What is the deal with the stacked parking lots all over Manhattan island? I definitely appreciate the space that they save but I couldn't help but reflect on how much of a pain in the rear is must be if you are one of the first to the lot in the morning. Your car goes on first but then it is all the way at the top and if you have need of your car before the end of the day you have to wait till all the other cars below you are moved so that yours can come down. Not to mention if your car happens to be one of the ones not on the top then who know how many times the attendant might have to move your car in the course of getting someone else's car. Personally there only a few people I feel comfortable driving my car and a random lot attendant (no offense to any attendants out there reading this) is not on that list. Not without some liability form or guarantee in writing (hey its new york things happen). I ask as where I am from parking is a hassle and if these lifts are space savers and viable solutions to parking tickets and towing fees then please educate me on the benefits and the ways those benefits out weigh the cons and the old archaic way people are parking all around me. Let me put it this way, I serve the country I live in and I have to "fight" for a space every morning I go to work paying monthly for the privilege while doing it. Thank you in advance for your responses and replies.

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It is so hard to park your car in New York City that since the early 20th Century inventors have been bent on finding a way to maximize the space in parking lots. From this need came a 1941 patent filed by O. A. Light, which would make it possible to stack three cars on top of each other. It was based on the schematic of an earlier patent filed in New York City by Max Miller which used hydraulic lifts to raise cars, leaving a roadway unobstructed. With the automobile boom of the middle of the last century came a boom in creative and automated ways to park them. But is it safe to park my car in there?


stacked parking-patents-nyc-untapped citiesThe first patents filed that were the precursors to today’s mechanical parking lifts. (Via Stokes Industries)

The lifts work in a very simple way. The parking attendant drives a car into an open slot in the stacks, and raises it to the top. In order to, for example, remove the top car, the attendant must first remove each car beneath it. The NYC Office of Technical Certification and Research puts each of these mechanical parking lifts through a rigorous testing protocol for their safety, as outlined in this bulletin.