Creating an Effective Car Parking Strategy

Whether you're operating a car park for a retail outlet, office complex or residential building, this is often the area that users will see first. Therefore, it needs to provide customers and visitors with the right first impression, even before they drive through the car park gates. When you're designing your car park or looking to make changes to an existing one, it's important to maximise the usability of your facility to increase its potential.

Look at Your Needs

Each individual car park will have varying needs, depending on the type of users you attract, the size of your facility and where it is located. This means that you need to develop a solution that is customised for these requirements, which will result in more satisfied users, increased revenue and reduced costs.

Car Park Design Considerations

When you're designing a car parking solution, there is a range of elements that you need to factor in to ensure it's as effective as possible.

Access Control

You need to decide how users will access the parking facility and if you need any security measures in place to prevent unauthorised use. This will include the type of car park gates or barriers that are installed and any ticket, key pad entry or security booths.

Signage

It's essential that users feel comfortable getting into, around and out of the car park. If they have a pleasurable experience, they will be more likely to return, so you need to have the right type and amount of signage to direct both vehicles and pedestrians around the site.

Traffic Management

The location of the car park will also have an impact on local traffic management. It's important that you assess the anticipated effect and take this into account when planning the design, such as the capacity requirements and entrance and exit points.

Safety and Environmental Issues

The design of the car park should address any safety issues that could affect the functionality or operational capabilities of the site. This should include the safe use of any car park gates by pedestrians as well as vehicles. Businesses should also be focused on their environmental responsibilities and sustainability measures. This can be reflected in your car parking strategy, which should be designed to minimise any environmental damage.

Technology

Innovations in car parking technology are constantly being developed, and they can help to make the areas more efficient and user-friendly. It's important to understand exactly how you can incorporate these into your facility, such as the use of mobile payments and smart technology. There are also methods that you can employ to generate data so that you can see in real time how your site is performing.

With a highly efficient car park that is operated successfully, you will be able to generate greater customer satisfaction. This is an effective way of driving more business into the site and creating more repeat users, which will all help to maintain the future of the site and make it as profitable as possible.