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May 2019

Parking spaces

Millions of parking spaces could be left empty in the transportation revolution

If the future of personal transportation lies with scooters and self-driving cars which are more often than not on the move, this will leave many empty parking spaces open for new uses, such as redevelopment, food delivery centers or shopping centers. vehicle recharging.

Why is this important: The disruption of urban transport creates opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs who see the value of reallocating modest parking space in the digital age.

A number of companies are already reinventing the way parking space could be used …

1. ParkJockey: The Florida-based company’s ambition is to sell access to space to businesses such as ridesharing, car rentals, and food delivery.

  • To do this, it wants to sell an “operating system” (hardware and software) to garage owners who will turn their real estate into a service that customers can access by paying.
  • At the end of last year, ParkJockey acquired 2 large parking operators as part of a financing round led by SoftBank.

2. City storage systems: Better known as the new venture of former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, the company is also dealing with parking lot reallocation.

  • It is bought properties, including parking garages, that it will turn into commercial kitchens for delivery-only restaurants and other consumer services.

3. SpotHero: The company is focusing on a parking space reservation app (for human drivers), but it’s already thinking about the arrival of robot drivers.

  • He’s worked with many partners to upgrade some of their technologies to handle autonomous vehicles, which CEO Mark Lawrence says can have immediate benefits for human drivers as well..
  • “Every location we do [AV]“Ready today is a better experience for our consumers now,” says Lawrence. “We’ve done studies that show people are willing to pay more for one automated experience than another. “

During this time, some real estate developers are also considering a future without as much parking space.

  • AvalonBay Communities, which is working on a future residential complex in Los Angeles, has designed a large parking lot that they plan to convert for recreational use as a gym and theater, and even retail and dining spaces.
  • The owner of The Grove and other high-end malls is working with Google to potentially convert to more restaurants and stores, according to the LA Times.

Yes, but: Developers already have some tough decisions to make when it comes to their investments, which typically have a 30-year horizon as they juggle short and long term uses.

  • Construction costs for surface parking structures can cost $ 21,000 per space, and an additional $ 500 per year to maintain each space. During this time, Parking Fee an average of $ 2 an hour in the US, but can reach $ 33 for 2 hours of parking in New York.
  • And converting garages is expensive: in Pittsburgh, it costs $ 17 million to convert a 3-storey garage into more than 60 apartment units.

The bottom line: These companies may have to make big investments years before they know if they made the right bet.

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Parking spaces

KCI Airport to Lose 400 Parking Spaces for Construction of New Terminal | FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be out of date. Please look at the history’s timestamp to see when it was last updated.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Two circular parking lots at KCI Airport are closed permanently on Friday, eliminating 400 parking spaces for frequent travelers who like to park near Terminal B.

Construction of a new terminal will begin to impact parking and traffic.

The two surface parking lots, called E-1 and E-2, are most often used by travelers who like to park near the Southwest Airlines TSA pre-check.

These lots are closed to make way for the construction of a new parking lot and a new KCI terminal.

The garage at Terminal B is already filling up regularly, so aviation officials expect travelers to use the remaining circular parking lots, E-3 and E-4 or the garage at Terminal C, which often has parking spaces.

Economy parking is unaffected by the massive $ 1.5 billion project.

“In areas where we are already restricted for parking, I expect this to continue,” said Justin Meyer, deputy director of aviation. “Garage C could increase, but we’re already on track for our busiest year ever, so some of that is only natural with the growth of the airport as well. “

Around the same time next year, the flow of traffic to KCI will be reversed so that drivers reach Terminal C first, then Terminal B, completely bypassing the Terminal A construction site.

And once that traffic flow changes, it will stay that way for the next four years, until the new terminal opens.

Council members are urging the aviation department to mark traffic changes redundantly, as any changes to the long-standing models that drivers are used to will be confusing.

For more information on parking at KCI, visit: www.parkkci.com.

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