The Hunt for Parking Apparently Costs Americans $73 Billion Annually

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

INRIX Research, which compiles automotive data for automakers and state agencies, is claiming Americans waste 73 billion dollars every year trying to find and hold a parking space. Following a survey of nearly 6,000 drivers in 10 U.S. cities, INRIX concluded the average driver suffers an average of 17 hours and $345 worth of wasted time, fuel, and emissions.

While that sounds ridiculous, a 2017 national survey from the United Kingdom’s Department of Transport claimed average British drivers waste four days of their lives every year doing the same thing. The number was twice as high for city-based residents. Perhaps 17 annual hours is a little more reasonable than it initially seemed.

Anyone who has lived in both rural and major metropolitan areas will tell you there is a huge parking disparity between the two. But how blatant it may be is largely dependent upon the town in which you are trying to stash your car. Unsurprisingly, New York drivers have it the worst of anyone living the the United States. Spending an hour hunting for free parking is not unheard of in some parts of the Big Apple. According to the survey, that equates to 107 hours and a staggering $2,243 worth of wasted time and energy.

Los Angeles pursued New York as the city with the second most egregious parking experience, at 85 hours, followed by San Francisco (83 hours), Washington D.C. (65 hours), Seattle (58 hours), Chicago (56 hours), Boston (53 hours), Atlanta (50 hours), Dallas (48 hours) and Detroit (35 hours).

“Americans spend an incredible $72.7 billion searching for the elusive parking spot,” said Bob Pishue, senior economist at INRIX. “Our country’s parking pain has widespread impact — on drivers, cities, the economy and the environment. Thankfully, it’s a problem that can be improved through education, technology and partnerships.”

Tainting its research with an agenda, INRIX is one of those companies poised to help the world out of this problem with its data solutions and connected vehicle apps. However, its parking estimates might not be all that far off the mark. While the majority of Americans aren’t subject to inflated parking rates and hours of hunting for a space, a multitude of studies suggest city-dwellers spend an incredible amount of time seeking parking. A UCLA study using decades of data assessed that up to 30 percent of the traffic in downtown Los Angeles might just be looking for an open space, contributing to 47,000 gallons of wasted gas every year. Related studies showed Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood posting similar cruising percentages.

Whether this is an argument for abandoning driving entirely (please don’t) or simply a case for sounder city planning, urbanites face unique problems while driving. Almost two-thirds of the surveyed American drivers reported feeling stressed while trying to find a parking spot in the past year, nearly half admitted to a missed appointment, a third abandoned a trip entirely, and almost one-quarter claimed to have experienced legitimate road rage.

However, the problems don’t end once you’ve found a place to stick your vehicle. “In the search for parking, overpayments and fines is a $96 billion problem in the U.S.,” said Pishue. “To lessen the burden parking pain has on our economy and quality of life, drivers, parking operators and cities must adopt smart parking solutions.”

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • Dan Dan on Jul 13, 2017

    Blame the developers. There's no money for them in providing infrastructure, so they don't. They outright own the county zoning boards here and carve themselves exemptions for all of the historical requirements regarding number of parking spaces per residence or retail foot, off-site collector road improvements, etc. The inevitable result of parking spillover onto adjacent lots and neighborhoods, massive congestion with thousands of new residents exceeding the capacity of existing roads, door dings in high density lots with 80" between the parking lines, etc. is for the suckers who already live there.

  • Celebrity208 Celebrity208 on Jul 13, 2017

    For all the DMV (DC, MD, VA) area B&B who need to go into the District on occasion sign up for Parking Panda (full disclosure: I have NO interest or relationship with who or what ever owns that app). It was SO SWEET to drive right into an empty parking garage right by the zoo to attend "ZooLights". Parking Panda has helped me save time when going to my DC based eye Dr. and when meeting other people out for drinks/dinner. Check it out and make your own decision. (do your own search, I'm not linking to anything)

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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