By Bizna Brand Analyst
As a driver, you can’t help but curse the lack of sufficient parking space around or inside the compounds of most city establishments and corporations, There’s nothing as frustrating as circling endlessly, wasting time and fuel in search of space or being forced by a grim watchman to park outside where your vehicle might not be safe.
The influence and value of parking in planning for business establishments is often underestimated and not well understood. Retail businesses and corporations need curb appeal just as much as any home that is listed for sale. The truth is that customers frequently make judgments about the quality of a retailer’s products and services that are based in part on the appearance of the company or store’s exterior. In some cases, these impressions are subconscious, but they can also be conscious judgments, depending on just how bad the exterior looks.
For many retailers, the parking lot is the most noticeable component of the store’s exterior. It is the first thing potential customers see when approaching the store by car or on foot. If the parking lot shows signs of neglect, a customer’s first impression of the overall quality of the business will be more negative than if the lot is well-maintained.
As one of the largest single land uses in municipalities, parking deserves more attention than it typically gets, due to its influence on the character, form, function, and flow of our communities. Many places in Nairobi face a shortage of available, convenient parking close to businesses. Drivers circle the block hoping to catch a break. Some move their cars every few hours when in time-restricted areas to avoid ‘Kanjo’, robbing themselves off convenience in the process.
Some companies even lose business because they don’t have enough parking spots. And who can blame customers for going away? Inadequate parking leaves the driver no option but to leave their vehicle wherever they can. In some cases, there may be an empty parking lot two blocks away, but without proper management of the more desirable spaces and wayfinding signage for the lot, it sits vacant while people complain about the shortage of parking
Parking is, after all, what cars do most of the time: The average automobile spends 95 percent of its time sitting in place. People buy cars because they need to move around, but the amount of time they actually do move around is tiny. So the cars are parked, and in multiple spaces: A car owner needs a spot near home, but also spots near other places he or she might go—the office, a shopping mall or a meeting.
The parking lot is the antithesis of nature’s fields and forests, an ugly reminder of the costs of our automobile-oriented society. But as long as we prefer to get around by car (whether powered by fossil fuel, electricity or hydrogen), the parking lot is here to stay. It’s hard to imagine an alternative. So companies need to invest in it. Their customers need it, more and more people are building cars so there’s no choice.