The folks at Nerdwallet.com have conducted a research project to identify the worst cities for parking. The results, starting with the worst of them all: Chicago, Oakland, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Honolulu, Washington D.C., Seattle, Philadelphia, and Sacramento.
The analysis was based on daily and monthly parking charges and rates of vehicle theft. Chicago came in first, while Honolulu is a stand out in the most expensive category and Oakland took first for the highest numbers of stolen cars. According to Nerdwallet:
1. Parking garage pricing data was sourced from Collier International’s 2012 Parking Study. All prices cited are the median unreserved rates.
2. Theft rates are from the FBI’s 2010 data on motor vehicle thefts in each city. We used these to calculate car thefts per capita for each city and an average national rate of car thefts per capita.
Nerdwallet readers had a lot to say about the study, some 1. good, some 2. bad, and some, just 3. trolling for a fight.
1. “Good list. Shows very clearly that difficulty parking and awesomeness of cities are perfectly correlated. Parking in most American burbs is free and abundant. Because most of American suburbia royally sucks.”
2. “I’m surprised that “stolen vehicles” and “off-street rates” were the only considerations here, as they have very little to do with my daily parking experiences on the street.”
3. “Blah, blah blah! Get out of your car and bike, walk or take transit. You’ll save a lot of money and probably lose weight and get healthier, too.”
The best places to park, according to the study, are cities including Boise, ID, Greenville, SC, and Jacksonville, FL.
If only it was all a big April Fools Day joke and parking could be free and plentiful everywhere without destroying the economy or the environment. For myself, I’m just glad I live somewhere that’s not on either list.
Read the article here.
