PARKING: THE HISTORY
The word parking first appears in the mid-13 century, signifying the specific areas where animals were kept indoors. In London, during the 1660s the word started being used to indicate fenced areas for recreation such as hunting. In American English, the word referred to sporting fields and appears to have been used since 1867.
From 1915 on, the word is mentioned in dictionaries directly related to vehicles. Parking is described as: “the act of stopping a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied”.
The first public parking garage for motor vehicles opened in Boston U.S.A. on May 24, 1898. This fact indicates that even during the early days of motorized vehicle usage, the need arose for regulating parking space. Too many cars meant that too many commuters or consumers were claiming space around the same area, be it a shopping mall or an office area.
Local governments stepped into this market, perhaps unwillingly, out of necessity, as the streets gradually became crowded by cars that their use increased by the population, as a sign of wealth.
The world’s first parking meter, known as Park-O-Meter No. 1, was installed on the southeast corner of the First Street and Robinson Avenue in Oklahoma City (then called Oklahoma) in 1935. Carl C. Magee invented this parking meter, after moving to Oklahoma City from New Mexico in 1927. Today, Park-O-Meter No. 1 is on display in the Statehood Gallery of the Oklahoma Historical Society.
In Europe, where the number of automobiles rapidly increased after the World War II, infrastructures were developed in a quite different manner.. Although modern garages in big towns are not rare at all, the first parking lots were created in order to keep the cars out of the city center.
(Source: Wikipedia)
In these Park & Ride areas parking was free, while municipalities used paid parking regulating mechanisms in the city centers that proved to be quite costly. For example, in London charges rose up to what amounts to €11.50 per day or €5.00 per hour.
Nowadays, controlled parking systems are a necessity in all town & city centers, facilitating permanent residents as well as visitors. Furthermore, advanced systems are used to make parking more efficient and convenient for all. The main innovations include:
- phone-activated paid parking services
- e-parking with apps via smartphones
- automated online license plate scanning, for more efficient control
- receipts that don’t need to be placed on the car