The UK’s first end-to-end online car maintenance service Fixter.co.uk has released a study revealing the cost of parking around the world, including estimates of how much revenue city councils have lost due to reduced traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fixter began the study earlier this year to investigate the differences in costs that drivers in the UK and around the world incur when parking in major city centres. As the COVID-19 crisis unfolded, however, it became clear that practices like remote working and social distancing would mean far fewer cars on the road. While a marked reduction in pollution has been a huge boon for the environment, many city councils face a great loss of income from the reduction in parking revenue, so the company decided to also investigate these figures. The results show that major hubs like London for example who rely on this revenue to fund public services stand to lose an estimated £449 million due to the pandemic.
As restrictions ease and movements increase, cities and drivers everywhere now have an opportunity to reassess how things have been done in the past. With many countries already having considered car bans in major city centres before the pandemic, and alternative means of transport like cycling becoming increasingly popular, city councils around the world will need to re-think their parking cost strategies. While these developments are a positive trend for city commuters, it is reasonable to believe that parking costs will remain high for the foreseeable future. With this in mind, Fixter has released the 2020 Parking Price Index which reveals the differences in the cost of parking in cities around the world.
How the study was conducted
To begin the study, major parking locations that charge the highest parking prices were identified, as well as those which are common to drive to. These included airports, shopping districts (both car parks and street parking), as well as sporting stadiums.
Next, the parking cost at each location’s city hall was collected, as they are generally located in the centre of town where parking costs can be at a premium. Recording the average price per hour to park in each of these spots for 65 locations, it was then possible to calculate which cities pay the most and least for parking, as well as how high or low the price is compared to the global median. The final index is ranked by the average deviation of the price to park in all of these locations across a city, from highest to lowest.
