An Evaluation of Parking Facilities on Selected Shopping Complexes in Minna, Nigeria to Achieve Sustainability

Abstract

Shopping complex is a collection of spaces that offer different types of services to the public including selling and buying of daily needs. A shopping complex is expected to possess adequate parking facilities in order to ease the movement of its occupants and increase the productivity of the staff, thereby ensuring conducive shopping activities. On the other hand, the parking structures comprise one of the largest land uses in modern cities which make them functionally inefficient. Conventional parking method is one of the most difficult barriers to achieve sustainability. So, a great attention is being paid upon the creation of smaller, high-density, low-energy and more eco-friendly parking facilities. Due to the incessant growth of shopping complexes in and around Minna metropolis, there seems to be not only inadequate parking facilities around such shopping complexes. But, the facilities also follow unsustainable development approaches which results in inefficient usage and wastage of the energy. These inadequate parking facilities make users to park their vehicles indiscriminately which in turn causes discomfort and accidents while moving in and around the perimeter of the complexes. Moreover, other pressing issues include the lack of greenery and the use of non-permeable paving which resulted in unsustainable solutions in the creation of an environmental-friendly area. In this background, the current research article evaluates the parking facilities within the complexes from a sustainability point of perspective. The aim of the research is to develop practical solutions for better applications. For this purpose, the data was collected through personal observations in order to analyze the parking facilities in the shopping complexes located in the study area. The results infer that there is a lack of law enforcement by the professionals in the built environment in terms of implementing the planning standards and building laws for sustainable development. Conclusions and recommendations are made in this paper for the architect and other allied professionals to design the shopping complexes with an emphasis on parking spaces. Both design and planning of the parking spaces should be given adequate consideration by the approval body in Minna prior to the approval of any shopping complex.