New research reveals worst places for parking in the UK

• Birmingham is the worst place to park in the UK
• British motorists spend over two days a year (2.2 days) looking for a parking space
• £2.6 billion of damage is caused by nearly 16 million parking prangs each year in the UK
• Residents parking schemes, not enough spaces and double yellows are amongst the things blamed for causing parking havoc
• The next worst cities for parking are Manchester and Cardiff
   

Birmingham is the worst place in the UK for parking, according to a new study by Privilege car insurance.

The findings take into account the number of parking tickets issued, the length of time spent looking for a space and the number of parking-related prangs to produce a cumulative parking score; a measure of how bad it is to park in towns and cities across the UK.

Birmingham topped the list with a cumulative parking score of 228. It was closely followed by Manchester (217), Cardiff (215) and Bristol (209). Surprisingly, Britain’s busiest city, London, only came in fifth place on the list, with a cumulative score of 204. 
 

Worst towns and cities in the UK for parking

Source: Privilege Car Insurance

¥ Score developed by combining total time spent looking for a space with number of parking prangs and percentage of drivers who have received a parking ticket.

≠ Average time spent looking for a space at locations including the supermarket, town centre, outside home, at work and at a shopping centre.

When it comes to motorists experiencing damage to their cars from poor parking, people living in Birmingham say their cars are pranged the most; from someone denting their car door or scuffing its paintwork, to someone clipping their car on the way in or out of a space.

Birmingham’s residents experience damage to their cars once every 19 months on average (3.1 times every five years), compared to the UK average of once every 27 months; the equivalent of 15,750,805 collective parking prangs every year.

Manchester’s motorists suffer parking prangs just under once every two years (2.6 times in the last five years), whilst Cardiff’s drivers experience a parking incident just once every 29 months (a total of 2.1 times in the last five years). Those living in Newcastle get off most lightly when it comes to parking prangs, experiencing damage to their cars just 1.5 times every five years on average.

The average payment required to fix scrapes and scuffs caused by poor parking in the UK is £167, meaning that £2,627,599,796 of damage is caused across Britain each year in total.**

Londoners only experience damage to their cars once every two years and two months (2.3 times every five years on average), helping to place the capital just fifth on the list of the worst places to park.

Though Birmingham tops the list overall, residents in Cardiff spend the longest looking for a space, driving around for 52 minutes each week; the equivalent to 2.8 days a year on average. This compares to the national average of just over two days (40 minutes a week) spent searching for somewhere to park*.

Cardiff is closely followed by Birmingham, where motorists spend an average of 47 minutes looking for a parking space each week, adding up to two and a half days a year spent driving around looking for somewhere to park. People living in Bristol and Edinburgh spend the least time space searching, needing to dedicate just 27 minutes per week to the task.

Traffic wardens are also on the prowl, with Birmingham, Liverpool and Newcastle receiving the most parking tickets and fines. A third (32 per cent) of residents say they have received a parking ticket in the last 5 years: five per cent more than the UK average (27 per cent).

Common parking incidents across the UK include someone opening their car door onto yours (39 per cent), someone scuffing the paint on your car when it is parked (35 per cent), and someone clipping your car on their way in to a space (31 per cent).  The average parking fine is £42.

Reasons given for parking chaos include not having enough spaces to satisfy demand (56 per cent), not being able to find a space that doesn’t need to be paid for (32 per cent), double yellow lines (28 per cent) and residents parking schemes (26 per cent).

Charlotte Fielding, Head of Privilege Car Insurance, comments:

“As technology such as parking sensors and parking assistance become increasingly standardised in our cars, we should hopefully start to see fewer parking prangs and incidents on our roads.

Fielding continues: “Cold sweats about parallel parking, or reversing into a space in a busy car park will soon be but a memory for motorists, with all of our lives made easier and more stress free by these advancements.”
 

Parking Tickets in numbers – per city

Source: Privilege Car Insurance

Common Parking Prangs – per city

Source: Privilege Car Insurance

ENDS
 

For more information, please contact: Fran Langdon or Laura Nugent at Van Communications:

fran@rtc.london / laura@rtc.london  / 020 3179 0720
 

Notes to editors:

Research was conducted by Opinium via online interviews amongst a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults, of which 1,392 were drivers. Research was conducted from 28th October to 1st November 2016.

*Calculation considers a day as 16 hours (excluding time spent sleeping)

**2.2 prangs every 5 years per driver = 1 prang every 27 months and 0.44 prangs per year. Number of UK drivers = 35,731,944. 0.44 X UK drivers = total prangs per year. Total prangs per year X average cost to fix a prang = £2,627,599,796.

***Indicative only due to low base size

Privilege

Privilege Insurance specialises in car insurance for safe drivers. It also offers home insurance and breakdown cover by phone or on-line.

Privilege general insurance policies are underwritten by U K Insurance Limited, Registered office: The Wharf, Neville Street, Leeds LS1 4AZ. Registered in England and Wales No 1179980. U K Insurance Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.

Privilege and U K Insurance Limited are both part of Direct Line Insurance Group plc.  

Customers can find out more about Privilege’s products or get a quote by calling 0345 246 0515 or visiting www.privilege.co.uk