hoboken installation,
however, is the first in the U.S., according
to company representative Brendan Haggerty.
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Forget
the Apocalypse: When something as mundane
as the trusty old parking garage goes high-tech,
it’s a sure sign the New Age has dawned.
With that in mind, Tampa-based Robotic Parking
is currently building the country’s
first automated parking facility. The 324-space
modular structure is being built for the
Hoboken (N.J.) Parking Authority, and is
expected to be operational this summer.
The concept is simple: Vehicles are driven
into a loading bay and onto a pallet; after
the driver exits the vehicle, it is “lifted”
and stored in a parking space. When the
driver returns, the vehicle is removed and
lowered back onto the loading bay.
Because they require only about half the
space of a traditional parking garage, Robotic
Parking facilities are popular in countries
throughout Asia and Europe, where space
is at a premium. Robotic Parking’s
Hoboken installation, however, is the first
in the U.S., according to company representative
Brendan Haggerty.
The city of Hoboken, located across the
river from Manhattan, “is only about
a square mile, but there’s a population
of half a million people,” Haggerty
notes. As more U.S. cities face Hoboken’s
situation, modular solutions such as Robotic
Parking may become increasingly common.
In fact, Haggerty says the company has had
conversations with officials in San Francisco;
Portland, Ore.; and the Washington, D.C.,
area.
While modular parking is definitely a space-saver,
Robotic officials also point out the idea’s
other “green” benefits: decreased
air pollution and traffic from cars cruising
for a parking space and decreased water
pollution from contaminated run-off from
a traditional parking structure.
“As more people move back into our
urban centers, land usage and environmental
factors become larger issues. It’s
up to private and public developers to begin
to work toward providing innovative solutions
to these problems,” says Gerhard Haag,
CEO of Robotic Parking. For more information,
visit the Robotic Parking website at www.roboticparking.com.—L.Z.
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