page_title: Parking
section_title: Parking facilities
hierarchical_section_title: Parking / Parking facilities
caption_attribution_description: English: A picture inside the East River Road Garage on the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus.
context_page_description: Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied. Parking on one or both sides of a road is often permitted, though sometimes with restrictions. Some buildings have parking facilities for use of the buildings' users. Countries and local governments have rules for design and use of parking spaces.
context_section_description: Facilities include indoor and outdoor private property belonging to a house, the side of the road where metered or laid out for such use, a parking lot (North American English) or car park (British English), indoor and outdoor multi-level structures, shared underground parking facilities and facilities for particular types of vehicle such as dedicated structures for cycle parking.
  In the U.S., after the first public parking garage for motor vehicles was opened in Boston, May 24, 1898, livery stables in urban centers began to be converted into garages. In cities of the Eastern US, many former livery stables, with lifts for carriages, continue to operate as garages today.
  The following terms give regional variations.  All except carport refer to outdoor multi-level parking facilities. In some regional dialects, some of these phrases refer also to indoor or single-level facilities.
  Parking ramp (used in some parts of the upper Midwestern United States, especially Minneapolis, but sometimes seen as far east as Buffalo, New York). Elsewhere, the term "ramp" would apply to the inclines between floors of a parking garage, but not to the entire structure itself.
  Multi-storey car park
  Car park (UK, Ireland, Hong Kong, South Africa; usually single-level)
  Parking structure (Western U.S.)
  Parking garage (Canada and USA, where this term does not always distinguish between outdoor above-ground multi-level parking and indoor underground parking.)
  Parking building (New Zealand)
  Carport (open-air single-level covered parking)
  Cycle park (UK, Hong Kong)
  Parkade (Canada, South Africa)
  In addition to basic car parking/parking lots variations of serviced parking types exist. Common serviced parking types are:
  Park and ride
  Valet parking
  Airport Parking
  Meet and Greet Parking
  Park and Fly Parking
  Peer-to-peer shared parking
  Parking spaces may be variously arranged.
  Parking lots specifically for bicycles are becoming more prevalent in many countries. These may include bicycle parking racks and locks, as well as more modern technologies for security and convenience. For instance, one bicycle parking lot in Tokyo has an automated parking system.
caption: An underground parking garage at the University of Minnesota
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