Century City garage: a good thing or a KISS concert?

First, let me begin with a confession: I have a great dislike of parking garages. I don't like driving around in circles to reach a spot and I especially despise sitting behind some knucklehead hoping to secure a spot on a lower floor of a garage when everyone and their mother knows the only spaces are going to be on the roof.

Among my least favorite: the garages on 2nd and 4th Streets on either side of the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. They are classically flawed because you have to wait in a single file line to reach the spaces. The Westside Pavilion is also pretty awful because it's confusing and claustrophobic. Great if you have a Shriner's mini-car, bad if you don't.

If I had to pick one garage that I liked, it would be the one at the ArcLight movie theaters in Hollywood. Instead of having to drive to every floor, you drive up a big ramp and parking attendants usually use cones to block off the floors where there are no spaces. There's still some waiting involved -- I was behind a dude the other night who just decided to stop mid-ramp to gain his bearings (a sin worthy of jail time in my view) -- but it's better than most.

All this is a long way of saying I was struck by the recent news that the Westfield mall at Century City had ginned up a new advanced parking system. I actually visited a few weeks ago to check it out, and the folks I talked to in the parking lot seemed to like it.

In this case, the garage is a massive two-story affair with well over 2,000 spaces and a miniature street grid running through it. This being the Westside, the traffic on the streets carries over into the garage and it's not much fun when the mall is busy. Although there is mass transit available, I suspect the lady going to the Louis Vuitton store isn't arriving on the Rapid Bus.

Westfield's solution was to put a light bulb over every single space that shows whether it's occupied or not. The net effect for the motorist is if you're gazing down an aisle of cars and you see green, that means there are spaces. If it's all red, then keep moving. Blue indicates handicapped parking.

The mall also installed big lighted signs that motorists encounter soon after entering the garage. Those signs are intended to show which of the quadrants has open spaces. The idea was good, but as Zach Behrens over at LAist noted last month, there's just enough visual distraction there that motorists may very well run the stop sign while trying to decode the electronic toteboard (shown above).

The Westfield folks say they continue to receive grateful email from regular shoppers, so I'm curious what the wider public's views are. The lights, as far as I can tell, do seem to help, but I'm not sure they mitigate the fact that there are still 2,000-plus cars in the garage.

It's also worth pointing out that Westfield is proposing a massive expansion of the mall at Century City, so it's in their best interest to do anything that is PR friendly and appears to be a traffic-busting move. Westfield also knows how to play politics: In 2006, they gave $100,000 to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's effort to take over the LAUSD, and also spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to thwart Rick Caruso's effort to build a mall at Santa Anita racetrack, which happens to be located next to a giant mall that Westfield operates.

One final thing: While at the Century City mall, I went upstairs to its fancy food court and for the mere price of $17 had a small prime rib sandwich, potato chips and Diet Coke from the Lawry's booth. Tasty, but about twice the price it should be.

Your thoughts, anyone?

-- Steve Hymon

Comments

[Joe McGuckin]

Red/Green color blindness affects approx. 7% of the US
male population.

To spare future generations from being afflicted by this terrible condition, might I suggest we randomize the order
of the red, green and yellow lights of traffic signals?

[Melissa]

I handle PR for Westfield Century City. Neale, in response to your comment about the electricity the new parking system uses, it may surprise you to learn that the system is actually very energy efficient! The lights above each space are low voltage, LED lights, which reduces power consumption. In fact, the parking structure is the first initiative by the shopping center to achieve Leadership Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

One last comment... Westfield Century City's parking structure is different from Americana, The Grove, etc. because, in addition to showing a "scoreboard" of how many spaces are in each section, each space has a sensor that detects vehicles and transmits data in real time to lights that immediately show open parking spots on each row and at each specific parking space. Thus, you spend less time idling in your car because you can see where the green spaces are!

[Derek]

One of the best parking garages I've experienced is at the new Americana in Glendale. Displays tell you how many empty spaces are on each level so you can bypass the ones that won't have any spots, pre-pay kiosks on each level get the money-handling out of the way before you get in the car, and the automated exit gates make leaving a breeze.

Of course, I'd give it all up for a Metro Rail station in Glendale.

[KateNonymous]

Damon, the levels on this parking garage aren't set up that way. They do have what you're describing at the Beverly Center, and have for years.

JHW, it's not like the parked cars are now invisible. Some people may be missing this "shortcut," but the previous system of driving around would still work for people who can't distinguish the colors.

And I think the system is an incredible time-saver. So often you think you see an empty space, but in fact it's a smaller car hidden by the giant SUVs so many find it necessary to drive. The new lighting results in less frustration and really cuts down on the need to drive down every aisle.

[alex]

Incidently, if people continue to pay $17 for that sandwich, Lawrys will continue to sell them!

[JHW]

ADA issues? (Americans with Disabilities Act.) A significant percentage of Americans (especially males) have a minor red-green colorblindness that makes it difficult to distinguish between the two colors. (Ever take the test with the little book with circles of multi-colored dots forming numbers on each page?) The Century City Westfield garage parking space red-green lights are, indeed, difficult for this male driver to distinguish. (They're not like traffic signals -- with red on top and green on the bottom.)

[alex]

I like the system. The wasted electricity I'll bet is more than made up by the gas saved by not having to circle around. But the architect of the food court should lose his license. It's way too noisy and I assume it was his idea for the restaurants not to have menu signs.

[calwatch]

They have the parking lot system at the Grove too. It works well. The Westfield display looks too much like Christmas lights for some reason. It might work well for an office building parking garage, where most of the folks are regulars, but it will just confused the heck out of anyone using the lot occasionally.

[Spokker]

Less parking garages, more train stations.

I'm telling you, I will never, ever drive to Hollywood for any reason. It's Metrolink/Metro Red Line or nothing. I've experienced the horror that is the Hollywood & Highland parking garage and never again will I do that.

[Damon]

This looks like a terrible system. In Irvine, the parking garages at the spectrum conveniently tell you how many spaces are currently open on each floor, making it obvious which one you need to directly head to. The new parking garage at the Irvine Metrolink station has this too.

You know LA, it's OK for you to take ideas from us once in a while.

[David Murphy (Building LA's Future)]

As someone who lives nearby Westfield Century City, I think this is fantastic, and Westfield deserves a lot of credit for making this investment--hopefully a lot of others will follow their lead. Sure, they have an upcoming project, but this is a great move for everyone involved right now.

I first discovered garages like this at Maryland's BWI Airport (Baltimore-Washington International Airport). It's a big time saver.

I was in Westfield Century City's garage on Wednesday, and found a space in less than 30 seconds thanks to the lights.

[Chris]

It depends whether the lights are LED or regular bulbs. LED lights consume a negligible amount of electricity.

[penny]

Hate the food court -- it reminds me of "Blade Runner" -- but love those lights. Makes finding a spot exponentially easier.

But lots beat garages, hands down.

[Neale]

More wastage of precious electric power to light 2000 bulbs. At least keep the red lights off. And i am sure those lights stay on much after the mall is shut.

Such selfish thinking on the part of the mall owners. Anything to get shoppers in - even destroy the environment.