Japanese Parking 1

We went to visit a friend who lives in a condominium. This many-storied condominium is new (opened just last year) and from outside it looks not unlike some American condominium houses within big cities. However, it has an interesting parking structures for the tenants.

First, within the building itself, there is a parking level designated specifically for bicycles. Perhaps, if American buildings had such parking options, more people would own/ride bicycles - better physical fitness and health, less traffic, and cleaner air.

Bicycles are nice, but cars are still very useful. The problem with cars is that they take up quite a lot of space, and in a space-conscious Japan that can be... problematic. Luckily, Japanese are very adept at dealing with space constraints in very ingenious ways that many other countries can learn from. Outside the condominium building where our friends live there is a separate parking structure that is able accommodate many vehicles while taking up relatively little space. This is accomplished by a sophisticated automated system that moves platforms the cars are on in various directions. Such automation eliminates the need for driveways, thus, saving space and parking headaches for people who have difficulty parking.

 

Here is a show of the automated parking in motion when our friend was getting her car out. To get her car, she entered the number for her parking space (not unlike at some vending machines) and about two minutes later she was ready to drive out. Alas, in the U.S., where patience can be in short supply, such parking might not be for everyone.