It placed New Delhi at top position with a 'score' of 140, with another Indian city, Bangalore, is close behind in second place. These were the only two Indian cities in the list of 20. With New Delhi striving hard to gain a 'world-class city' tag, the survey said inefficient parking systems is a major setback to the city's productivity and can directly lead to inefficient services.
The worst city tag for Delhi is not only a reflection of the scarcity of parking slots but also of commuter behaviour. The survey found Delhi drivers among the most quarrelsome over parking spaces. Globally, one in four (27%) of commuters reported being involved in an argument with a fellow driver over parking space in the past year. In Delhi, as many as 58% admitted to having got into fights over parking.
In a city infamous for road rage, quarrels over parking are all too common in Delhi. In January this year, a restaurant manager was allegedly run over by a car driven by a pilot after a heated argument over parking in Khan Market. On December 14 last year, a bank loan agent had accidentally scraped past another vehicle while pulling out of his residence. The occupants of the second car allegedly reacted by stabbing him to death.
The survey, however, found parking problems were similar across the 20 cities spread over six continents. More than half of the 8,042 commuters surveyed said, at least once in the past year, they had given up trying to find a parking spot after a fruitless search and simply drove somewhere else.
"Clearly, drivers worldwide are facing frustration and pain, not only during the daily commute, but also when searching for a parking spot," said Vinodh Swaminathan, director of intelligent transportation systems, IBM. "It's easy to see how this parking 'pain' can impact productivity and economic opportunities in a city."
Swaminathan said it was possible to reduce commuters' woes. "The ability to combine transportation information being collected with a better understanding of their citizens' parking needs can help cities not only better match parking supply with demand, but also better anticipate and avoid gridlock and make significant inroads to reducing congestion," he said.
Globally, drivers spent an average of nearly 20 minutes in pursuit of a parking spot. The survey showed drivers in both developed and emerging economies faced much the same parking frustrations, regardless of where they lived or their ranking in the recent IBM 'commuter pain index' which indicates daily commuting problems in important international cities.
With 70 lakh vehicles and 900 more being added every day, parking space in Delhi is woefully limited. The city's roads too have not kept up with traffic growth, adding to jams, gridlocks and frayed tempers.
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