NOTES FROM BIG BEN … BY PETER GUEST


Portsmouth perhaps shows why it hasn’t caught on in themotherland.


And theWinner Is ... Once again, the Oscars have


acted as a warm-up act for the real event: the British Parking Awards. Once again, I am a judge for new car parks and refurbishments.And once again, I feel that somewhere it’s all gone terribly wrong. Car park structures have been


around over here for more than 100 years, and you would have thought by now that designers would have got the basics sorted out. Not so: Two of the four frontrunners got eliminated as soon as we saw them simply because they were so god- awful to drive ‘round. In one, my colleague wearing the obligatory high-visibility safety jacket got tired of drivers asking him, “How the **** do I get out of here?” In the other, the entry route was so badly designed that they have had to close half the entry lanes to stop gridlock. The other issue that seems to


challenge the average car park designer/builder is thatwater does not run uphill.The biggest (3,600 spaces) and probably themost expensive car park built in the UK in the last 12 months has standing water on several decks because they got the drainage wrong. So persistent is this problem that the management team has bought a sweeper to suck up the ponds that form every time it rains and cars come in to the car park wet.


Score The refurbishments are interesting. I remember our late


lamented colleague Sam Bhuyan won a prize here for a very good paper on how to do this properly.The entries are very vari- able, ranging from literally painting over the rust to some really splendid efforts. One that was close but got no cigar was an almost splendid project to refurbish an historic car park that was first opened in 1929, complete with chauffeur’s lounges so that “James” could park the Rolls and have somewhere to wait until


54 APRIL 2009 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com


D 10/10 for Spending and


0/10 for Competence


IAGONAL PARKING ISN’TVERY common here; it’s used more widely in Europe, and many advocate it as the easiest to use.The attached photo taken in a museum car park in


he was wanted whilst Sir andMadame were dining at the Ritz. The building had been repaired and redecorated using gen-


uine 1930s colors. It was almost perfect, but judges check just a little closer than the average driver. Having repaired and refur- bished the original metal window frames almost everywhere, why ohwhy did they leave one in the original corroded statewith cracked glass?And surely they should have fixed the water leak on the stairs before re-painting?


After the most recent PIE in


Chicago, I asked JVH why he didn’t organize something similar in the U.S. The event gets lots of interest (and lots of sponsorship, John). Judging is lots of fun and causes lots of arguments (with drink taken). And the grand finale is an almighty party and lots of fun. I think it’s time to start a campaign to lobby John to run the Parking Today National Awards, with the awards ceremony linked to PIE. Of course, if you had a Brit as chairman of judges, then total impartiality could be guaran- teed ...Write tome if you agree.


History Repeats Itself – U.S. Style Very many years ago, I remem-


ber reading about an incident in Boston where a man was shot in his car and the police were assisted in working out the time of the shooting because by the time anyone noticed (dead body - hole - blood - yuck), the


car had got seven parking tickets. Well, it seems that something similar has happened in


Gainesville. FL. It appears that JohnWaldo passed away whilst sitting in his car around Feb. 11.Over the next twoweeks, the car got seven tickets for illegal parking before a local resident called the police and they found the body.A city spokesman felt that it was necessary to point out that the traffic wardens had not seen the body because “they are not trained policemen.” There’s not reallymuch to say after that.


My Generation I just marked two important events in my life. First, I made


60 (but you look so young, I hear you cry), and this bringswith it a number of automatic benefits. I get a bus pass, which now means that I can ride any public bus in Britain free.Apparently “people of my generation” hold competitions to see who can get


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