How has parking become more accessible?

Accessibility is a major concern for businesses as meeting the needs of as many people as possible helps to increase the number of people who utilise their services. As a gateway to a business, UK car parks must accommodate different people with different parking needs.

From simple changes to major innovations, steps have been made to improve the accessibility on car parks, but how are those improvements (and investments) protected?

Illuminated sign showing where the wheelchair access is

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Inclusive design

There are elements of car park management that make a site more accessible, not only improving how people interact with a site but protecting those elements to ensure that the people who need them most can get the maximum benefit from them. These include:

Wider designated parking spaces

Signage that’s easier to read

Accessible routes from parking spaces to entrances

Easier to use payment kiosks

Government guidelines recommend that 6% of spaces on a car park should be designated as bays to support visitors with disabilities. Other supporting elements, such as the signage and kiosks for payments, are available across the entirety of a car park.

Think of the different ways people can interact with a site as tools. You need the right ones for specific tasks, and the more tools that are available, the more people can use a car park properly.

Using a car park should not be made difficult for any user. Touchscreen kiosks, mobile payments, online portals, permits and parking apps all make managing a visitor’s stay much more convenient.

What are accessible spaces?

Accessible spaces are places on car parks that accommodate people with different user requirements. These often mean spaces that are wider, located nearer entrances or other services.

Parent & child spaces and EV charging stations often get the same treatment, helping to increase safety and convenience for drivers travelling with small children or needing the extra room to plug in their car to top up its battery.

The issue with a car park comes from those spaces being in locations that are technically convenient for everyone. This is why there’s such a problem with people misusing the priority spaces on a car park. From someone parking in a Blue Badge bay to quickly run into a shop, to motorists without children taking up a parent & child bay, or a non-EV driver using an EV charging space.

People adopting more of a “park anywhere” attitude is a major contributor in the 80% of priority spaces on car parks that are misused. When you factor in the limited amount of those spaces on any car park, even a small amount of abuse creates delays, congestion, and complaints.

How do car parks protect accessibility?

Car parks have made major steps to become more accessible, but access to those services needs to be protected.

Preventing space misuse is difficult. There’s a lack of physical presence as a deterrent, and staff often don’t have the time to hunt down every suspected vehicle owner and ask them to move.

Bay Management adds ANPR to key areas on a car park, making it so drivers using priority spaces need to validate their parking or risk a parking charge. Adding a monitoring bollard to a site creates a clear visual deterrent too. One that makes drivers reconsider their behaviour and park elsewhere, keeping those spaces free for the people who need them most.

Helping you make more of your car park

At Parkingeye, we understand the importance that those priority spaces have on customer experience, accessibility and how a business is perceived.

Our Bay Management solution is a first-of-its-kind way of protecting those crucial areas of a car park, ensuring that the priority spaces that are intended to support the most vulnerable, or those with specific requirements, are protected.

To learn more about our new Bay Management solution and how it could transform your parking, get in touch using the form.