Andrew Potter, Director at Parking Perspectives, presented at Car Parks 2024 in London. His session examined the options available to those with an ageing multi-storey car park.
The day had looked at the issues arising with heavier and wider cars in car parks. These were presenting new issues for car park operators. The fire risk, for both traditional diesel and petrol cars, as well as EVs, were also considered.
Andrew set out a financial comparison between (a) retaining and repairing an existing structure, that might present structural limitations with heavier vehicles and be limited to 2.4m wide parking bays and tight ramps (b) rebuilding a modern car park designed to better accommodate larger and heavier contemporary cars, or (c) retaining an existing structure but operating it at lower parking densities.
A key point of his presentation was to introduce some work to establish users’ willingness to pay for wider bays and easier ramps, and demonstrate a payback cost model between these options.