You and your closest friends are all piled into your car, ready to dance hard and sing your hearts out at your favorite artist’s show. Everyone already shelled out half a month’s rent just to get here but you’re determined that it’ll be worth it, besides, what’s money compared to the memory of a lifetime?
Finally, you pull onto the street of the venue, ready to jump out of your car and wrestle your way to the front of the stage as soon as you’ve parked, but where to park? All of the street parking is for residents only and everything else is a tow-away zone. Desperate for a spot, you pull into the venue’s lot and pay through the nose. Maybe it’s just me, but parking is getting to be pretty ridiculous these days.
The truth is it’s not just me; consumers and concert goers alike are decrying the rising costs of parking across the nation. Between the already expensive concert tickets and their fees, the added cost of parking is enough to dissuade some out of a night of fun. Even when the concert itself isn’t very expensive, the outrageous costs of parking can stop people from buying tickets.
This past summer, Kid Rock and his Twisted Brown Trucker Band embarked on a tour with ZZ Top, Uncle Kracker, and Kool and the Gang, and, in an unprecedented move, only charged $20 a ticket. The tour made headlines for its cheap ticket prices and its aim to encourage fans to come out to shows. Yet, when PCM’s very own Kristyn Clarke attended Kid Rock’s tour at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ, parking cost as much as $25.
That’s right, a $20 concert with $25 parking.
I personally found this to be outrageous, but at the Susquehanna Bank Center, $25 for parking is par for the course. A quick look at the venue’s Yelp page reveals countless reviews all complaining about the exorbitant price of parking. Reviewer Jeanine C. attended a concert there in the fall of 2013 and had this to say: “Parking, I heard everyone complain about this, now it’s my turn. $25.00 – ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THAT’S HALF THE PRICE I PAID FOR MY TICKET! Money grubbers!!!!”
Concert venues aren’t the only ones with expensive parking; entertainment venues from football stadiums to theme parks are charging more and more for parking each year to combat rising costs. Just last month, Walt Disney World Resort raised parking by $2 in all four of its theme parks.
As of March 30, guests arriving by car, motorcycle, taxi, limo, or shuttle will pay $17 per day, while guests with a camper are charged $18 and guests with buses or tractor trailers are charged $21 per day. Valet parking at the Disney Deluxe Resort hotels also increased from $15 to $20.
All of this is on top of the already expensive day pass for the Disney World theme parks, which have already raised their prices twice this year. Taking effect back in late February, Magic Kingdom’s day pass was raised to $99 (plus tax) for adults and $93 for children aged 3-9 years while the other three theme parks were raised to $94.
Disney World’s attendance has only been on the rise, causing pundits to attribute the price raise to supply-and-demand.
This rise in parking prices isn’t specific to just the entertainment industry; cities across the country have been raising the rates for street parking and parking tickets, resulting in increasingly expensive costs to commuters and city dwellers.
Major cities are more affected by higher parking costs than smaller ones; according to the National Parking Association in 2010, the average cost of day parking in New York City was $35.33, $29 for Chicago, and $25.70 for Los Angeles as opposed to $11.67 for Wilmington, DE, $7 for Buffalo, NY, and $6 for Glendale, CA. Seeing as it’s been 4 years, these prices have more than likely increased.
Eva Rajan, hailing from New York City, told PCM that she has been charged as much as $35 for less than an hour of parking; “Once in NYC, I was with friends and we pulled into the wrong parking garage. After figuring it out and trying to leave, I was charged $35. We were only there for about 15 minutes!”
Stories like this aren’t uncommon in large cities. Parking garages and lots tend to be more
expensive than street parking, but with street parking you run the risk of getting a ticket, and depending on what city you’re in, a parking ticket can run anywhere from $50 to $1000. San Francisco is the worst when it comes to traffic/parking fines, with New York City and Chicago coming in second and third.
Nerdwallet.com, which touts itself as “the nerdy friend you can count on and trust, no matter your money question” ranked the best and worst U.S. cities for parking based on the price of parking and vehicle theft rates. According to nerdwallet, the worst cities to park in are Chicago, Oakland, San Francisco, NYC, Boston, Honolulu, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Philadelphia and Sacramento.
In comparison, the best cities for parking are Boise, ID, Greenville, SC, Jacksonville, FL, Raleigh, NC, Walnut Creek, CA, Tampa, FL, Charleston, SC, Fort Lauderdale, FL, West Palm Beach, FL, and Columbia, SC.
If parking is a big concern for you, Florida or the Carolina’s might be a good place to look for your next move while I would highly recommend avoiding San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City.
While citizens are concerned over cities’ pricey parking, cities are concerned that prices are too low.
In 2014, Drexel University School of Public Health published a survey titled “Public Parking Fees and Fines: A Survey of U.S. Cities,” in which it was found that cities with lower parking prices have more pollution and congestion whereas cities with higher parking prices have more citizens using public transportation, resulting in less congestion, less pollution, and more tax revenue.
The lower the parking prices, the more people are encouraged to ditch public transit and drive their own car, meaning more people on the roads, more exhaust clouding the air, and less money going to public transportation.
Pat Garofalo of U.S. News claims that free and cheap parking is messing up our cities due to these factors. He also claims that cities are resistant to drastically raising prices because of the reaction from the American public, which would undoubtedly be overwhelmingly negative.
What does this mean for you? Well, if you’re an environmentally conscience individual and live in a city with decent public transportation, perhaps it’s time to leave your car behind and save some money while helping your city out. If you’re like the majority of the country and don’t have access to reliable public transportation, here are some tips for parking (disclaimer: there are from personal experience, park at your own risk!):
- Before you pull into that paid lot, parking garage, or metered spot, try finding free street parking. While no easy task, it’s always worth a shot to circle the block and save a few bucks.
- ALWAYS READ THE SIGNS. If living in L.A. has taught me anything, it’s to read the parking signs and make sure you’re not going to get towed an hour into dinner date.
- Make sure the spot you’re in is actually a spot and not someone’s hidden driveway or a fire hydrant. Check the curb and make sure it’s not red!
- Pro Tip: Learn when the yellow loading zones are enforced in your city. In L.A., the yellow loading zones are only in effect from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
- Be careful when parking at broken meters: depending on the city and meter attendant, you could still get a ticket. If you’re still going to park there, leave a note saying the meter is broken and don’t go over the time limit.
- When parking on hills, avoid tickets by curbing your tires: if uphill, turn your wheels away from the curb. If downhill, turn your wheels toward the curb.
- If you don’t see a meter, don’t automatically assume it’s free; some spots have central pay stations
- The best tip I can give you is to know your city and do your research. If you can find a loophole, exploit it!
There are also a plethora of helpful websites and apps out there to help you find cheap parking in your area. Bestparking.com helps users find parking in major metropolitan areas throughout the country. There are also city specific sites run by the Department of Transportation for most major cities; such as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York City. A simple Google search should lead you to your local city’s DoT website.
If you have any helpful tips for parking, we’d love to hear them! Post a comment and let us know your tip. Ever had a terrible parking experience? Leave that in the comments as well!
The post Parking Costs How Much?!? also appeared on PCM Lifestyle.