Parking lot (called a car park in Australia and the UK) is a cleared area that is more or less level and is intended for parking vehicles. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Parking is the act of stopping a Vehicle and leaving it unoccupied for more than a brief time Usually, the term refers to a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface.
In most countries where cars are the dominant mode of transportation, parking lots are a feature of every city and suburban area. Transport or transportation is the movement of people and goods from one place to another Shopping malls, sports stadiums, megachurches and similar venues often feature lots of immense area. A shopping mall or shopping centre is a building or set of buildings that contain Retail units with interconnecting Walkways enabling visitors A modern stadium (plural stadiums or stadia in English is a place or venue for (mostly outdoor Sports Concerts or other events consisting A megachurch is a church having around 2000 attendants for a typical weekly service
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General information
The usual parking lot is paved with asphalt. Kotkan kaupunki is the capital and the most populous city of Niigata Prefecture, Japan. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. Kingston Ontario is a Canadian city located at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, where the lake runs into the St Asphalt concrete, normally known simply as Asphalt, is a Composite material commonly used for construction of pavement, Highways and Some are paved with concrete. Concrete is a construction material composed of Cement (commonly Portland cement) as well as other cementitious materials such as Fly ash and Slag Many are gravel lots. Gravel is rock that is of a specific Particle size range In Geology, gravel is any loose rock that is larger than two millimeters (2mm A few of the newer lots are surfaced with permeable paving materials. Permeable paving, is different than pervious paving or porous pavement, by virtue of the fact that rainwater passes around the paver as opposed to passing through
Parking lots have their own special type of engineering. Engineering is the Discipline and Profession of applying technical and scientific Knowledge and While parking lots have traditionally been an overlooked element of development projects by governmental oversight, the recent trend has been to provide regulations for the configuration and spacing of parking lots, their landscaping, and drainage and pollution abatement issues. Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land including but not limited to living elements, such as Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from a given area Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability disorder harm or discomfort to the physical systems or living organisms they are in
Parking lots can be small, with just parking spaces for a few vehicles, very large with spaces for thousands of vehicles, or any size in between. A parking space is a location that is designated for Parking. Small parking lots are usually near buildings for small businesses or a few apartments, although many other locations are possible. Larger parking lots can be for larger businesses or those with many customers, institutions such as schools, churches, offices, or hospitals, museums or other tourist attractions, rest areas, strip malls, or larger apartment buildings. A hospital is an institution for Health care providing treatment by specialised staff and equipment and often but not always providing for A museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development open to the public which acquires conserves researches communicates and exhibits the
Some such businesses, institutions, or other buildings may have several parking lots if a single large lot cannot accommodate their parking needs. Large and very large parking fields can be for stadiums, airports, malls or shopping centers with multiple businesses, large schools or universities, convention centers or fair grounds, theaters, workplaces with many employees such as factories, plants, etc. A modern stadium (plural stadiums or stadia in English is a place or venue for (mostly outdoor Sports Concerts or other events consisting An airport is a location where Aircraft such as airplanes, Helicopters and blimps take off and land A shopping mall or shopping centre is a building or set of buildings that contain Retail units with interconnecting Walkways enabling visitors A university is an institution of Higher education and Research, which grants Academic degrees in a variety of subjects Conference centre redirects here For the conference facility in Salt Lake City Utah that is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day , or other large institutions. Often several businesses, offices, apartment buildings, or other institutions may use one or more parking lots in common for their convenience.
Parking lots near businesses, buildings, or institutions are often implicitly understood or explicitly labelled to be for the use of their respective customers or visitors, often with special vehicle spaces for the owners and employees. Parking lots around apartment buildings are often exclusively intended for parking use of their residents, although sometimes separate spaces may be provided for visitors. Such parking for businesses, offices, and residences is often free to the customers, patrons, or residents.
In most cases, especially in areas where parking is scarce, one must pay to park in a parking lot. Entry and exit access is often controlled at these type of lots to ensure those parking pay the required fee.
