parking tales from big ben

Over here, the heyday for building car parks was in the 60s and 70s. Cars were transitioning from the preserve of a wealthy minority to

During the recent pandemic there was a significant shift from cash to card payment. This was driven by a combination of remote payment for things

  Anyone who reads my monthly waffle will have realized that I am not a great fan of electric vehicles. They promised less pollution than

January 2024   Transport-wise, the big story here is the partial cancellation of “High Speed 2” or HS2, the express railway that was to link

Peter Guest   Hello, sorry that I missed you last month. I was having a cataract operation and couldn’t see too well for a few

Finally, after a gestation that seemed to last forever, THE BOOK has been published! Car Park Design is published by the UK’s Institution of Structural

This month I have seen a few things that made me wonder if I had woken up in an alternate universe. I mean, people do

Here in the UK, it is reported that it now costs more to insure an EV than an ICE car. Reading between the lines, it

First a bit of background: chateau Guest is a 1930s “Tudorbethan” detached house built on a 90-degree, and therefore blind bend, on a narrow street.

First a postscript to last month. I was fairly uncomplimentary about electric cars and my government’s disingenuous attempts to convince us that, contrary to all

So, it’s all (mostly) about electric vehicles today. The world is polluted, we need to reduce emissions otherwise the bad things that are already happening

It’s done, and by the time that you read this my new best-selling book on garage design should be available to buy from the UK’s

So, a new year full of promise. I really do hope that 2023 will see better times. 2022 was just plain horrible. Politically, we have

So, the end of another year and as you will have seen, a very traumatic one over here in Britain. It’s hard to really understand

One of the first things I did when I got to Reno was to settle my gambling debts. Before Covid, I had had an interesting

The National Trust (NT) is one of those marvelous Victorian institutions founded by wealthy people to do good works. Its raison d’etre: to preserve Britain’s

Having had a great time in Reno at PIE, I have just got back from spending a day at PARKEX, our very own annual bun

When I was born a hundred or so years ago there were about 2.5 billion souls walking the earth. Now, there are just shy of

For two years or more I have been a good citizen. Isolating, social distancing, mask wearing, not going out. I have had my three vaccines

The other day, a story about a small coastal car park in Plymouth, Devon, caught my eye. Devils Point car park is an 81-space facility

The Machine Stops is a short story written by E. M Forster in 1909. It describes a future world where humankind has become totally dependent

I was thinking about dear old Donald Shoup the other day. I believe that the most important part of his opus, “The High Cost of Free

From time to time, The Sunday Times, the broadsheet Sunday edition of the Times of London publishes a special supplement on some topic of the

So, another year starts and, sadly, we are still not done with this pestilence that blights all our lives. I am writing this over a

British law relating to trespass is annoyingly vague. Come on to my land without my permission and you are trespassing, and I can ask you

I continue to work, with others, on our new domestic design manual for car parking structures. As I have said before, it is a very big

This month, according to John Van Horn, we are supposed to be concentrating on airports. Coincidentally, I have been to London Heathrow a few times

The phrase “You can’t treat stupid” resonated strongly over here in the last week or two, with sweeping statements about the future, based solely on

According to Jordan Weiner at Parking Today, I may have caused some confusion with SWMBO. So here is chapter and verse: “She” Who Must Be

Welcome to PIE all you lucky people that can actually be there. I can’t, boo hoo! Just over a year ago, SWMBO and I were

At the time of writing, it’s still lockdown in England’s green and pleasant land. To put this in context, your lockdown of a year ago

When Adam was a child and I started working in the parking industry, National Car Parks or NCP was the British parking industry. It was

It was 25 ago today Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play… It was 25 years ago, as well, when a young, fresh-faced John Van

Car parks, or garages as you guys call them, are structures for storing motor vehicles. Long experience suggests that it is easy to build them

It’s going to be a very strange year. We all have COVID-19, the United States has a new president, and the UK is out of

Just today, the BBC ran a story about a parking scam. I don’t know if you have this in the states, but over here there

By the time you read this, you will have a new president, or not, and we will be pretty much set on our exit strategy

So, it’s autumn. Covid 19 seems to be on the wane and once again Brexit is rearing its ugly head. We left the EU on

Well, it is still all about Covid-19 over here. Lots of people are still not back at work and overlay school holidays and traffic levels

Another day another story, or two, to hopefully keep you amused, and this time I have a couple of “hot off the press” articles that

So, another month in lockdown and Britain is still in stasis. Parliament has returned, sort of, after operating online for a while, with a few

Do you remember the old Western film, where the tumbleweeds roll down main street? Well, it’s a bit like that here, no traffic on the

When I wrote this, I was taking the scenic route to San Diego for PIE, which is now, sadly, canceled. I had decided to go

So, a year ago I reported on London Gatwick Airport’s plan to launch the amazing Stanley Robotics automated parking system. This is apparently used at

So, we had an election, and we now have a one-party government with a clear parliamentary majority for the first time in about ten years.

Happy New Year, everyone. Deadlines mean that I am writing this before we have our general election and so I don’t know who will be

It’s that time of the year, “the party season,” when people get together to celebrate Christmas. Other religious and/or festive events are available. Pubs and

After many years as a project manager and an independent parking consultant, I recently returned to an advisor role in municipal parking and mobility policy

The difficulty that I have is that I am writing a month before you will read my words and, as someone once said, “a week

Some time ago, I spent quite a lot of time helping the Iberian company Empark and thoroughly enjoyed it. Empark was formed about a decade

Once again, it’s that time of year when the press is full of stories about how much we collectively spend buying parking time from our

The environment is rapidly climbing up the political agenda over here. Parts of central London have come to a halt because of demonstrations, and children

John Van Horn tagged a comment on an earlier column about my reference to the EU’s new 30-point regulations to make future vehicles less likely

Brexit. That Guy Fawkes chappie may not have had such a bad idea. All sense of reality has now departed, and I have no idea

People stealing money from meters hasn’t really been an issue here for a while. So, I was surprised to see that the crimms have got

I don’t know about you, but I think people are getting ruder. A few days ago, she who must be obeyed and I were talking about

It’s cold and wet. We seldom have snow anymore, but everything is just, well damp. The Scots have a word for it – Dreich, and

Christmas has gone and the turkeys have regretted the vote, pretty much like an increasing number of my country men and women who are having

A few days ago, I was on my way to Birmingham (the original one in England, not Alabama) and stopped for a coffee. The place is