One fifth of car parking spaces are wasted because of bad parking

Problem could be solved if motorists simply used the park assist technology available to them

 
Motorists up and down the country at some point find themselves frustrated because they can’t find a parking place but according to a new study, one fifth of spaces are wasted because of poor parking and the problem could be solved if drivers used their park assist technology.
Poor parking skills have been blamed rather than their being not enough parking spaces and the issue could easily be dealt with if drivers simply used what was available to them within their vehicle.
According to the study, one fifth of car parking spaces are wasted because of bad parking.

 
A total of 120 roads were analysed by experts in which kerbside parking bays existed and were ‘full’ – meaning there was no space between either side of any two vehicles for another car to fit in.
They worked out how much extra space would be free if each car on the road used park assist technology which automatically guides a car into a parking bay.
What the study found was that 17% of parking space on streets up and down the country could be freed up if each driver used the technology available to them and would mean there’d be enough parking space for thousands more cars.
The greatest average distances between parked vehicles was found in Birmingham and London, where capacity had the potential to be increased by 20%.
The most efficient parkers were located in Brighton, where there was found to be 11% extra capacity left on ‘full’ streets within the city centre.
According to the research, 47% of motorists claimed that bad parking by other road users had caused them huge frustration during the past year.
A total of 2,000 adults took part in the study and 38% admitted to purposefully leaving space around their vehicle to prevent another car from parking next to it.
A further 31% confessed to choosing a parking place based on the quality of cars on either side, whilst 13% admitted to parking in two bays to save a place for someone else.
Eleven per cent even confessed to placing wheelie bins in the road to ensure a parking space was left available, while 10% of drivers questioned said they’d parked in a space that was too small just so other motorists couldn’t move their vehicle.
Direct Line, who commissioned the study, also found that 73% said they had purposely left room behind their vehicle for manoeuvering.
The car insurance company discovered that just over one fifth of drivers said they’d parked their vehicle further away from their home so as to avoid parallel parking in a tricky space, whilst similar numbers had got a friend or family member to park on their behalf.
The study also found that 18% of drivers confessed to giving up parking because someone was watching and had distracted them.
 
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