Business owners need a well-thought plan to make a well-designed parking lot. If a floorplan is half-baked, nuisances and safety problems will be very common in the parking space. But just like other things in life, there is no such thing as a “perfect system” and that parking problems tend to exist over time. What are the five most common parking problems and how to solve them? Keep reading to find out.
Problems of every parking lot
If you’re living in an urban area and own a car for mobility, you probably experienced bad parking experiences once or twice. According to Citylab, parking lots are one of the most expensive businesses in rural areas, especially in cities like New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Wyoming.
As a business owner, you probably know that customers are never a problem in a parking lot of business, especially if you’re in a very popular part of the city. The real problem lies in the proper handling of vehicles coming and going to your property and nuisances that might ensure. But if you’re new to the industry, here are the problems you should look out for.
Five biggest parking nuisances and how to solve them
1. Very dim / very bright lighting system
This is a very common problem in underground parking lots, as well as parking stations operating in the night time. If your lighting system goes off unexpectedly or is very dim to be useful, it can spell danger to your customers. The LED parking lot lights are suitable for both indoor and outdoor parking lots because of their high maximum lumen output (or the brightness that they make). If you’re not using LED lights already, consider making an upgrade plan in the future.
2. Manual payment
Another old but persistent problem is accounting for manual payments. Modern parking lots have an automatic payment system that takes and records payments and fees from customers. Manual payment will still work on less-populated cities, as the movement tends to be slower, while the customers are fewer. But for a very active city, any parking lot owner that doesn’t use automatic payment systems is missing out on a lot of convenient features.
3. Unauthorized vehicles
Monitoring unauthorized vehicles is easy if you only have one parking floor or a relatively small parking area for your business. But what if you have a wide parking operation or a multi-story car park? Some businesses use intelligent trackers to know which car is unauthorized.
4. Long lines of vehicles
A tracking system can also be used to broadcast if there are available parking slots on the internet or from desk information personnel. Sort of like an inventory tracker from a grocery app. This is very helpful if you want to avoid long lines in your parking space, as it can be a very annoying inconvenience for your customers.
5. Petty parking crimes
To deter crimes in your parking lot, use CCTV cameras, and secure the place with guards. Good lighting systems, such as LED parking lot lights, help make CCTV camera footage clear and useful.