The world’s biggest car park has been confirmed by Guinness World Records – and it was built largely so a relatively unknown city could make a name for itself.
The Edmonton car park was built in 1981 alongside a new out-of-town shopping centre, complete with a raft of other impressive features, in an attempt to get people to know about the Canadian city.
Located in the province of Alberta, Edmonton had a population of 500,000 at the time of construction, yet still built a 30,000-space car park for the attraction – accounting for over 25 percent of the population, assuming four people to a car.
West Edmonton Mall was also once the world’s largest shopping centre too – although has since been trumped by others like Dubai Mall and a huge precinct in China which has been nicknamed the world’s largest ghost mall, since it has barely had any customers.
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The Canadian version transcended the ‘shopping centre’ tag and developed into a major tourist destination with what was at the time the world’s largest amusement park and roller coaster, as well as now a massive waterpark too.
It remains North America’s largest shopping mall and is open from 10am to 9pm most days, also boasting lots of mini golf and escape rooms.
It will come as no surprise that other huge car parks are located in the car-centric universe of North America.
Widely agreed to be the second largest car park in the world is Seattle Airport’s 13,000-strong site, while Universal Studios in Florida comes in at fourth with 11,000.
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While 10,000 cars can fit into Disney World’s car park which is seven million square feet big – the equivalent of 140 American Football fields.
The USA and Canada’s love of cars has come at a heavy cost. Of all the US’s Carbon Dioxide emissions from transportation in the last seven decades, the vast majority has come from cars, reports the New York Times.
Unlike Europe, most North American cities still rely heavily on using cars to get people around, rather than the far more efficient method of public transport, or better still, cycling and walking.
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