Ernest Davies Award highly commended The future of parking Douglas Blackwell, of CrowdHouse Energy, was highly commended in the Ernest Davies Award 2022 with his article looking at parking past and future H aving been invited to take part in this oral, written, or other media celebration in honour of the memory of Ernest Davies, a founder member of the BPA, who could turn down the chance to draw comparisons of then and now, when Ernest and others were shaping the Association into a leading advocacy for both car park owners and the newly evolving driving public? I was surprised to learn the origin of the car park is, in fact, very British. This short but interesting history, compiled by one of our members, is definitely worth a read.* So, thanks to them, this gave me the muse and topic for this piece, The future of parking. Back at the turn of the last century, City and Suburban Electric Carriage Company opened the first multi-storey car park in the UK (and probably the world) in May 1901, at 6 Denman Street, London. The garage had seven floors, 19,000 square feet, space for 100 vehicles, and an electric elevator to move the vehicles between floors. In 1902, City and Suburban opened its second garage, a converted building in Westminster that could hold 230 vehicles and that was known as Niagara. At both, electric vehicles were housed, serviced, cleaned, insured, and delivered to owners on request. Now, we know how the intervening years to this present day have turned out, and, to me, it looks as if our journey is coming full circle. In only seven or so years time, virtually all cars in our parking facilities will be as they were in Denman Street and Niagara car parks, way back in the 1900s: electric. I am not sure how many if any of the original parking operators have actually survived the full circle, which includes two world wars and many global financial skirmishes, topped off by none other than a pandemic banning travel and congregation in good measure. I am sure this was all sent to test the full mettle of BPA members, hopefully for the final time! There is an opportunity, as the world moves to an entirely zero-carbon travel future. It is a complicated journey for many different sectors in transport: aviation, shipping and heavy goods. It seems as if we in community and public transport sectors have been dealt a stronger hand. Lets try to view this in the way Ernest and his fellow team members may have done in the late 1960s, with open eyes for the opportunities being presented to them. Every journey completed needs somewhere to park, safely and securely. Owners can collect their cars by paying a small fee for the privilege and, of course, most importantly, have peace of mind for having done so. Looking ahead As electro mobility gains pace, we as the parking custodians and beneficiaries of the great work Ernest and his team set out have a new opportunity to be at the centre of the change, which is quite phenomenal. A common link to all of this is electric vehicles need power to journey and power to return. Surface parking lots and multi-storey rooftops provide the very best form of powering 34 PN Mar 2023 pp34-35 Ernest Davies Runner up.indd 34 22/02/2023 12:08