In Germany, it's common for businesses to share private parking in malls. If you stay there for a designated time and buy at their store, upon check-out, you can give the cashier your parking ticket so they annul the fee on it. So the idea is that only customers enjoy free parking.
@@MrCmon113it's an inconvenience when a large amount of space that lots of people would want to use is being taken up by a stationary object for several hours.
Supply and demand. There is more demand for extremely limited city-center parking than there is for the seemingly endless supply of convenience store clerks. (I don't mean to demean convenience store clerks, but to highlight the disparity.)
When I lived in the Boston suburbs and worked in the Financial District, I never drove in. 3 days of parking would be more expensive than my monthly transit pass ... not to mention the stress of driving in rush hour with BOSTON DRIVERS! And parking in downtown Boston was comparatively cheap ... $30 a work day.
I'm curious what is it about Boston drivers that give them so much notoriety (or should I say motoriety)? When I went to BU I didn't have a car, and every time I revisit Boston I take the T or walk, just like back then. I do recall some seemingly fast drivers along Comm. Ave, but those were probably mostly impatient, risk-taking students. So are bad drivers citywide the result of too many students and clueless tourists, or a rush-rush work culture, an ingrained defensive driving mentality, or too many one-way roads? I imagine it's a combination of those.
@@DashingPartyCrasher Boston is a difficult city to drive in, as the layout was set before there were cars. Streets are narrow, crowded, and navigation is difficult. As a result, many drivers make sudden turns, speed up randomly, almost overshoot their turn. and so on. Plus, there's an attitude that using turn signals is giving information to the enemy. I would call it an ingrained *offensive* driving mentality. I lived in the Boston suburbs for 15 years. Non-rush hour suburban driving was fine, but I refused to drive in Boston or Cambridge. And I had no need to ... the transit system is far from perfect, but I was able to get everywhere I needed to go.
Depends on where you live specifically and whether or not you're going in by yourself. Pre-pandemic, I have always preferred to drive in. Plenty of places nearby with monthly parking around $350-$400, pretty sweet deal if you ask me. Parking at MBTA station is $9 and ticket is about $2.25(assuming you're on monthly T pass). The extra to get away from all the people on the T, and potential MBTA hiccup, i would say money well spent. The monthly parking allows you to visit on the weekend conveniently, so there is additional saving from weekend activities.
I live in New York City but I’m still stunned by those NYC numbers. Parking garages have always been exorbitant here, but I didn’t know it had gotten that high for just two hours. Incredible.
It makes sense though. In Amsterdam 1m² costs €8000 and depending on use another €240 per m² (on average) per year in taxes. A standard parking space in Europe is 5x2.3m or about 11.5m². So that means €92,000 in upfront cost for the parking space + €2,760 per year in taxes. Assuming 10 years of operating that space costs the owner €32 a day to just own on its own. Take a 60% occupancy rate and they would have to charge at least €55 a day to break even. But it isn't just that, it needs parking meters or an actual garage and that easily goes into multiple times that a day + depreciation and maintenance. Anything on top of that is just pure profit. And supply and demand means a private owner will raise prices until it impacts their profits. I am sure NYC has higher ground prices and taxes so $20 an hour starts looking pretty reasonable. Car parking is just one more subsidy to cars that is in no way covered by road taxes that car owners forget about.
That's because parking here is a complete monopoly, supported by politicians. Politicians want parking to be expensive to get back at cat owners and don't care that it just gucks over the middle class for the benefit of a few rich guys
Interesting to see the different strategies. My city currently plans to do a massive change in that too: Currently the just 600 onstreet parking spots are cheaper than any parking garage and always filled to the brim. On the other end, the parking garages combine for well over 3000 spots and have much more than those 600 spots free at any given time, even the saturdays before christmas. So the city now wants to curb down on onstreet parking: making it more expensive than a parking garage, turn several spots into residential and loading only and completely remove problematic parking spots. On street parking will basically only stay, if it's already on the route to a parking garage and doesn't hinder the flow of traffic (meaning primarily bike traffic, which already makes the vast majority within the city center).
