Ever wonder how much time you spend looking for a place to park? INRIX, a traffic data aggregator, has undertaken a large study of drivers’ parking behavior, besides monitoring available parking spots in 8,700 cities worldwide. They found that motorists in the United States spend an average of 17 hours a year looking for a place to park their car -- on the street, in a parking lot, or in a parking garage. According to their calculations, that is equivalent to an annual $345 USD per driver in wasted time, fuel, and the effects of accumulated emissions. The hardest place to park is undoubtedly New York City, where drivers spend an average of 107 hours a year searching for a space, far higher than the national average.
I'll just take another spin around the block:
- In addition to adding to overall congestion, drivers who are unable to find an inexpensive parking space often end up overpaying at high-priced garages, at a total cost of $20 billion USD a year in the United States.
- Bosch is currently testing technology that uses ultrasonic sensors to scan curbs for free parking spaces and then transmit that information to digital street maps for drivers to use.
- The future of parking? A luxury condo at Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia uses robotics to park cars in an automated underground garage. A key card swipe brings the car right to you.