Versatile as they are in regards to their core use, ships can also serve as parking spaces, to which a growing number of ships is living proof.

But how to name such vessels? The easiest way would be to copy the existing pattern. We have ro-ros, ro-paxes, ro-flos, so "ro-parks" or "ro-pas" for short should do to comply with the needs for brevity and intelligibility.

We're depicting the trend with a bicycle barge, one of the many moored in Amsterdam (where else!), but truth be told, the largest ro-pa is located in Gothenburg. You can find it resting behind the windjammer Viking (a luxury hotel now). The two-decked P-arken can accommodate up to 403 cars.

Photo: Piotr Stanisławski