In my city in NZ, on street parking is free for 2 hours (to attract shoppers), but then after 2 hours is $8/hour (to prevent employees using them all, all day). Moving your car every 2 hours isn't a work around, the parked cars are tracked by council workers driving cars around tracking license plates.
We have a few of those free 2hr sections in WLG, but within the city centre is just standard parking fees when you arrive. Even so, it's real easy to just park on the 2hr parking on the sides and go about your day - no one ever checks haha. Haven't paid for parking in 8 years.
IMO, the most expensive parking space isn't determined by the price someone pays to park there. It's determined by the opportunity cost of what that ~150 square feet could generate if it was used for something productive, like an outdoor dining shed.
Even if it’s not turned into an active revenue space, there’s still a larger expense for that space to the consumers, businesses & city than is ever recovered by taxes, fees or fines. Turning it into a protected bike lane wouldn’t create a revenue source but it would increase the number of people who would spend more at the shops along these stretches than the cars & people in them do, as well as being more pleasant for pedestrians, regardless how they arrive to the area.
though its difficult to make use of the land how its spread now instead of what it could be used if the city were designed without it in the first place this is actually how nyc has $340billion worth of FREE on street parking not even including the metered or garage parking
If it didn’t generate that demand and that price to compete with other services, then that space would theoretically be better off being bought by something else that’d make higher returns.
@@ac1455 it’s okay to have space between the front of buildings that aren’t owned by the adjacent property owners so everyone can access the buildings. Otherwise it’d be an open mall. Just because the new use doesn’t make revenue either doesn’t mean it’s a bad use of common space.
I said "up to 30 usd an hour". not from. there are also free parking lots for hybrids and electrics, but the discussion was about the most expensive places. I invite you to the parking lot near Sanador Buzești, famous for its high prices. and as you can see, in this comments section, there are a lot of people that add to the story, with places in their country that are more expensive. add, not make fun of. disappointing. bye. @@alexandrunechifor
In The Hague, Netherlands, there is actually a flat 50 euro rate to park your car in certain places. That means that even if you park for 10 minutes, you still pay 50 euros. This would make it much more expensive than any cities discussed here!
I agree. This video was very educational to me. It's obvious in hindsight, but I never thought of paid parking as a congestion tax/price. Even if the city broken even to cover the cost of collecting the money and paying workers, it would still make sense to use paid parking. To be honest, now that I can see street paid parking as a congestion tax to decongest, I don't feel so bad about it.
@@eugenetswong It is not just congestion. Los Angeles county has over 200 square miles of parking, more than four San Franciscos in area. Think of how much of that land can be used more productivity.
@@barryrobbins7694Yeah. By the way, I hope that I don't come across as wanting more lanes made so that we could have more parking. I'm talking about just using it more efficiently.
@@eugenetswong I understand your point. There will be a need for parking in the foreseeable future, but the trend is towards less parking. There is just a big need for transportation alternatives to cars. Yes, it is sometimes hard for people to understand each other in the internet.
@@jondhoe7023 Los Angeles County has over 200 square miles of parking (more than four times the area of all of San Francisco). Imagine how many businesses could fit in an area half that size. Businesses need customers. Cars don’t buy anything. Better public transit and walkable cities are what is needed. Some of the most desirable neighborhoods in a city are typically walkable.
City Nerd spends a ton of time on how off-street parking and parking minimums have gutted cities. We have not so much built our cities around cars as having bulldozed our cities to provide parking. It’s a vicious cycle of cheap parking inducing car travel, sprawling our cities and making cycling and transit impractical and dangerous.
Having some parking space at semi affordable prices can be a huge advantage for a city. The lack and expense of parking has often dissuaded me, my friends and my family from going to the city. I really mostly go to get wasted. And if I wasn't young and fit I wouldn't take trains and busses at all. Those are horrible if you're old or otherwise disabled.
