Yerevan: Facing Lack of Subway Car Parking
July 16, 2008
Today in a discussion session conducted in the Municipality of Yerevan the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan was also present. According to the officials the problem number one in our city is the lack of subway car parking even in the central part of the city, reported the press service of the President’s Administration.
During the discussion the president said that the main problem is that cars are parking in wrong territories and places and not the points that there are too many cars in our city. “We should work on this rather seriously and find some solutions,” said the president.
According to the information and public relations department of the Municipality, the director of Italian “Renko” company Giovanni Rubini was also present at the discussion. He said that the representative of Italian Company in Armenia is “Armenian PPP” and as soon as they are authorized to conduct the project they will start constructing sub way car parking first in the squares of Aznavour and Saxarov and then expand the project.
The President said that the construction of those subway car parking is very important to make simple the traffic in Armenia.
Source: http://www.panorama.am
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London’s priciest car park ‘charges £43 for six hours’
July 16, 2008
Parking in the capital’s most expensive car park will set you back £43 for a six-hour stay, a London newspaper said Monday.
The multi-storey car park on Pavilion Road in Knightsbridge has been named London’s costliest by the Evening Standard. Located walking distance from luxury department store Harrods, the NCP-run facility charges drivers £7.20 an hour.
The paper said the highest hourly rate could be found at the NCP in Berners Street, Bloomsbury, which charges £8 per hour but a mere £33 for six hours.
The survey found that people driving into the capital for a day of shopping are better off parking at the Masterpark on Oxford Street where charges are £5 an hour or £24.50 for six hours.
AA president Edmund King told the Evening Standard the charges were “mind-boggling”, adding that they keep many shoppers out of central London.
Bargain hunters unwilling to walk, cycle or take the Tube or bus, should head for the City of London area car parks, the paper said, with parking at Spitalfields and Smithfield Market a steal at £2 an hour.
Source: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i9Q36wTrSbBSwq9jMKc3iJQt1LQQ
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Japanese Parking Lots Accept Contactless Payment
July 12, 2008
Japanese parking lot operators are beginning to accept contactless payments as card issuers continue to try to make inroads in Japan’s cash-based consumer economy. More and more pay-by-hour lots are accepting payment via contactless cards or mobile phones equipped with contactless chips, according to the Nikkei news service. Nippon Parking Development Co., which runs about 100 lots in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan, will accept iD, the contactless credit brand launched by mobile network operator NTT DoCoMo and credit card company Sumitomo Mitsui, the Nikkei report says. Another parking-lot operator, Park 24 Co., accepts three contactless electronic purses: Edy, Suica e-money and PiTaPa. The latter two e-purses are mainly used to cover transit fares in and around Tokyo and Osaka, respectively. Overall, Japanese consumers make more than 90% of their purchases in cash, according to DoCoMo estimates. To capture a piece of this market, card issuers are supporting a total of five major brands of contactless credit and electronic-cash programs, with more on the way. Consumers can make contactless payments at thousands of convenience stores and other merchant locations, but few of the card-reading terminals are interoperable, which threatens to confuse consumers. Masao Nakamura, president of DoCoMo, told the Nikkei Marketing Journal this week that his company is now working on a contactless point-of-sale terminal that can accept all three brands of contactless credit in Japan.
Source: http://www.n-p-d.co.jp/en/index.html
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Car Park Maths Project
July 6, 2008
Do you have problems setting an interesting and new maths project, that all the students in your class, whatever their level of ability is, can take part in? This project to plan a new car park layout, gained the interest of the students and provided many lines of investigation that stretched the more able, while allowing the others to utilise their basic maths. I used it with GCSE students but it can easily be adapted to other levels.
This idea was thought up when the college car park was being extended and changed and it certainly engaged the students and provided for some novel and interesting ideas from the students.
Drawing a Scale Plan
The students will need to measure the car park, paths and buildings. They will need to calculate the angles to ensure the lines meet up correctly. Encourage a legend to be added to the plan to show trees, bushes, paths, doors etc
Set a scale that the plan should be drawn to, this will enable you to easily check the results at the start against a master plan. This will involve the use of ratios to calculate the length of the lines of the paper.
Alternatively, this could be a combined exercise for the whole class, producing a single scale plan that can be copied and provided as the starting point of the project.
Data Gathering
The students will need to obtain data to decide how big to make their car park spaces. There are various types of data gathering and surveys that can be undertaken and used in the project. Some examples are given below, but don’t let this list limit your imagination.
- The size of spaces in a number of car parks in the local area.
