A barrier gate is the motorized arm that controls vehicle entry and exit at a parking lane, opening when a ticket, credential, payment or license plate read authorizes the vehicle and closing behind it.
- Also called
- Gate arm, boom gate, parking gate
- Triggered by
- Ticket, card, app, LPR or payment, with loops or sensors to close safely
- Key fact
- Where the gate sits sets the reservoir: too close to the street and the line lands on the sidewalk
Parts
- Cabinet and drive, mounted on the equipment island.
- Arm: straight, or articulated (folding) where the ceiling is too low for a straight arm to rise.
- Detection: inductive loops or presence sensors that arm the reader and keep the arm from closing on a vehicle.
- Controller that takes the open signal from the PARCS, credential system or plate read.
Placement
The gate defines where the entry line forms. Set it back far enough from the sidewalk to hold the peak queue as reservoir space, give the reader a straight, level approach, and check the arm’s swing against the vertical clearance and any signs or pipes above it.
Gated or gateless
Gateless operations replace the arm with plate reads and back-office enforcement. They speed the lane but shift the work to collections. Many facilities keep gates at entries and go gateless at exits, or the reverse, to suit their customers.
The Parkonomics view
Gate hardware is a commodity; gate placement is not. Decide where the arm sits during concept design, together with the queue, the approach and the island, because moving it later means moving everything around it.
Related terms: Equipment Island, Reservoir Space, Gateless Parking, PARCS, License Plate Recognition, Pay-in-Lane Machine
Further reading: Designed to Park, or Designed to Impress?