Greatest Parking Garage Ever

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by Buster

Doubtful we'll see anything like this in the U.S.A., mainly due to labor unions and building codes. Our government holds us back too much from implementing these kinds of things.

Labor Unions are not "our government"

Explain to me which building codes you believe would hold us back from this? How would it be any different from any new construction. You don't think they have govt. regulations in Hungary or Germany? <sigh>

The reason this wouldn't work in the US is b/c of cost and existing infrastructure. Cool as this tech is, current parking garages work fine. On the other hand, the outlay for one of these things is probably astronomical just for the materials/technology. Existing garages would have to be entirely re-engineered and new construction would still need top of the line tech. In all but a very few places, would such a garage provide markedly better service to justify the (likely) much higher parking fees? Would you pay double to wait in line at rush hour? 2-4 minutes/car adds up, even with 10 lanes. In downtown Balt./Washington, when 500 office workers come to get their cars between 5:00 - 5:15, 50 people in each lane means over an hour and a half wait for the last guy (and that's assuming a perfect 2 mins for each car).

It's simple economics: Cost v. Return on one of these things would be completely unprofitable. It has nothing to do with govt. or labor unions.