The issue with reducing parking is that you can't do that without improvements in public transportation without making it a worst of both worlds situation where parking is scarce and public transportation is inadequate. We already see that in much of NYC and SF where it seems like there simply isn't a good way to get around. For example, in Flushing, Queens there is no subway service except from the west meaning that anyone coming from any other direction has to travel by bus (or the LIRR, but that is primarily designed for commuting) or drive. The issue is that their is scarce parking and the buses are slow and unreliable, especially outside of peak hours.
There’s definitely a difference between charging for on-street parking based on supply and demand versus removing on-street parking. Over time, reducing parking demand & allowing those spaces to be reallocated to active uses (bicyclists, pedestrians, delivery & pickup/drop off) should be an objective. By having a transition plan, many of the growing pains can be minimized. During that time, we should also consider how we offer goods & services to our neighborhoods. No easy answers but our current systems are broken for all but the behemoth corporations.
@@ttopero: I feel like charging based on supply and demand and removing on street parking both have serious issues that punish poor people unless they improve public transportation as well.
Poor people often live in spaces most impacted by traffic noise and pollution. They also often don't own a car as they are expensive. While I'm all for alternatives to cars and believe we should fight poverty harder, I doubt there is much harm to social justice by these measures.
@@Jacksparrow4986: Many of them do have cars and would have to chose between taking that car and struggling to find parking or taking a bus and have it take 4x as long. I would know because that used to be me.
That's not technically true even if you assume that everyone will drive. There are strategies that individuals can employ to reduce their parking usage. People can carpool with friends as opposed to having each individual bringing their own car. People can also be encouraged to finish their business more quickly, reducing the amount of time that they consume a parking spot. And except in the most sprawling suburbs, walking is an option for at least some fraction of visitors.
Toronto is facing a massive budget shortfall, so city council decided to remove the cap on on-street parking prices, allowing the board of city agency Green P (the Toronto Parking Authority) to charge whatever they want. Hopefully with our progressive mayor and more progressive council, we will see these prices climb well above the $4-5 CAD/hr we have
In my city there are nine parking garages and six of them are owend by private company that cooprates with the city to provide parking. We also have a system that is designed to help drivers find available parking spaces by providing real-time information about the occupancy of parking facilities.
Interesting to see Drammen mentioned on a list next to London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Moscow. That city is ... how to put it ... the Norwegian equivalent to something like Southampton, just smaller and without the charm. It's two half-cities separated by a river, each half leaving the job of making a decent cityscape to the other. It's somehow entirely on brand for it to be world-class in one single respect, expensive street parking.
It's mind blowing that so many people not only deal with terrible traffic but also exorbitant costs to drive in the city with the best transit in the US.
Got to love the reference to 'crusing' for a parking spaces. In the 80's and 90's in Chicago, this was a sport to find free parking, especially near Wrigley Field or downtown around Lower Wacker Drive.
My city's private road-side parking company hired land surveyors to make maps of various streets, detailing entries and all traffic signs in order to optimise parking spaces. With new scanning technologies, it's becoming very cheap and fast to map out kilometers of streets.
We did a road trip that ended in NYC where we stayed for 4 nights 3 blocks away from the lower entrances to central park, and 1 block from the Hudson. We only had the car in the city for 4 hours until I returned it to the rental company... But I couldn't believe that street parking was totally free on the road outside our accommodation. I was expecting it to be a minimum of $10 per hour, in a place where a midsized apartment costs $4million. Build on the street parking and maybe the land cost goes down a little bit.
Crazy prices. In city center of Munich Germany, I pay 2$ per hour or 11$ for the whole day on street and 3-5$ per hour in a parking garage. Paying prices like 55$ per hour in NYC sounds insane. How expensive are the fines for on street parking without a ticket? In Munich I have to pay 20$ for parking without a ticket on street. Since I the chances of getting caught are not that high, I often don't buy a ticket and on average it is cheaper to park without a ticket than buying one everytime.
