The Art of Parking Fares

Here at Parknav, we work with digitized parking restrictions on a daily basis. In fact, one of our unique abilities is to map out entire cities in a new, low cost and innovative way.

To highlight some of the more uncommon parking restrictions we have encountered in various countries and cities located around the world, we created a Series titled ‘Understanding unique parking restrictions’ which takes readers on a virtual parking journey across multiple countries where these irregularities exist. In the Series thus far, we have outlined some of the key differences in parking restrictions found in the UK, Sweden and France; however, this time, we will hone in on the wonderful world of paid parking restrictions.

The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals is a multilateral treaty designed to increase road safety and aid international road traffic by standardizing the signing system for such road traffic. For the most part, this also includes parking restrictions. As a result of this convention, a driver can uniformly navigate across different cities and more easily identify what is considered a legal parking space. On the other hand, the same can not be said about the potential parking fares that are often associated with finding parking in a city.

While some cities have very straightforward fare models, others seem to be rather complicated. The two most common fare models are either a linear model, where the driver gets charged x per y minutes, or a flat model, where the driver gets charged a flat fee for a specific period. Oftentimes, you will find a combination of these two models. Moreover, sometimes a city grants an initial free period of 10–15 minutes and/or a ticket valid for one or more days.

As simple as this may seem, it is not always as clear cut as one might expect. We have come across some interesting cases, of which we will list three of them below.

Wismar, Germany

The city of Wismar decided to go with the following model:

Parking is enforced on Monday thru Sunday, from 9am to 7pm. In terms of pricing, minute 0–30 will cost you a flat fee of 50 cents. Minute 31–235 will cost you a linear fee of 10 cents per 6 minutes. If you (want to) park for longer, you get the option to buy a ticket which is valid for 24 hours for 4 Euro. The maximum parking duration is 12 days (or 17280 minutes). This looks pretty straightforward right? Yes, except that you also have the option to buy a ‘day ticket’ which costs you only 1 Euro and is valid until the end of the current day. The only problem is, you cannot buy this ticket during the enforced hours. Instead, you will need to purchase this ticket between 4am and 9am. If you want a discount, you better get up early!

Ulm, Germany:

In Ulm they have two interesting models:

The first one is a linear model with a twist, charging you 1,5 cents per minute, but only billing it every 5 cents. Why they would go with a billing cycle of every 5 cents instead of let’s say every 2 minutes remains unknown.

The second fare model is one where they charge you 5 cents per 2 minutes, but give the you one (!) minute free for every 20 minutes you park. If you would park for a full day, you can get 54 minutes for free…what a generosity.

Scharbeutz, Germany:

This small town with a population of just over 11.000 is mostly known for it’s tourism. The parking fares resemble this with lower fares during the winter months and higher fares during the busy summer months.

During the summer months there are multiple zones with variable ‘day tickets’. Parking is enforced from 9am to 7pm. If you start your parking session before 3pm and you want to park for more than 4,5 hours, you can buy a ‘day ticket’ for 5 Euro. However, if you start your parking after 3pm, you can get the same ‘day ticket’ for only 3 Euro. Unlike in Wismar, you do not need to get up at 4am to purchase this ticket.

To conclude this write up, there are countless different parking fares and currently there seems to be little communication between cities to come up with a uniform fare model.

Parknav can help cities digitize their parking inventory and provide useful insights into parking revenue optimizations, parking utilization and parking pressure.