In many congested areas where some businesses lack their own parking areas, there are parking lots where practically any driver can pay a fee to park. These types of parking lots are often effectively businesses in themselves. Some parking lots have parking meters into which coins must be paid to park in the adjacent space. A parking meter is a device used to collect money in exchange for the right to park a Vehicle in a particular place for a limited amount of time
Some spaces in a parking lot may be marked as "reserved" for certain people, including those who are handicapped. There are often one or more parking spaces for handicapped people, which may be slightly wider, close to the point of entry for the corresponding store or building. Vehicles with handicapped tags may park there, but the non-handicapped are not allowed to.
Although many parking lots are rectangularly-shaped, there are parking lots of all sorts of shapes. A parking lot can be in front or back, on the side of the building it services, or any combination of these, including all around the building, often depending on local building codes. A building code, or building control, is a set of rules that specify the minimum acceptable level of safety for constructed objects such as Buildings and Nonbuilding In a very large parking field, it is easy to get lost or have trouble finding one's vehicle. Such large parking lots often have various sections marked, for example by numbers or letters, to help identify the location.
The area in parking lots is organized into parking spaces, which are generally marked with paint lines for each vehicle and often contain a turtarrier, and driving lanes in between so that vehicles can drive into and out of the spaces. A parking space is a location that is designated for Parking. A parking space is a location that is designated for Parking. The arrangement of the parking spaces relative to the driving lanes can feature perpendicular parking spaces, angle parking (most common, especially in large lots), or parallel parking (least common in parking lots, and usually only for a few spaces), or possibly some combination of these. Parking is the act of stopping a Vehicle and leaving it unoccupied for more than a brief time
Large parking lots have multiple lanes with rows of parking spaces between each one. Except for rather small lots, the location of the parking spaces for each vehicle are usually indicated with pavement markings or lines, similar to center lines on streets. A very common arrangement in large parking lots is angle parking for two rows of vehicles between driving lanes, with the parked vehicles facing front to front between the two rows. At the sides of the parking lot, other driving lanes connect these lanes perpendicularly so that a vehicle can drive into and out of the parking lot at designated locations.
There may be speed limits, stop signs and crosswalks for pedestrians in large parking lots. For a discussion of the maximum speed possible in the universe see Speed of light and Special relativity. A stop sign is a Traffic sign, usually erected at Road junctions that instructs drivers to stop and then to proceed only if the way ahead is clear Crosswalk button neJPG|right|thumb|The button one pushes to activate the crosswalk signal A pedestrian is a person travelling on foot whether Walking or Running. Tall overhead lights may illuminate some parking lots at night.
Most spaces in normal parking lots available to the public are sized for vehicles about the size of a car. The spaces are usually arranged assuming the vehicle can back out of the parking space. In many rest areas on highways, long parking spaces are also available for trucks or other vehicles with trailers, into which they can enter at one end and leave at the opposite end to avoid potentially cumbersome reverse driving. A rest area, travel plaza, rest stop, or service area is a public facility located next to a large thoroughfare such as a Highway, Expressway This article is about the semi-truck For the North American use of the word see Pickup truck. A Trailer is generally an unpowered vehicle pulled by a powered vehicle
A common arrangement in paid parking lots is to have a vehicle entry point with a cross gate where an entering driver presses a button to take a stub with the entry time and to open the cross gate for access to the lot. Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is much the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York When leaving, the driver would pay at an exit point according to how much time was spent in the lot as determined from the stub.
In order to keep unauthorized people from parking in lots, towing crews sometimes patrol parking lots after business closing hours, especially at night, to tow away vehicles which should not be parked there. After snowfalls in winter, vehicles with snow plows often clear snow from parking lots, usually after business closing hours and often during the night. A snowplow (also spelled snow plow, snowplough or snow plough, see miscellaneous spelling differences) is a vehicle or a device intended
In response the worldwide intelligent transport system initiative, Parking Guidance and Information systems have been developed for use in urban areas. The term intelligent transportation system (ITS refers to efforts to add Information and communications technology to Transport Infrastructure Parking guidance and information ( PGI) systems or car park guidance systems, present drivers with dynamic information on Parking within controlled These systems use variable-message signs to direct drivers to car parks with available spaces. A variable- (also changeable-, electronic-, or dynamic-) message sign, often abbreviated VMS, CMS, or DMS, is
Much of the above discussion also applies to large parking garages and multi-level parking areas.