Fascinating. I have been pondering this dilemma. And in Dubai of all places where I was interviewed for work I had an Eureka moment. I had an interview in Arenco tower google it. Now whoever designed the tower was a genius when it comes to parking. Ground floor is for businesses, next 10 or how many (I forgot it was years) was for parking and then there were office spaces. Ample parking for everyone! Why not have new buildings apply the same design? Imagine a residential house. Below is a noisy street with pedestrians, pubs, shops, restaurants, bars. As you can probably imagine a pretty big problem if you want to sleep at night. But if between you and the street is 10 floors of parking? And if the parking of course has the right paneling so sound doesnt bounce. Even if you live on the lowest available floor it is quiet. And as an added bonus the heat evaporating from the ground during hot summer months is way down. It is a win win win for all. Drivers are happy because they get to park, people are happy because they have their shops and businesses, residents are happy because their view is better and they have a much better time living. I am not saying demolish cities. I am saying new tall buildings should be build by this design method.
On my way to NYC from New England , I often left my car in the Golden Coast. Every commuter rail train station from New Haven , before crossing NY State Line , has an open adjoining parking lot. I paid the per diem rate @ $5.00 into an envelope , dropped at the unattended Guard Check through the slot , and took my train to the city. Peace of mind.
In Chicago, parking cost isn’t the real issue🤏 The insane fine for snow level, street cleaning, police activities are more problematic as the warning signs sometime pop up suddenly 🤷♀️
Apparently in Santa Monica, California, they have cameras at each on-street parking meters, and when there's time still in the meters and the car is gone, it resets back to 0, so other people can't use left over time. While Santa Monica I making high profits.
Wow! All this sounds so dystopian to someone who doesn’t drive. 😅 I don’t really want to know how much parking demand changes if I want to get downtown and drink coffee. I don’t even want to drive there
I live in NYC and Los Angeles. I have a huge house in the hills of Los Angeles and a great condo in NYC. I HATE having to drive in LA. It sucks so bad. I’m so much happier without a car in NYC. I can walk to everything I need in 10 min. It’s the best
I would like to see cities shift from parking minimums, to parking maximums (in terms of parking spaces, not fees). So much valuable land is used for a single person to park their metal box on for several hours at a time.
My city just increased parking prices by more than 10x in the centre overnight. From around 30 usd a year to around 45 usd a month. It has been a month, and the amount of cars hasn't decreased... I hope it was just a gradual step and not actually the solution
In Sweden you commonly pay with an app on your phone. That makes it possible for shops to have parking lots where you can leave the car for a limited time but starts paying after that runs out. That prioritises the customers as people who would use the place as any public parking most times looks for other, cheaper parking lots. A quick rotation of cars reduces the necessity of huge parking areas.
@@MrLegendra Don't forget increase cost in goods and services due to businesses having to cover the cost of providing the parking. Also, huge increase costs in housing and rents due to parking minimums making productive development patterns non-viable and implicitly favoring SFH.
Consider hotel rooms, its quite reasonable to assume that NYC hotel rooms will be more expensive than those in Phoenix all else being equal. You pay a premium for location. Parking is the same, its storage which is a consumable resource.
FEEDBACK I did appreciate the animation, actually. Thank you for the effort that you put into this. Thank you also for showing that parking costs can be used as a congestion tax. I never thought of it that way. It is a much more efficient way of taxing people to decongest, and it helps the right people.
it seems intuitive that parking meters would be hard coded to lower their price for every 5 minutes it's not being used for example and after it is used, the price is reset to some base amount
It seems to me like it would make the most sense to charge more for on-street parking. Pay extra for the convenience. And I think generally, parking should be far reduced in number to use that space for better things.
