180% More Productive Shopping Mall Car Park with No Large Costs!

About 2 years ago, in Riyadh, I prepared a proposal for a Mall company. The had an issue with the way the car park ‘floe’ was working. Essentially, it wasn’t flowing at all.

I walked the new underground car park, checked all the navigation signs and the general flow of traffic. Knowing how the mall traffic in Riyadh is, very busy, the layout of the underground car park had three entrances all heading to one single lane toward the underground public pedestrian entry. It was not going to work the way it was set out.

I checked the outdoor car park and all of the cars were up on the footpath, double parked in the lanes and jamming up the valet lane.

Respect the Value of each Car Park

The problem is that a car park should be designed and set up to maximise the value of the car park spaces or areas, but they are not. This is where most car parks let the customer down. They are just set up as bulk storage for cars, not people.

Car parks need to reflect the value of a person’s time. The image above shows a very simple version but these days you can create a car park far more productive, get more cars into a space and more traffic through a mall with out traffic jams, all without technology!!

Many companies are pushing all sorts of technology, sensors, signs and counters. Simply put, you should work through the design of the car park first and get 180% high productivity before adding more technology and costs.

On redesigning that mall carpark in Riyadh, we had 180% more parking opportunities without technology, bells and whistles. It was done very cheaply.

180% increase in productivity without large spending? Yes.

Kevin Warwood

Parking Consultant