- The size of various types of cars
- The popularity of the different size cars
- The room need to open car doors
Presenting Data
There are various standard ways to present the data, for the car park spaces and the car park sizes. Some examples are specified below for the car data, but there are many more possibilities. The students can take this as far as their capabilities allow.
- Group the car data in to a frequency table. Calculate the percentages to show the most popular sizing groups.
- Visually present the grouped data in bar charts
- Use a scatter plot to show the relationship between length and width. There should be a strong correlation.
- The popularity of cars sizes could be presented as a ratio.
Calculating Statistics
Everyone should be able to attempt to calculate the median, mode and mean averages for the length and width of the spaces and the cars. A good extension is to calculate further measures such as the standard deviation and percentiles.
Making Decisions from Data
The point of the data gathering is to determine what size the car park space needs to be. They are trying to fit in the maximum number of spaces, while still allowing the car park to be used effectively. This is the interesting part to see what the students will think of.
- do the students remember that you need to open and close the doors
- have they allowed room to drive in and out of spaces
- what inventive ideas have they come up with. One report handed in had three recommended car space sizes, one for large cars, one for small cars and one for disabled drivers who need to open their doors wide.
Extension Study
There are many further directions that this study can be taken to. A few ideas are below, but encourage your students use their imagination
- Usage Surveys: Surveying the car use in the area to determine the usage to ensure the car park has enough spaces.
- Financial: Would it be possible to charge for the use of the car park, how much you would expect to make, how much it would cost to operate, would people pay.
- Trigonometry: One student measured the turning circle of a few cars and use trigonometry to calculate the optimum turning space needed to get in and out of a car park space
Marking
You are really marking this project on the accuracy, applicability and the difficulty employed in the various techniques, but do allow a portion for the finished result.
- Are there a reasonable number of spaces?
- Is it possible to get in and out of you space and car without scraping the car next to it.
This study was very popular with the students and the reports varied from fairly basic to some advanced maths according to the ability of the student. While they had some guidance and ideas, they were encouraged to think up more for themselves and they certainly did this.
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Driving into China’s parking mess
June 28, 2008
Eager for some fine food, Colin Lee, a public relations (PR) executive, recently went to a Vietnamese restaurant with friends. Their experience, however, got off to a horrible start when they could not find a place to park. “It always happens, no matter what I am doing! It is quite different from the situation abroad!” said Lee, who worked in numerous countries over the past decade. “Addressing the parking situation is crucial for the development of cities. I cannot bear the mess any more.” The problem of which Lee speaks is becoming a daily occurrance for virtually every motorist in China’s large and medium-sized cities. The conflict — the increasing number of cars versus the lack of parking places — is severe. But what can be done? Experts suggest parking in China must be industrialized; in other words, parking facilities must be constructed and operated by businesses. Due to improved living standards, falling vehicle prices and China’s bulging, “new white-collar” segment of the population, an increasing number of urban Chinese now own personal vehicles. National Bureau of Statistics figures indicate China’s output of automobiles will rank No 3 — behind the United States and Japan — in the world by next year. Output of automobiles in China is expected to exceed 10 million units by 2010. Many of China’s large cities are coping with parking-related issues. Statistics indicate there are nearly 2.02 million motor vehicles registered in Beijing, and that figure is expected to reach 5 million by 2008. Those figures do not take into account the number of vehicles in Beijing from other provinces, cities and counties. However, there are only public 600,000 parking places in downtown Beijing, indicates www.people.com.cn. The parking lot at Cuiwei shopping mall, for example, can accommodate a mere 100 vehicles. But during an average day, up to 1,000 vehicles might park in the lot, a manager of the mall said. In Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, there are more than 500,000 vehicles. The municipality, meanwhile, has a meager public 528 parking lots in sowntown, with a combined 38,000 parking spaces. In China’s developed cities, such as Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai, public parking places are sorely needed. The ratio of vehicles to the number of parking places is about 5:1, indicate China Heavy Machinery Association’s data. “City parking is an industry, not an administrative task of the government,” said Jia Xinguang, a senior analyst with the Beijing-based Automobile Industry Research Centre. As part of the public facilities in a city, parking should be combined with the city’s development and regulation, the expert said. “If a city wants to operate smoothly, it needs necessary facilities, which include parking facilities,” Jia added. At present, however, parking lot construction in China is managed by local governments’ communications departments. Every transportation department has its own administrative area, and that is preventing the industrialization of parking in China. However, the local governments still don’t pay enough