I did a road trip with my dad last year in the US. We are not American or familiar with driving in the US. Anyway, he insisted driving / staying in Downtowns (ironically walkability), instead of getting a suburban hotel by local transit and commuting in. It was a nightmare, not only was it expensive but it was also confusing as some of the places required booking and the entry ways into the parking garages were often very tight to get into. We ended up driving around Philadelphia on same one way road loop for like 45 mins just trying to get into the entrance 😭 Never again. (I would’ve preferred trains but Murica u know)
Here's a proposal of how to eliminate all parking in city centers: Eliminate private cars and REPLACE THEM WITH PLASTIC, ELECTRIC, SELF-DRIVING POD-TAXIS. Need to go somewhere? Summon a pod. Visiting the city? Park on the perimeter and summon a pod. The conversion of parking lots and parking structures to housing/retail/offices will pay for a whole fleet of pod-taxis, as well as the pod-barn to house them. The pods will re-charge at the pod-barn, eliminating the need to put charging stations all over the city. The streetscape will be dramatically transformed, and absolutely for the better. Each (one-way) street will have two narrow "lanes", one for through-traffic and one for picking up and dropping off passengers. Street parking will be eliminated, thereby allowing the sidewalks to widen, thereby creating a thriving street-culture. Eliminating parking structures/lots will also densify the city, adding to the thriving street-culture. Note well that the flow of pod-taxis will also keep the street lively, unlike car-free streets. The two narrow-lane set-up will also accommodate emergency vehicles (which will drive down the street by means of the combination of the two "lanes", with the pods withdrawing onto the sidewalks); trucks will likewise be able to do deliveries at night. The pod-fleet/taxis are far, far less expensive that tram/subway lines, requiring almost no new infrastructure. The pods would also have the advantage of taking passengers EXACTLY where they want to go. Then, the pod will be available to a new, nearby passenger. Very efficient, very nimble, very convenient for the consumer. Obnoxious busses (plodding dinosaurs) would be obsolete The city center will also be much safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. There's the elimination of erratic, impulsive (and drunk) human drivers. The pods, in contrast, will be far more predictable; furthermore, the pods will be in communication with each other, deftly avoiding hazards and obstacles. Also, IF a pedestrian does make a mistake, resulting in an accident, the risk of injury/death is far less because the pods are ultra-small, the body made of plastic; ergo, they are not heavy The technology already exists. The idea is VERY inexpensive. Why am I the only one talking about it? START WITH MANHATTAN. (No more "I'm walking hee-ah!!")
Dutch cities have been removing parking spaces for cycling space for many years now. Especially Amsterdam, but Utrecht is also pretty good at it! Both Utrecht and Amsterdam just don't have that many off street parking spots. Or they can be purchased by residents. It is interesting though that parking in a car dependant country in a big (relatively of course, Dutch cities are quite small compared to NY or Chicago) city is just as expensive as it is in a country trying to drastically reduce cars and car traffic.. The dynamic rates do make sense though. You would expect to see them more often, wouldn't you...
Car ownership isn’t really « having access to a car ». You can chose to not have one or even choose to reside in a place where it’s too complicated/expensive to have one.
"Business owners are often advocating for free parking" -- this is a bad generalization. If your city is dense enough for "foot traffic," no business owner will fight for free parking if they can get a bigger piece of pie in foot traffic.
I parked in a parking meter space and a constable walked up to me, and wondered what I was doing. I told him the parking meter was full, because I could not put a dollar coin in it. He said he will issue a parking ticket if I don't move on. At least the coppa knew the problem. I took up his option and drove away.
Parking meters can also be a big problem for example here in Seattle parking meters are only in a few areas so drivers park where it is free and walk, it is a problem as this limits parking for business customers, spaces get filled with people that walk to other areas, and they also park on residential streets in front of peoples houses, and even areas that road shoulders are dirt and not yet developed so they park there which can block access for school buses and delivery trucks. 99% of the Seattle area parking is free even big cities like Bellevue just next to Seattle is totally free so people feel like they should park for free and so they try and avoid paying lol.
