Parking woes 'send drivers home'

The study found most people want more parking spaces, not fewer cars

Almost one-third of motorists have found it so hard to park in city centres that they haven given up and gone home, a study has found.

Research carried out for the RAC Foundation found that 29% of those asked had found it impossible to park.

Three in four people wanted more car parks built beneath residential streets and shops, the study said.

There are now more than 30m cars on the road in Britain, according to figures from the industry body SMMT.

Failing to provide enough spaces is like running a train that doesn't stop at any stations Edmund King RAC Foundation

More than 1m homes in the country have at least three cars, while those with two cars or more now outnumber those with none.

More than 600,000 new cars take to the roads each year.

The RAC study found that 28% of respondents had searched for more than 20 minutes to find a car park at their destination. One in seven admitted to using disabled parking spaces.

Charges

A fifth of motorists said they were often unable to find a car park outside their home, while about 10% had been involved in an argument with a traffic warden, the study found.

Almost £1bn had been paid in parking in parking charges and fines last year, the foundation said.

Executive director Edmund King said parking was an even worse problem for motorists than congestion.

"Every car journey ends with the need to park and failing to provide enough spaces is like running a train that doesn't stop at any stations.

"It's no good hoping people won't buy cars, because all the evidence shows they will. The solution is to build parking spaces under homes and streets."

Only a quarter of those surveyed said they favoured a proposal of banning new homes from having more than one parking space.

The RAC Foundation said new developments should have a minimum of 1.5 spaces. That is currently the maximum allowed.

But Stephen Joseph, the director of Transport 2000, told the Times: "We need less parking in city centres, not more. We must wean people off their dependence on cars."