Environmental considerations
Runoff handling
Parking lots have certain characteristics that set them apart from roadways in terms of their engineering and operating requirements. RUNOFF was the first Computer Text formatting program to see significant use The first is that they often cover large contiguous areas with impermeable paving surface. Permeability in the Earth sciences (commonly symbolized as κ, or k) is a measure of the ability of a material (typically a rock or unconsolidated This means that virtually all of the rain (minus evaporation) that falls becomes runoff. Rain is Liquid precipitation. On Earth it is the condensation of atmospheric Water vapor into drops heavy enough to fall often making it to The parking lot must be built to effectively channel and collect runoff. Traditionally, the runoff has been shunted directly into storm sewers, streams, or even sanitary sewers. A storm drain, storm sewer ( US) stormwater drain ( Australia and New Zealand) or surface water system ( UK) A stream is a body of Water with a current, confined within a bed and stream-banks A sanitary sewer (also called especially in the UK a foul sewer) is a type of underground carriage system for transporting Sewage from houses or industry to However, most larger municipalities now require retention basins to catch runoff to reduce the stress on sewer systems or streamways.
Water pollution
Parking lots also tend to be subject to contamination with concentrated spots of pollutants such as motor oil. Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is much the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York The City of New York Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability disorder harm or discomfort to the physical systems or living organisms they are in Motor oil, or engine oil, is an Oil used for lubrication of various Internal combustion engines While the main function is to lubricate Moving While motor vehicles on roadways may drip oil, they do so over a large area. Oil drips on parking lots are concentrated enough that they can have a deleterious effect on the water quality of the runoff. Other pollutants, even brake-lining dust, rust particles, and other particulate materials that settle on the parking lot surface, can be a similar problem. A brake is a device for slowing or stopping the motion of a Machine or Vehicle, or alternatively a device to restrain it from starting to move again Rust is a general term for a series of Iron oxides, usually red oxides formed by the reaction of Iron with Oxygen in the presence of water or air Therefore, an important second function of the retention basin for parking lots is to act as a temporary storage impoundment to allow particulate materials to settle out and to slow or even prevent the release of other pollutants into waterways. A waterway is any navigable Body of water. These include Rivers Lakes Seas Oceans and Canals In order for a waterway
In some places, the water is not channeled into retention basins, but into dry wells. A dry well is an underground structure that disposes of unwanted Water, most commonly Stormwater runoff, by dissipating it into the ground where it merges
Alternative paving
An alternative solution today is to use permeable paving surfaces, such as brick, stone, special paving blocks, or tire-tread woven mats. Permeable paving, is different than pervious paving or porous pavement, by virtue of the fact that rainwater passes around the paver as opposed to passing through A brick is a block of Ceramic material used in Masonry construction laid using mortar. In Geology, rock is a naturally occurring aggregate of Minerals and/or Mineraloids The Earth's outer solid layer the ‘ Lithosphere This article is about tires used on road Vehicles including pneumatic tires and solid tires. The intent of these is to allow rain to soak into the ground through the spaces inherent in the parking lot surface. The ground then may become contaminated in the surface of the parking lot, but this tends to stay in a small area of ground, which effectively filters water before it seeps away. This can however create problems if contaminants seep into groundwater, especially where there is groundwater abstraction 'downstream' for potable water supply. Groundwater is Water located beneath the Ground surface in Soil pore spaces and in the Fractures of lithologic formations Water of sufficient quality to serve as drinking water is termed potable water whether it is used for drinking or not
Landscaping
Many areas today also require minimum landscaping in parking lots. Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land including but not limited to living elements, such as This usually principally means the planting of trees to provide shade. A tree is a perennial Woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or Customers have long preferred shaded parking spaces in the summer, but parking lot providers have long been antagonistic to planting trees because of the extra cost of cleaning the parking lot.
