Factoids about Parking Pain and Parking TIcket’s Around the World

Last Updated on October 23, 2017 by Lawrence Berezin

And the IBM parking pain survey says…

IBM conducted a global parking pain survey among 8042 commuters in 20 cities on 6 continents in September 2011 concluding the global driving community faces a daily struggle in finding parking spaces. Wow, who’d a thunked it?

The survey revealed and validated some fascinating information (in addition to the parking space epiphany):

“Interestingly, IBM’s global parking survey showed that drivers in both developed and emerging economies face many of the same parking frustrations, regardless of where they live or their ranking in the recently released Commuter Pain Index. Drivers in Nairobi averaged 31.7 minutes in their longest search for a parking spot, and commuters in Bangalore, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Mexico City, Paris, and Shenzhen all reported means significantly above the worldwide average. Seventeen percent of drivers in Milan and Beijing and 16 percent of drivers in Madrid and Shenzhen spent 31 to 40 minutes looking for parking.”

Some parking pain factoids that will rock you

• Globally, one in four (27 percent) respondents self-reported being involved in an argument with a fellow driver over a parking space within the last year. Drivers in New Delhi (58 percent), Bangalore (44 percent), Nairobi (43 percent) and Milan (37 percent) were the most vocal with each other over a specific parking spot. The survey indicates that the most mild-mannered drivers, at least when it comes to avoiding arguments about parking, are in Chicago (89 percent), Los Angeles and Stockholm (87 percent), Montreal (85 percent) and Singapore (83 percent).
• Nine in ten respondents in Madrid and Johannesburg reported that they had not received a ticket for parking illegally within the last year, significantly above the global average. Chicago, Los Angeles, and Nairobi closely followed.
• Even though the most drivers in Bangalore (70 percent), Moscow (69 percent) and Paris (62 percent) said they had not received a ticket in the last year, they still managed to, on average, rack up the illegal parking tickets — 9 (Bangalore), 8.5 (Moscow) and 7 (Paris).
• Globally, drivers have spent an average of nearly 20 minutes in pursuit of a coveted spot. African drivers averaged both the shortest and longest times searching for parking in the last year when compared to the other 18 cities — Johannesburg averaged 12.7 minutes and Nairobi averaged 31.7 minutes.
• Thirteen percent of drivers in Nairobi reported driving around for more than one hour for a parking spot within the last year. On the other end of the spectrum, citizens in Chicago (28 percent), Montreal (24 percent) and Stockholm (24 percent) fared better, finding a spot in less than five minutes.

What is the parking index?

The IBM Parking Index is composed of the following key issues: 1) longest amount of time looking for a parking place; 2) inability to find a parking place; 3) disagreement over parking spots; 4) received a parking ticket for illegal parking and 5) number of parking tickets received. The cities scored as follows: New Delhi: 140; Bangalore 138; Beijing 124; Moscow 122; Shenzhen 122; Paris 122; Milan 117; Nairobi 111; Madrid: 104; Singapore 97; Mexico City: 97; Stockholm: 90; Johannesburg: 87; London: 86; New York City: 85; Montreal: 85; Buenos Aires: 80; Toronto: 77; Los Angeles: 61; and Chicago: 51.

Commentary

I am very skeptical of Chicago’s rating of 51. This is the midwestern windy city that issued 2.5M parking tickets in 2011 where its citizen ratchet up rants against the reviled parking ticket.

I found it amazing that in fact, over half of all drivers in 16 of the 20 cities surveyed reported that they have been frustrated enough that they gave up looking for a parking space and simply drove somewhere else. For example, nearly three out of four commuters surveyed in Shenzhen (80 percent), Beijing (74 percent), Nairobi (76 percent), Singapore and Mexico City (73 percent), and Madrid (69 percent) reported not reaching their intended destination because they gave up looking for parking. Conversely, respondents in Chicago (63 percent), Stockholm (62 percent), Montreal (58 percent) and Toronto (57 percent) rarely experience this frustration.

There’s Chicago again. I’ve driven in Chicago. Are out-of-staters only permitted on the chaotic city roadways?

NYC is exploring ways to relieve congestion with its Park Smart pilot program.

NY Times article about the IBM parking pain survey.