Monit Reveals the Impact of COVID-19 with Parking Data

As we have all experienced, the number of parking transactions has taken a big hit in the last few months. Even though these numbers probably fluctuate per country, at the lowest point of the COVID-19 measures in some municipalities in The Netherlands, the number of parking transactions decreased by more than 90%. Also, the average parking time decreased by about 25%. People seemed to be more goal-oriented than before; at least when they go out by car.

Collecting and analyzing parking data of different types (e.g. on-street pay and display machines, parking apps, parking equipment in garages), from dozens of municipalities and different vendors in The Netherlands gives us a good picture of the impact of COVID-19 measurements taken by governments.

When analyzing this data over the last months we come across another striking point. At the start of the lockdown the share of parking transactions on-street fell less sharply than the share of transactions in parking garages; on average respectively about 65% compared to 80%.

Over the years various studies show that people prefer to park on the street for short-term parking rather than in parking garages, while the hourly rates on the street are often higher. The choice between parking on the street and parking garages seems to have to do with parking duration. Prof. van Ommeren has expressed this aptly: “In the current situation, street parking is often more expensive, so it is more attractive to park in the garage if you park longer. For example, with a parking duration of 5 min. 75% will park on the street, with a duration of 40 min. this is only 50%. With a parking duration of almost 2 hours, almost everyone opts for the garage.” It is interesting to take this into account when looking at the average parking time at the time of the lockdown.

We also see that after the first lockdown, during summertime the average number of parkers returned to the level of 2019 (or even above). Therefore, if you want to be able to respond appropriately to the current situation, the monitoring of data is of big importance. We will continue to monitor what happens in the coming period when new measurements are taken by governments during the ‘second wave’. We will keep you up to date!

(Click the graph to enlarge it)

(Click the graph to enlarge it)

About Monit

Monit collects data from many different sources. The data differ in type (e.g. on- and off-street), formats, and transfer methods. We unlock your parking data for instant insight into revenues and the effect of policies.