PARKING STRUCTURE FOR AUTOMOBILES

AUTOMOBILE: An automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods. MULTI-STOREY CAR PARK: A multi-storey car-park (also called a parking garage, parking structure or parking deck) is a building designed for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place. In most countries where cars are the dominant mode of transportation, parking spaces are a feature of every city and suburban area. They are constructed to serve town centers, directly related to shopping precincts or at various locations providing for visitors, shoppers and workers. Access should be clearly signed approaching the car park.

TYPES OF PARKING: PARALLEL PARKING: Parallel parking is a method of parking a vehicle in line with other parked vehicles. Parallel parking requires initially driving your vehicle slightly past the parking space, parallel to the parked vehicle in front of that space, (hence the term 'Parallel Parking'), keeping a safe distance, then followed by reversing into that space. Pros: Cons: Difficulty in parking and unparking of cars. Less visibility of adjacent road traffic. Mostly they are one-way. Ease of parking in narrow and linear spaces. Minimum pavement area is required.

PERPENDICULAR PARKING: With perpendicular parking of cars, these are parked side to side, perpendicular to an aisle, curb, or wall. This type of car parking is more scalable than parallel parking and is therefore commonly used in car parking lots and car parking structures. Pros: Cons: Difficulty in unparking of cars creating difficulty of visibility. Hinders traffic flow during unparking. Require widest areas. Most economical way of parking as it holds maximum number of cars. Works well with two-way aisles.

ANGLE PARKING: Angle parking of cars is similar to perpendicular parking for these vehicles except that cars are arranged at an angle to the aisle (an acute angle with the direction of approach). Angle Parking is done mainly on three angles. 30 Degree

 Pros: Cons:

45 Degree 60 Degree

Allows easier and quicker parking along narrower aisles. Reduces width requirement.

Doesnt work well with two-way aisle. Requires more pavements per vehicle.

RAMP BREAKOVER ANGLE: The ability of the car to break over a steep ramp, either climbing or descending, without scraping. A minimum of 10 degrees is set as a design standard by The Society of Automotive Engineers. Ramp breakover angle influence can be altered throgh the use of design techniques. Transitional blends top and bottom of ramps composed of two or more break points can multiply the ramp steepness, with workable break angles. In existing structures these problems are overcome by building a pad of asphalt or concrete each side of the break point. Angle of Departure is minimum 10 degrees. Angle of Approach is minimum 15 degrees.

RAMP SYSTEMS: Clearway Parking: Interfloor travel path completely separated from potentially conflicted parking unparking movements. Pros: Cons: Difficulty in parking due to less visibility of empty spaces in each floor. Provide safest movement with least delay. Preferred for self park design.

Adjacent Parking: Part or all of ramp travel is performed on access aisles. Pros: Cons: More susceptible to traffic movement delays. Has potential in causing accidents. Requires less area per parking stall. Two fold use of travel paths.

Clearway Parking

Adjacent Parking OPPOSED RAMP DESIGN: Vehicles rotate in the same direction. Up and down ramps in opposite direction. Required ramp surfaces to be opposed.

The Operation is safer.

PARALLEL RAMP DESIGN: Up and down ramp slope in same direction. Ramp surfaces are parallel. Vehicles must rotate in opposite direction. Cheaper to construct.

STRAIGHT RAMP SYSTEM: Usually rectangular shaped with ramp well along the structures longer side dimension. More horizontal distance is required to satisfy ramp grade criteria than accommodate vehicular movement between ramp ends. Pros: Cons: Cause difficulties to get on and off straight ramp. Requires less floor area and simple to construct.

Having two way circulation lanes on parking floor may be hazardous.

CURVE RAMP: The helix or spiral ramp that can be a single surface that permits vehicles to travel on a continuous helical path between parking levels. When two way traffic is handled on a single helix, the outer lane for up movement since it has larger radius of curvature and lower grade. Up movements are usually counterclockwise and down movements clockwise. Ramp access points are located directly above one another and a continous 360 degreee rotation on each level. PROS: Offer better traffic operation by providing gradual turning as compared to sharp turning moments usually at sauare ramps. Fits to narrow sites and minimizes floor space loss. A clear visibility to driver is obtained. Each traffic stream confines to its own ramp all the way from top to bottom.

CONS: Costly to construct. Wastes more space in ramps because requires more space than straight ramp.

FLOOR SYSTEM: SPLIT LEVEL OR STAGGERED FLOOR SYSTEM: Floor level in one section is staggered vertically by one half storey from those in adjacent sections. It is applicable to small, high cost sites where maximum use of space must be achieved. Pros: Construction is relatively simple. Design fits well on rectangular sites. Efficient in terms of floor space per vehicle parking stall.

Cons: Frequent conflicts may arise between circulating traffic and parking unparking vehicles.

Sloping-Floor System: It consists of sloping levels with full width/continuous ramps and contains two adjacent parking modules tilted in opposite direction, with cross aisles making a 360 degree turn to move up or down one complete parking. Pros: Well suited to self park operations. The relatively flat floor slope permits comfortable parking and pedestrian walking. Each entering customer has opportunity to park in the first available space as parking is adjacent to the interfloor circulation system. Floor to floor travel distance is greater in sloping floor garages than in other garages.

Cons: Cause congestion during peak out-bound movements.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-storey_car_park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_parking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parking#Perpendicular_parking