PARKING SYSTEM

Abstract

An automobile storage system to increase the space efficiency and accommodate additional automobiles. The system has a first row of automobile storage units with a first plurality of side-by-side bays, each bay having a width, some of the bays provide parking stations, a second row of like automobile storage units adjacent the first row of automobile storage units. Each automobile storage unit has multiple levels with at least one designated level, and remaining levels. The designated level provides for ingress and egress of automobiles to/from the automobile storage unit, and includes at least one ingress lane devoid of any stored automobiles. Some of the remaining levels provide the parking stations which are positioned vertically with respect to the designated level. An elevator is provided for delivery and retrieval of an automobile to/from the system. The automobile storage unit rows are staggered with respect to each other by a distance of about the width of at least one bay.

Claims

1. An automobile storage system, comprising: a first row of automobile storage units having a first plurality of side-by-side bays, each bay having a width, some of the bays provide parking stations; a second row of automobile storage units adjacent the first row of automobile storage units, the second row of automobile storage units having a second plurality of side-by-side bays, some of the bays in the second set of bays provide parking stations; wherein each automobile storage unit has multiple levels comprising at least one designated level, and remaining levels, wherein the designated level provides for ingress of automobiles to the automobile storage unit, egress of automobiles from the automobile storage unit, or ingress and egress of automobiles to and from the automobile storage unit, wherein at least some of the remaining levels comprise the parking stations, which are positioned vertically with respect to said designated level; an elevator shaft provided for allowing travel of an elevator car for delivery and retrieval of an automobile to and from the parking stations, the elevator shaft having a width and being positioned between a left-side parking station and a right-side parking station; and wherein the second row of automobile storage units is staggered with respect to the first row of automobile storage units by a distance of about the width of one bay, or about the width of one bay and the width of the elevator shaft.

2. The automobile storage system of claim 1, further comprising a third row of automobile storage units adjacent said second row of automobile storage units and staggered by a distance of about the width of one bay, or about the width of one bay and the width of the elevator shaft, relative to the first and second rows of automobile storage units.

3. The automobile storage system of claim 1, comprising a third row of automobile storage units adjacent the second row of automobile storage units, wherein the second row of automobile storage units is staggered in a first direction by a distance of about the width of one bay, or about the width of one bay and the width of the elevator shaft relative to the first row of automobile storage units, and wherein the third row of automobile storage units is staggered in the same first direction by a distance of about the width of one bay, or about the width of one bay and the width of the elevator shaft relative to the second row of automobile storage units.

4. The automobile storage system of claim 1, comprising a third row of automobile storage units adjacent the second row of automobile storage units, wherein the second row of automobile storage units is staggered in a first direction by a distance of about the width of one bay and the width of the elevator shaft relative to the first row of automobile storage units, and wherein the third row of automobile storage units is staggered in the same first direction by a distance of about the width of one bay and the width of the elevator shaft relative to the second row of automobile storage units.

5. The automobile storage system of claim 1, further comprising at least one drive aisle adjacent the first row of automobile storage units.

6. The automobile storage system of claim 6, further comprising a second drive aisle adjacent the second row of automobile storage units.

7. The automobile storage system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the parking stations contain automobile pallets.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] FIGS. 1A and 1B are front and side views, respectively, of a conventional automobile storage unit;

[0027] FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the conventional automobile storage unit of FIGS. 1A and 1B;

[0028] FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of a conventional single automobile storage unit;

[0029] FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of a conventional automobile storage system having two side-by-side automobile storage units;

[0030] FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of a conventional automobile storage system having a row of five side-by-side automobile storage units;

[0031] FIG. 6 is a schematic representation of a conventional automobile storage system having two rows of five side-by-side automobile storage units;

[0032] FIG. 7 is a schematic representation of a conventional automobile storage system having three rows of five side-by-side automobile storage units;

[0033] FIG. 8 is a schematic representation of an automobile storage system in accordance with one aspect of the present invention containing three rows of five side-by-side automobile storage units;

[0034] FIG. 9 is a schematic representation of an automobile storage system containing three rows of five side-by-side automobile storage units in accordance with another aspect of the present invention;

[0035] FIG. 10 is a schematic representation of the automobile storage system of FIG. 8 but with two drive aisles in accordance with another aspect of the present invention; and

[0036] FIG. 11 is a schematic representation of an automobile storage system having two systems of FIG. 8 with drive aisles, in accordance with another aspect of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0037] The present invention provides an arrangement or layout of parking towers or automobile storage units that saves up to 50% of the space required by the conventional automobile storage unit layouts, such as the conventional layouts discussed above.

