“Parking By Bowser” HOW AMERICA DEALS WITH CAR PROBLEM

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28478, 7 January 1958, Page 8

“Parking By Bowser ” HOW AMERICA DEALS WITH CAR PROBLEM

[By

BILL WILSON,

in the “Sydney Morning Herald.”)

(Reprinted by Arrangement)

The motor-car parking problem in urban America already bumper-tight—is becoming steadily worse. And as congestion increases, land values in the big cities decline.

Large urban areas in America have tried every method of disposing of a car while its driver goes about, hisr business in crowded downtown neighbourhoods. The method gaining most favour in America’s larger cities today uses an elevator that moves horizontally and diagonally, as well as vertically, to store the maximum number of cars per square foot of expensive ground areas, with the minimum of delay to' motorists.

The whole operation, from the time a motorist drives into the garage until he comes to take his car away, is controlled by an electrical push-button system. This system, devised recently by Virgil Bowser, requires only 40 per cent, of the space needed for the usual ramp-type garage, and is operated for 70 per cent, of the cost of the ramp garage.

Last week, New* York opened its first Bowser garage. It has a capacity of 250 cars (small for an American city) and uses two of the Bowser elevators. The maximum number of employees at rush hours is five. Two men can operate it efficiently at non-peak hours. In other cities throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, there are 25 Bowser garages in current operation.

40(Kt a Minute Virgil Bowser, who designed artificial limbs for the United States Government duxing World War 11, perfected his parking system in 1947. The design consists of a freight elevator of the conventional type housed in a “portable” steel hatchway that is suspended from a crane bridge, running the width of the building on a gantry on, or above, the roof. Thus,, the elevator “shaft” can be moved sideways to a location several car widths away from its starting point. The Bowser elevators move a two-ton limousine or a small sports car at 400 feet a minute. The Bowser company does not operate parking garages, but manufactures and services the elevators.

Richard Bowser, now in charge of the company, and the son of the inventor, told me that several municipal governments in America have built parking garages incorporating the Bowser equipment, and have leased them to private operators. But most of the Bowser gear goes into privately financed garages. A typical, small-capacity garage, able to handle to 300 cars with two elevators, would cost about 170,000 dollars, said, Mr Bowser. He said the company prefers two-elevator installations —so that service can be maintained if one breaks down—and the company has supplied garages having as many as five elevators.

Few Hands Needed

Where multiple installations are in operation, normally the elevators handle 140 cars each, serying three files of spaces Jn front and behind the elevator. Automatic cut-outs are fitted so that two elevators cannot collide in the same “shaftway.” Normal, passenger elevator safety features are incorporated, such as governor-brakes (which prevent the elevator from falling, by cutting-in when the safe speed is exceeded), and door contacts (which keep the elevator

switched out until the door is closed). A Bowser garage can be operated by two men, with no more customer delay than a ramp-type garage with four men.

When a motorist presents his claim stub at the cashier’s desk, the cashier removes his ticket from a rack at his side. As the ticket is removed, it operates a buzzer and signal light in a corresponding rack in the elevator control panel. The elevator operator then knows exactly where the customer’s . car is and can deliver it to the garage exit before the motorist gets his change from the cashier.

Apart from buildings used exclusively as garages, a bank in Oklahoma City is constructing a 12-storey building that will have, in addition to a Bowser parking operation, a drive-in bank at the basement level, an auditorium, a print shop and cafeteria on various floors. Another Bowser system is being built in a hotel in Mexico City. A guest can park his car on the same floor as his room —a skyscraper motel, as it were. In Miami, another structure will consist of six floors of Bowserserved parking spaces and six floors of offices over them.

Virgil Bowser, and his son, Richard, are related to the inventor of the übiquitous Bowser petrol pump, familiar at filling stations and airports throughout the world.