However, parking lots represent significant heat islands and, indeed, heat sinks in urban areas. An urban heat island ( UHI) is a metropolitan area which is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas The heat from paved areas in urban zones has been shown to even have the power to change the weather locally. The weather is a set of all the phenomena occurring in a given Atmosphere at a given Time. By providing trees or other means of shading parking lots, the heat and glare resulting from them can be significantly reduced.
Services
Some parking lots have charging stations for battery vehicles. A charging station, also called electric recharging point, charging point and juice point' is a point that supplies Electricity for the recharging
Parking standards
Many municipalities have established minimum numbers of parking spaces as part of zoning, depending on the floor area in a store, or the number of bedrooms in an apartment complex. A municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a City, Town, or Village, or Zoning is a term used in Urban planning for a system of land-use Regulation in various parts of the world including North America the United Kingdom Minimum spacing standards are also set for parallel, pull-in, or diagonal parking, depending on what types of vehicles are allowed to park in the lot or a particular section of it. At least one entity prohibits backing in to certain spaces. [1] More recently with the drive to sustainable communities, authorities in the UK have moved to maximum standards to discourage car use and other negative environmental consequences associated with parking lots.
Legal issues
The United Kingdom has two types of car parking: either on public or on private land. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The difference is that the police will investigate any reported accident on public land but have no legal obligation and will not do it on private land. Public road is defined by the Road Traffic Act 1972 and (Amendment) Regulations 1988 S. I. 1988/1036[2] as: "Road", in relation to England and Wales, means any highway and any other road to which the public has access, and includes bridges over which a road passes. There is also a House of Lords judgment to this matter. The House of Lords is the second house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords" [3] An accident on private land is entirely a private matter and needs to be investigated privately. However, CCTV-footage and possible access barrier recording does not need to be handed to a private victim of an accident. Closed-circuit television ( CCTV) is the use of Video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place limited set of monitors
In the United States, each state's Department of Transportation sets the proper ratio for handicapped spaces, while certain circumstances may demand more. Those in possession of the proper ID tags or license plates are also free from parking violation tickets for running over their metered time or parking in an inappropriate place, as some disabilities may prohibit the use of regular spaces.
Car park ticket machines
Car Park ticket machines, otherwise known as vehicle access control, boom gates or ticket machines, are used in many parking lots. A boom barrier is a bar or pole pivoted in such a way as to allow the boom to block vehicular access through a controlled point A customer arrives to the entry ticket machine by vehicle, presses the ticket request push-button, takes a ticket and enters the car park via the raised barrier. A customer is someone who makes use of the paid products of an individual or Organization. A push-button (often simply " button " or " pushbutton " is a simple Switch mechanism for controlling some aspect of a Machine
On exiting the parking lot, the customer inserts the ticket into an automatic pay station, pays the fee and drives to the exit terminal to insert the ticket (If there is no automatic pay station, there will be a cashier on exit). A fee is the Price one pays as Remuneration for Services especially the Honorarium paid to a doctor lawyer, Consultant A cashier is a person who rings up the goods or services that the Consumer wishes to purchase If the ticket has not been paid for and has been inserted into the exit machine, the boom barrier will not raise and will force the customer to either press the intercom and speak to a staff member, or reverse out to pay at the pay station or cashier booth. A boom barrier is a bar or pole pivoted in such a way as to allow the boom to block vehicular access through a controlled point An intercom (intercommunication device is an electronic communications system intended for limited or private dialogue direction collaboration or announcements
See also
References
Dictionary
parking lot
-noun
- (North America) An open area, generally paved, where automobiles may be left when not in use.
- (US) (idiomatic) A major thruway blocked by stop and go traffic.
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