Drivers waste billions on
parking searches, overpayments: study
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[July 12, 2017]
By Joseph White
DETROIT (Reuters) - Motorists in the United
States, Germany and the United Kingdom spend billions each year in time
and fuel searching for parking spots then pay for more time than they
need to avoid tickets that would likely cost less, concludes a study
released on Wednesday by traffic data aggregator INRIX.
As cities become more congested, the direct and indirect costs of
parking are a headache for motorists and policy makers, who often have
conflicting goals.
Drivers want cheap, plentiful parking while governments in many large
cities want to discourage vehicle traffic, reduce congestion and cut the
air pollution generated as cars hunt for on- or off-street parking.
Automakers and technology companies, meanwhile, hope to profit from
guiding motorists more smoothly into parking spaces using smartphone
apps or technology that automates parking maneuvers.
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Closely held INRIX of Kirkland, Washington provides traffic data to
parking services and automakers and owns the parking reservation app
ParkMe.
The study of parking costs was based on information from the company's
parking database and survey responses from 18,000 drivers in 30 cities
in Britain, Germany and the United States, the company said.
The study concluded that in the United States, the average driver
overpays for parking by $97 a year by buying more time than needed while
average parking ticket costs are $12 a year.
INRIX estimates that searching for a parking space in major U.S. cities
costs motorists an average of $345 a year in lost time and wasted fuel.
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![](../images/071217pics/busine58.jpg)
Traffic fills Exeter Street in the Back Bay in Boston,
Massachusetts, United States June 13, 2015. Outdoor scenes in Boston
show local residents enjoying balmy weather amid lush greenery as
the summer solstice approaches on 21 June. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
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In the UK, motorists pay for excess parking time by an average of 209 pounds
($269), although average parking ticket costs are 39 pounds a year, the study
found. The search for parking consumes time and fuel valued at 733 pounds.
In Germany, INRIX estimates motorists pay 98 euros ($112) more than needed for
their parking, to avoid an average 8 euros in parking fines. Germans waste an
average 896 euros a year hunting for places, the study found.
INRIX found that fewer than 10 percent of respondents in the three countries
used one of many smartphone apps designed to help motorists find, reserve and
pay for a space in advance of using it.
Asked what they would pay for "smart parking" technology, INRIX said 43 percent
of respondents said nothing.
(Reporting by Joe White; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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