Have you ever driven around, in Paris or any major city in the world, looking for a free parking spot and ending up never finding one or being successful, miles away from your destination?
This daily nightmare for many car drivers seems to be here to last. In the last 10 years, Paris has lost about 60,000 street parking spaces, going down from more than 200,000 spots in the year 2000 to barely 150,000 nowadays.
Meanwhile the number of drivers keeps growing and the outcome is obviously not in favour of car owners. After 2 weeks of COP21 in Paris and the various announcements about reducing pollution, one must highlight that 10 to 15% of the local pollution (and about a third of traffic congestions) are created by drivers looking for a parking space.
The sharing (parking) economy
Beyond apps and social networks for making friends, replace taxis or simply ensure walking daily (…) the sharing economy opens up a new world of opportunities for the lost drivers in the street of Paris – and every other city out there. You, who like me, fight daily in the trenches of the kingdom of the lost parking space rejoice. There sure are solutions already, be it websites or apps to help with finding space where to park but the development of services allowing to manage punctual offer and demand, in real-time, is changing the rules of the game.
The lack of public parking space is not the lack of personal ones.
The 150,000 street parking spots mentioned before only account for less than 20% of the 800,000 existing parking spaces in Paris.
Private and public parkings represent another 20% of the global offer.
The remaining (massive) 60% – about 500,000 spaces – are parking spaces owned by hotels, companies, various organisations and individuals.
It does represent 3 times the amount of parking spaces on offer in the streets of the city. However, this huge opportunity has barely been looked into until now. Between company parking, individuals’ boxes or spaces, there is a wealth of spaces on offer to cater for everyday needs. This alternative offer also boasts a geographical benefit. The spaces, contrary to most public or private parkings are scattered everywhere in the city and not concentrated around shops, stations or places of interest.
In the end, it is an offer similar to an AirBnB for parking space. A win-win option for drivers – finally able to park easily (usually at a cheaper price too) and even securely – and for the owners who can benefit from an additional revenue for a parking space they are not using (during the workday for example).
It is a great way to save time and money and even earn eiverMiles (for eiver users and you, after you download the app) while avoiding searching forever for a non-existing parking space.
If you want to give shared parking a go (in France), you can check zenpark.com our partners. They also have a special offer for the eiver users at the moment – check it out on the eiverStore.