Business: New Ways to Park a Car

Record-breaking car sales are certainly no cause for celebration by the urban motorist of any country. When he must park, his choices remain—as ever—a scarce spot on the street (where the car may be towed away), a tight little space on a self-service lot (where he is likely to bang up his fenders trying to get in or out), or a garage (where a slam-bang attendant will take care of the fender smashing). At long last, a few entrepreneurs have begun approaching parking on the premise that it ought to be carried out with a certain amount of speed and efficiency.

Japan’s Hitachi Ltd., the huge electrical and heavy-equipment industrial manufacturer, is responsible for a number of already proved systems for accomplishing this aim. One of them, called a rotary parking tower, has been installed as an integral part of several Tokyo office buildings. It works on the same principle as a Ferris wheel: cars are parked on gondola-like platforms that are rotated up and around by a single attendant. When a driver calls for his car, the attendant pushes a console button and the wheel brings platform and car down to ground level. Costing about $4,000 per space, the system is economical at its usual 26-30 car capacity, and some 52-car facilities have been built.

Underground Future. In Manhattan, another type of automated garage, aptly called Speed-Park, is in operation. Invented by Rumanian-born Engineer Mihai Alimanestianu and built by Otis Elevator, it is designed to make the most of parking-space profits, which range from $500 to $2,000 a year per car space, depending on location. Speed-Park uses a computer-controlled moving elevator platform to whisk a car to one of eight levels, where hydraulic machinery shovels the auto into an empty stall. Total time for the cycle: 30 seconds. The system is by no means inexpensive; a one-elevator setup costs about $1,000,000, but Otis claims that it costs no more to maintain than a passenger elevator.

Possibly the best idea comes from Switzerland. Called Rotopark, the system was designed by Roger Bajulaz, an engineer who decided that “the future calls for underground car parks capable of taking 100 to 500 cars.” Above ground, there is only a check-in counter and a bank of elevators. The elevators take cars below to be stored on circular levels, each of which is really a turntable that rotates until an empty space comes to the elevator. When it arrives, the car is parked automatically.

Rotopark is fast (10-25 seconds), durable (it should last 20 years) and relatively inexpensive ($3,500 per car space). Clients in Spain, France, Belgium, Britain and the U.S. are interested in Rotoparks. Two of the systems are already under construction in Zurich and Geneva, where they will handle 30% to 60% more cars than conventional garages.