[0038] The entry or access (ingress or egress) floor of each unit in the rows of units is arranged in accordance with the present invention to be empty of cars except when a car is on the elevator on the ingress floor about to elevate or, has previously been brought down for exiting the garage and is about to exit. The layouts of the towers used in the present invention takes advantage of this ingress floor configuration.

[0039] In particular, according to various aspects of the present invention, automobile storage units or rows of such units are arranged adjacent one another in a layout characterized as “nested” or “staggered”. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, the units or rows of units are nested or staggered in a first direction (shows as to right direction in FIG. 8) so as to be able to utilize the ingress floor empty space of the units as a drive-thru space. Embodiments of what the inventor has found to be the most efficient with a conventional automobile storage unit is to stagger one or two bays or lanes per row of units as described below.

[0040] In FIG. 8, a parking system 400 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention includes a drive aisle 200, and an automobile storage system 230 consisting of three staggered rows of side-by-side automobile storage units 280, 290 and 300 arranged from proximate to distal the drive aisle 200, respectively. The automobile storage units contain a plurality of side-by-side bays, some of which serve as parking stations, and others of which provide locations for elevator shafts. As in the prior art, each parking station has an associated pallet which is used to position cars to and from the elevator to the parking station. In the embodiment of FIG. 8, the drive aisle 200 serves a dual purpose: namely, for automobile ingress and egress. In the embodiment of FIG. 8, the arrangement is a stagger of about or approximately a single bay in pitch (one bay staggered) in the same direction, namely, the second row is staggered to the right relative to the first row by about the width of one bay, and the third row is staggered to the right relative to the second row by about the width of one bay. The term “about the width” or “approximately the width” means a distance sufficient to allow a car enter and exit the parking system, i.e., without being obstructed by an adjacent bay or other structure.

[0041] Because the system of FIG. 8 is not a drive-through system, turntables as are known in the art may be provided to turn the cars around so that they can egress in a forward driving motion. Of course, the cars can be simply backed out in reverse upon egress, in which case a turntable would not be needed. For the sake of safety, however, the use of turntables is preferred to allow for forward motion egress in a non-drive-through configuration.

[0042] The present invention provides to align the automobile storage units in a way that results in a one elevator per automobile storage unit with each storage unit comprising a matrix of 3×n bays as in the prior art. With this arrangement, however, as compared to the prior art, the need for a separate drive aisle between adjacent rows of storage units is alleviated. Thus, the positioning of the second row of automobile storage units can be directly adjacent the first row, and the third directly adjacent the second row (as illustrated by FIG. 8). Alternatively, the adjacent rows of storage units can be separated by a distance such that bridges will be employed at some or all levels to provide vehicle passage between the rows. The stagger need only be present in a way that fits the available real estate space and assures that the drive aisles are clear.

[0043] In FIG. 9 an automobile storage system 500 in accordance with a two-bay staggered embodiment of the present invention includes a single drive aisle 442, arranged along an access side of automobile storage unit row 440. The system 500 consists of three staggered rows 440, 450 and 460 from proximate to distal the drive aisle, respectively. As in the previous embodiment, the drive aisle serves a dual purpose: both for cars entering and exiting the storage system. In the embodiment of FIG. 9, the stagger is two bays in pitch (two-bay staggered). Like the embodiment of FIG. 8, all cars enter and exit through the same side of storage unit row 400. Again, if forward ingress and egress are desired, turntables will be provided.

[0044] The staggered layout according to the present invention can also be used, as illustrated in FIG. 10, with a drive aisle arranged on each side of the automobile storage system 530. Although this arrangement provides less space saving, is has the advantage of a drive through system and can speed the parking process and improve traffic flow.

