48% of Drivers Find Parking to be Stressful

Nearly half (48%) of Americans consider parking their car to be a stressful event, according to a new survey from SpotHero.

Stress behind the wheel is a safety concern and fleet drivers are hardly immune. Since they spend more time on the road than the average motorist, professional drivers experience a significant amount of stress due to parking.

Just consider what the average person had to say about parking. The survey found that more than a quarter of people (27%) spend at least 30 minutes looking for parking — and during that time the aggravation mounts, which is not a good state-of-mind to be in while operating a vehicle.

In fact, 43% of respondents admitted to getting into a verbal argument with a stranger over parking, and 43% said they felt road rage while parking.

In addition, driving in circles to locate a spot puts people behind schedule — another big stressor — with 63% of those surveyed saying they were late because they could not find a spot.

It’s no surprise then, that drivers are looking for solutions to reduce parking stress. Some 34% of people prefer to search online via an app for parking and 29% said they prefer to prepay for parking and reserve a spot from their phones.

Even so, parking stress is unlikely to go away anytime soon simply because the roadways are getting more crowded, which means more competition for those coveted parking spaces. The survey found that at this point in the pandemic, nearly 75% of American drivers plan to avoid public transit by driving to work — a 15% increase compared to 2019.