Automation tackles Middle East parking shortages

We all know that the car rules in most of the resource-rich Middle East. Unfortunately, in some of the fastest growing areas, there aren’t enough parking spaces for all those cars.
 
Despite the perception that Dubai has plenty of vacant land, inner city office blocks and hotels are often limited in parking spaces. The traditional alternatives, developing multi-storey or underground parking, can be a prohibitive expense to many clients.
 
Recent government measures introduced in Dubai to address parking shortages, have included harsher fines for parking violations and an analysis of fine ‘hotspots’ to determine priority locations for remedial measures.  However these have not been well received. .
 
Need for a solution
At Hyder Consulting we have been working with clients to promote automated parking solutions. These can increase available parking spaces by at least 30% within the same area. Space is saved by eliminating the need for ramps which also helps reduce construction costs.
 
There is a common perception that these systems have lengthy retrieval times. However, we are working with systems that offer retrieval within 90 seconds which compares favourably with the time spent walking to the car or waiting for a valet. Waiting time is reduced by including more entrance and exit points.
 
Automated systems result in lower maintenance costs as a result of reduced lighting and air conditioning requirements and dispensing with the need for valets. Valuable land space is also freed up for other revenue earning purposes such as shops, offices or hotel rooms. Our recommendation for a typical layout would infact be 90% automated, with the ground floor used for overweight 4x4's and coaches and minibuses.
 
Those clients in the UAE who’ve adopted the technology are finding it an effective and economic way to keep pace with the Middle East’s continuing reliance on cars, despite the arrival of public transport alternatives. Developers and public authorities throughout the Middle East need to work closely together to overcome the road block to parking.