Cities should charge market-rate for parking. Developers and property owners shouldn't be required to pay for parking. Curb cuts should incur a monthly cost on to the property owner based on the useful public space inhibited by providing access.
Any examples of parking access or price differences due to person driving? For example more, cheaper downtown spaces for shoppers, fewer, more expensive for workers?
Can confirm Brisbane being on the list. I parked in the Myer centre car park on a whim ~5 years ago aaand got wrecked for AUD$40 for about an hour. Probably could have got it cheaper if I’d booked online, but this was just an on the spot decision with a friend.
You still have to have on street parking just not for private cars. You need loading zones. America also has a cultural problem with double parking that other parts of the world do not have, at least not to the same extent.
@@Snowshowslow fine.. but we really should make specialized little electric vehicles so they can park easier, take up less space, and be able to just roll in their wheelchair (I've seen a few, they are actually pretty cool rolling in from the hatchback design)
@@matthewboyd8689 You shouldn't make anything. I don't understand how you get this monstrous arrogance to think that you should decide what everyone else is doing.
@@MrCmon113 oh, you mean like car makers get to decide to make 5000 pound trucks People can decide to buy what they want but if nobody makes useful things then the useful things don't exist And THESE EXIST! Europe is so far ahead of America
Next to the London Stock Exchange data centre, on-street, in the City of London (can't tell you the address), was GBP 16 an hour when I last checked a server there in 2018.
Edinburgh Scotland never gets mentioned in stories about parking, but from my frequent visits there, it is the most aggressive city I've encountered when it comes to parking enforcement. On one visit, while my wife needed to return some items at a store on Princess Street, I parked in nearby 20-minute spaces and kept a close eye on the several parking checkers working this central area. I moved the car from space to space 4 times while waiting for her. Edinburgh's parking tickets are pricey. There are many off street parking garages, but these tend to be filled with central area employees. The light rail from the airport to Princess Street is the best way to visit central Edinburgh. There is a large free park and ride lot at the airport and the tram has multiple stops in the central area.
It's very hit-and miss. Leith Walk has become notorious for vehicles parking on the pavement (and thus damaging it). Pavement/sidewalk parking has just become illegal in the city as of this month so we will see if that changes anything. Driving in the historic centre of the city is so bad that most people just get the bus. Our council owned/run bus network is one of the best in the UK.
@@BoBandits Darn right I did. I've paid Edinburgh parking tickets and, if it weren't for the tram being there now, I would do the move the car thing again.
Princes street is honestly a nightmare for cars, yet there are few ways to avoid it, especially if you want to go somewhere closeby. Pretty infuriating
The most expensive parking space to buy is Hong Kong. A parking bay in the tiny neighbourhood of Mount Nicholson on The Peak fetched over HK$10 million (US$1.3 million). It’s just a space with white lines around it. Big enough to park a normal car. Nothing special.
I work in the city and one time years ago I drove to work. Circled the block and wasted like half an hour before a I gave up and parked in a garage. Paid around $35-40 and thought to myself never again (this is on top of tolls and gas). Sadly driving from suburbs into city DOES make sense when you have a group of people, because splitting even $60 parking between 4 can be cheaper than a train ticket for each.
Yes, it seems like it would be good to introduce something like Park and Rides in your city, so you can park somewhere on the periphery and take a group ticket for transit into the city.
English speaking nations with the highest off street parking fees. Sydney not only has the most expensive tolled roads, it has one of the most expensive parking fees. No wonder small business suffers if people don’t have money left over to spend.
If you live in a car-centered small town outside NYC, what are your options for getting to Manhattan other than driving there? Are there some kind of park-and-ride stations in the Subway network? (Genuinely curious, not trying to advocate for free parking. I lived some time in the US but on the West Coast, don't really know the NYC area well.)
Yes, there are tons of park ride stations on our commuter rail systems which are heavily used. Almost everyone on the PATH train drove and parked at one of its stations, same.wirh NJT, LIRR, METRO NORTH, ETC.
