Drivers waste billions searching for parking

Drivers in the UK, US and Germany spend billions searching and paying for parking spaces and paying for more time than they need to avoid a penalty charge, according to a new study by Inrix.
July 13, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

Drivers in the UK, US and Germany spend billions searching and paying for parking spaces and paying for more time than they need to avoid a penalty charge, according to a new study by 163 Inrix.

The study was based on data from the Inrix Parking database of and survey responses from nearly 18,000 drivers in the US, UK and Germany.

The study found that UK drivers spend an average of 44 hours a year searching for parking, at a cost of £733 (US$948) each in wasted time, fuel and emissions. They overpay for parking to the tune of an estimated £6.7 billion (US$8.6 billion) a year or £209 (US$270) per driver; UK drivers also pay £1.2 billion (US$1.5 billion) annually in parking fines.

Americans spend an average of 17 hours per year searching for parking, resulting in a cost of US$345 per driver in wasted time, fuel and emissions, says the survey. Over-paying for parking costs American drivers more than US$20 billion a year, or US$97 per driver.

In Germany, motorists pay 98 Euros (US$112) more than needed for their parking, to avoid an average 8 Euros m (US$9) in parking fines. Germans waste an average 896 Euros (US$1,000) a year hunting for places, the study found.

Dr Graham Cookson, chief economist, Inrix, says, “To lessen the significant burden parking pain has on our economy and lives, smart parking solutions are available for drivers, parking operators and cities to help reduce search times, congestion and pollution as well as negate overpaying and fines altogether. Still, more needs to be done to drive adoption. Parking pain will only get worse until technology is fully embraced.”

Parking & Access Control

Related Content

  • February 3, 2012
    America back on the road to gridlock
    The 4th Annual Inrix National Traffic Scorecard reveals gridlock and longer commute times returning to America’s roads.
    Read More
  • April 29, 2015
    Foundation funds research for informed campaigning
    ITS International talks to Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the transport research and lobbying organisation, the RAC Foundation. It is through the eyes of an economist that Professor Stephen Glaister, emeritus professor of transport and infrastructure at Imperial College London and director of the RAC Foundation, views current and future transport problems. Having spent 30 years at the London School of Economics and another 10 at Imperial, the move to the RAC Foundation was a radical departure from
    Read More
  • January 31, 2012
    Australian road pricing, road funding needs more debate
    Everyone in the road transport industry in Australia is talking road pricing - everyone, that is, except the politicians. Christine Keyes reports. At the end of 2008, Australia's road transport industry was wringing its collective hands, unable to raise more than $100 million from an individual bank for any Public Private Partnership (PPP). The A$750 million Peninsula Link project, announced by the Victoria Government in March 2009, was the first road project in the country to be put out to market as an ava
    Read More
  • July 27, 2015
    High-mileage drivers more dismissive value of speed cameras, says survey
    High-mileage drivers are more likely than any other type of road user to think speed cameras have ‘little or no influence’ in reducing the numbers of road casualties in the UK, according to a white paper issued by the Institute of Advanced Motorists’ (IAM) Drive and Survive division. The paper, Speed Cameras – The Views of High Mileage Drivers, also found 28 per cent of high-mileage drivers have a negative view of speed cameras – 10 per cent more than other drivers. It also found that more than half o
    Read More

Highlighted Content