[0045] As shown in FIG. 10, in which arrows A, B, C, and D represents traffic flow, cars enter the automobile storage system 530 at an entry drive aisle 800, and exit onto an exit drive aisle 820. The cars pass through the empty ground floors, with the staggering providing a line of entry and exit with at most a single elevator in the path of the car. For example, a car entering by directional arrow A enters an elevator for automobile storage row 540 and can be moved by pallet to parking station 540.sub.1, or be vertically moved while on the pallet by the elevator to a different floor where it will be positioned in an appropriate available parking station (e.g. a station that is sized to accommodate the particular car or vehicle) on the left side or right side of the elevator. A different pallet, namely one associate with an available parking space, is positioned in the elevator and the elevator is then returned to the ingress floor to accept another vehicle. Of course, the car could alternatively proceed to rest in parking station 560.sub.1, but such positioning would interfere with the egress access of other cars needing to exit via the path of arrow A to the drive aisle 820. A car entering by directional arrow B will pass through automobile storage row 540 onto an elevator having a pallet for automobile storage row 560 and can be vertically moved by the elevator to a different floor in row 560 where it will be positioned in an appropriate parking station to the left side or right side of the elevator. Likewise, a car entering by directional arrow C will pass through automobile storage rows 540 and 560 until it reaches an elevator in automobile storage row 580. From there it can be vertically moved by the elevator while on a pallet to a different floor in row 580 where it will be positioned in an appropriate parking station space on the left side or right side of the elevator. The path of a car entering via directional arrow D is similar to that of directional arrow A, and so on.

[0046] The drive thru arrangement as shown in FIG. 10, which has an entry drive aisle 800 and an exit drive aisle 820, also advantageously eliminates the need for a turntable to reverse the direction of the car, which would otherwise be needed to accommodate forward direction egress.

[0047] As an example of the invention's potential positive impact on the parking industry, if we assume that a parking area of 100 ft. by 200 ft. is provided with a prior art side-by-side arrangement of two rows of automobile storage units, with each unit occupying 22 ft. in length, and a drive aisle positioned in front of one of the rows and between the two rows, with each drive aisle occupying 24 ft., then the overall parking area would accommodate 16 automobile storage units for a total of 640 cars. However, by staggering three rows of automobile storage units by the width of about or approximately one bay as in FIG. 10 or approximately two bays as in FIG. 9, then 22 automobile storage units can be accommodated. This increases the storage capacity up to 880 cars (a 37% increase). In addition, if the overall storage system 500 is designed as a drive-through, the need for turntables and their associated complexity is alleviated.

[0048] The automobile storage system according to the present invention can be built all at once or piecemeal with any set of automobile storage units. However, if designed and built as one group of units and properly crossed braced to each other, the overall resulting structure is stronger. Because of this cross-bracing benefit, the units can be built lighter and at less cost while still providing sufficient stability.

[0049] The space savings created by the inventive embodiments further increase as additional nested automobile storage systems are employed, as shown in FIG. 11. There, a first “one bay” nested system 930 (i.e. a system with a staggering of approximately the width of a single bay), consisting of nested rows of automobile storage units 940, 950, and 960, is set next to another similar one-bay nested system 1130, which consists of nested rows of automobile storage units 1140, 1150, and 1160. At the top of the figure, a traffic entry drive aisle 1010 is provided. In between the systems 930 and 1130, a second intermediate drive aisle 1020 is provided, in which traffic enters system 930 and proceeds into system 1030. The directional arrows 1005 illustrate the path taken by cars from the traffic entry aisle 1010 to the intermediate drive aisle 1020. Finally, at the bottom of the figure, a traffic exit drive aisle 1030 is provided. The directional arrows 1007 illustrate the path taken by cars from the intermediate drive aisle 1020 to the traffic exit drive aisle 1030.

[0050] The invention makes it possible to construct a parking garage system with increased car storage density, i.e. with more parking stations, over the prior art. The disclosed system is simple, requiring only a vertical elevator and a known store and fetch system.

[0051] Overall this configuration can; 1) add density by increasing the number of parking stations for a given land plot, 2) smooth traffic flow, 3) eliminate the complexities of a turntable in some embodiments, 4) allow modular construction (add additional parking as needed), and 5) accommodate a large amount of ingress and egress.

[0052] Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.

[0053] Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.