Parking

For other uses, see Parking (disambiguation).
"Free parking" redirects here. For the card game inspired by the Monopoly board, see Free Parking.
Cars parked at the side of the street

Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and usually leaving it unoccupied. Parking on one or both sides of a road is often permitted, though sometimes with restrictions. Some buildings have parking facilities for use of the buildings' users. Countries and local governments have rules[1] for design and use of parking spaces.

Car parking is essential to car-based travel. Cars are typically stationary around 95 per cent of the time.[2] The availability and price of car parking may support car dependency.[3] Significant amounts of urban land are devoted to car parking; in many North American city centers, half or more of all land is devoted to car parking.[4]

  1. ^ Roads in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (ca. 700 BC) bore signs stating "Royal Road. Let no man lessen it." The penalty for illegal use was "death by impalement on a stake." Lay, M. G. (1992). Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and of the Vehicles That Used Them. United States: Rutgers University Press. p. 184.
  2. ^ Paul, Barter (2013-02-22). ""Cars are parked 95% of the time". Let's check!". Reinventing parking. Retrieved 2021-11-09.
  3. ^ Hagman, Olle (2006-03-01). "Morning Queues and Parking Problems. On the Broken Promises of the Automobile". Mobilities. 1 (1): 63–74. doi:10.1080/17450100500489247. ISSN 1745-0101. S2CID 111368651.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Shoup was invoked but never defined (see the help page).