attention to the issue. “The government often focuses on the dynamic transportation, or traffic rules, but ignore the static transportation, or parking” said Ren Bomiao, director of the China Heavy Machinery Association’s Parking Facility Committee. Many parking lots belong to certain property developments. That is not the case in developed countries, which have flourish, and systematic, parking industries. Experts note the problem will be compounded in future, especially as the population grows and the number of vehicles increases. If that happens, space will become limited in cities, but parking lots should not occupy residential areas and streets. Industrialization of parking is one possible solution, Jia said. “Developed countries and regions provide some very good examples.” Japan, which has one-tenth of China’s population, but only 4 per cent of China’s land area, has successfully dealt with its parking problem. “First, Japan included parking in city planning; second, parking has been industrialized; third, Japan has developed its own parking facility equipment,” Jia said. To achieve industrialization in parking, experts suggest three solutions: Improving relevant legislation, tougher administration and development of multiple-level, above ground parking facilities. In fact, municipal governments in China are taking steps to combine parking with their city infrastructure programmes. At present, many big cities in China have their own plans focusing on parking lot construction. In Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong Province, the city planning bureau of the local government has worked out a blueprint to set up 95 public parking lots next year. Those lots will have a combined 20,265 parking spaces. By 2010, Guangzhou will have built an additional 118 parking lots, with a combined 16,680 parking spaces. The three-dimensional equipment, or multiple-level, above parking garages, is supposed to be the first choice. Hangzhou’s planning bureau has planned its overall arrangement of parking lots in the city’s centre. According to the regulation, in Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang Province, there will be 37 parking lots in the city’s centre by 2010. Beijing, by 2010, plans to solve its parking lot crisis. All legally registered motor vehicles will be required to have their own parking spaces. Market behaviour has freedom to operate, but it still requires government regulation, especially support from legislation, industry experts said. In Beijing, there are several existing rules regarding parking, such as the Regulations on the Administration of Motor Vehicles Parking on Streets, Regulations on the Administration of Public Parking of Vehicles in Beijing, Regulations on the Administration of Public Parking of Non-motor Vehicles in Beijing. Liu Xiaoming, deputy director of Beijing’s municipal committee of communications, was recently quoted by Beijing Times as saying to carry out the spirit of the Beijing Transportation Development Programme, the capital will enact the Beijing parking regulation this year. Moreover, projects that Beijing’s municipal government scheduled to amend this year include the provision on standards of construction of vehicles parking facilities, which was drafted by the municipal road administration. Experts suggest there is another problem: Parking fees. Beijing enacted a parking-fee standard in May. However, many parking lots still follow the former standard. Under the new standard, people must pay 1 yuan (12 US cents) per half hour to park — small vehicles only — within the Fourth Ring Road. “But, when I drive into many parking lots, they charge me 2 yuan (24 US cents) according to the old standard,” said Wang Xin, who bought his Chery last month. Said Jia: “Fixing such issues will take time.” New equipment Many experts insist the development of multiple-level and above ground parking garage is a must. Such facilities are commonly used in developed countries, and they are applicable in China. They have one big advantage: They save space. Generally, such facilities require about one-25th the amount of space for a ground parking lot. Moreover, multiple-level and above ground parking equipment is cost-effective, and convenient. Such facilities are highly secure, and improve cities’ living conditions. The parking industries in some developed countries and regions have become profitable, and are earning hundreds of thousands, or more, US dollars a year. In Japan, the parking industry began in 1991. Many businesses paid great attention and began investing in the sector. Statistics indicate Japan’s parking sector is worth about US$7.7 billion (115 billion yen). The intelligent parking system developed by CARTEC and SPK in Japan not only generates fat sales in Japan, but also has become involved in some parking projects in Shanghai. In the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the price of a parking space is much more than that of a sedan. Taking Huijing Huayuan for example, a parking place is priced at HK$600,000 (US$76,923). In the United States, the parking industry is worth about US$26 billion per year, and the sector creates about 1 million jobs. When Thailand was suffering from the region’s financial crisis in 1998, investors transformed surplus apartments into parking garages. They recovered their investments very quickly, and the stagnant real estate market eventually reignited. Parking facilities in China are still a fairly new concept. The first multiple-level and above ground garage didn’t appear until 1989. In the past 10 years, China’s parking facility industry has developed at an astonishing rate. Before 1997, not many people had heard about a mechanical parking house. But in 1997-99, the device became more commonplace. As more people own and drive personal vehicles, it is crucial that China regulate, construct, manage and develop adequate parking facilities, experts said.
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