Smelly car parks are set for a fragrant makeover to entice back motorists who’ve had enough of holding their nose.
NCP, which operates 200,000 spaces across 700 UK locations, thinks that nasty pongs associated with car parks, could be driving away a third of potential customers (The Telegraph).
Two-thirds of the 2,000 people polled by the company said the stairwells were the worst-smelling part of a car park, with one in three linking them with the smell of urine (if you’ve ever been to the Metro Centre the stair wells there are completely gross).
To counteract this, NCP is to pump in more pleasant fragrances at its major car parks in Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds and London.
And apparently the top smell that motorists would like to come across in the confines of a stairwell is flowers, with the smells of mint, cut grass and freshly baked bread also highly rated.
Ethno-botanist and gardener James Wong told the BBC that because contact with urine and vomit can make us ill, the body tells us to steer clear – via our sense of smell.
“And in the same way, fresh flowers and baked bread contain good bacteria that are good for our bodies, so our smell sensors enjoy them and tell us they’re good for us,” he said.
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