I’m fascinated by the modalities of owning a car in NYC. I’ve read that most people don’t have assigned parking spaces and use garages, which often have 24-hr waits for accessing one’s vehicle since a valet needs time to get it out of a tightly packed space. This is backed up by multiple sources \[1\]\[2\].
I’m figuring, a hypothetical garage that let people self-park whenever they want would command a price premium for the convenience, and save on the staffing costs of valets. How is it that such a garage doesn’t come into existence and put the valet-only garages out of business?
\[1\] [https://jalopnik.com/owning-a-car-in-new-york-is-absolutely-worth-it-1782352176](https://jalopnik.com/owning-a-car-in-new-york-is-absolutely-worth-it-1782352176)\[2\] SpotHero’s guide to NYC parking – link omitted since it has a chance of triggering a spam filter
Edit: It looks like the point about taking 24 hrs to retrieve a car is out-of-date – it’s more like 30 mins.
In: Economics
24 hour wait to get your car? I call them 30 minutes in advance and they have it by the exit warmed up and ready to go.
The valet parking garages have a much higher parking density that self parking. Not only are the cars closer together and double or triple parked, but the valet garages usually use an elevator rather than having to have a series of ramps. Double the car desnity and you can charge 30% less and still profit madly. The 30% less is worth it because a monthly parking space is between $400 and $700 a month in NYC. When parking in the garage they almost always ask when you will want it back, so they know how deeply they can park it. I’ve never had to wait more than 30 minutes for a car, and that was more about the five people in line front of me and the elevator getting backed up.
Simply put, if you let people park their own cars there are rules for how closely they can be parked together, you need handicapped accessible spaces, people can’t double park, and you will get much fewer cars per square foot than you can with a self-park system. When all else fails, it comes down to economics.
Land in NYC is extremely expensive. A self serve garage would require valuable garage space to be left clear for routes to drive in and out of every single spot. A valet garage can carry double/triple parked which allows more the floor space to be used for parking and less for unobstructed paths. A self serve garage would have to charge a parking fee 1.5x higher than a valet garage in order to be able to exist. They’re definitely not going to put everyone out of business by charging so much more.
It doesn’t take 24 hours to retrieve a car from a garage in NYC. Maybe there are some that have that policy, but the dozens and dozens I’ve used (and everyone I know who parks a car in NYC uses) retrieve cars in 20-30 minutes. Used to be you’d call ahead and they’d have the car pulled out and waiting for you by the time you got to the garage, but now you just send a text or click something on an app to let them know you’re coming to get the car.
Parking garages in the really congested parts of NYC (like most of Manhattan) use car elevators to raise and lower cars to different levels. There aren’t ramps to drive up and down, and there’s no way you want car owners using those elevators. Besides, it’s really convenient to have someone get your car and have it waiting for you rather than having to get to it and navigate down to ground level (or up to ground level for underground garages). And it’s much safer to have people really familiar with all the tight spaces and parking protocols of the garage moving the cars rather than each individual.
There’s no premium for being able to get to your car yourself in a place like NYC, at least the more congested parts. And the personnel costs are nothing compared to the costs of having a building in NYC.
There are several motorcycle garages that I know of and they work differently, but even those usually have two levels of motorcycle parking per floor (one on the floor itself, and one on a mini-lift that raises it above the ones parked on the floor). Those aren’t typically valet, but you may need to have them move a bike under yours and lower yours to the ground before you can ride away.
ELI5?
NYC
Labor -> Cheap
Land -> Expensive
Thanks, all, for your answers, and letting me know that the premise of taking 24 hours to unpark was out-of-date. Your answers explain the situation really well.
Most people in NYC don’t park their cars in garages. Most people street park – meaning they drive around looking for a vacant unassigned space on the street to park their car. Most streets have specific days and times where a city agency will use a street cleaner vehicle to clean up dirt and debris, which subsequently requires drivers to move their car to a different side of the street or a different street due to the cleaning taking place. If you don’t move your car, you can receive a municipal fine or have your car impounded if you receive enough fines and you don’t pay them.
While many people do utilize parking garages, it generally consists of visitors/tourists or the wealthy that don’t want to deal with alternate side parking. Valet Parking garages staff try to take as many cars as possible (Almost always significantly higher than their legal capacity) to maximize profit. Because of this, it can sometimes take a bit of time to move the cars systematically to allow a car to be brought to the surface or exit for the customer to retake possession of said car. This is why notice is required to pick up your car. Otherwise, you might have to wait a while.
While there are self-serve parking garages, those are usually reserved for shopping centers where you aren’t expected to leave them overnight. Also when a garage is valet, the garage operator is not required to have standard marked parking spaces (read: lines) for each car, which allows to cram in more cars per square foot because the valet staff has control of all the vehicles in the facility rather multiple competing drivers potentially crashing into one another and/or creating an underground traffic jam and/or fire hazard.
NYC regulations no longer permit the construction of new structures in most parts of the city with the sole purpose of serving as a parking garage. The exception to this rule are garages which are accessory to new residential housing construction. Basically because land is so expensive and land/housing is so scarce, the intent was to prevent land from being re-purposed for parking at the expense of potential residential housing.
I think Pier 40 has self-serve parking. They are downtown on the river, not in the city center. Also not as expensive, but it’s a hike or a cab ride to go get your car…..
Not NYC, but I’ve used a few in San Francisco. Those parking garages are tiny and the valet will basically cram as many cars as possible which definitely requires having to move multiple vehicles around. This is only possible if the attendant has the keys of all the vehicles. Keep in mind that parking in high density cities can cost over $30 per day, so fitting more vehicles easily justifies the wages of the valets. Also, I’ve never had to wait longer than 15 minutes. So 24 hours just sounds unreal.
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