Image courtesy Calumet 412
If only someone had brought this idea up while Chicago’s much-maligned parking debacle was being hammered out. The video shows the “first vertical automated parking machine” operating in the Loop, a bizarre cross between Truckasaurus and a ferris wheel. The structure took up six parking spots but held 48 cars and took only 55 seconds to fetch the most remote car.
The insurance liability was probably a nightmare and it looks prone to mechanical failures, but it’s a nice reflection of the 1930s aesthetic on urban planning. The future sure was going to be amazing.
