The regular use of cars and other types of vehicles in London is difficult, and has been now so for over 25 years. There are many problems that contribute to this difficulty – the volume of traffic, road closures, and rush hours linked to school times. Another problem is parking – where to park your car or vehicle if, e.g., you want to drive to your work, use your local shops, or attend the theatre. Multiple factors contribute to these challenges. Most street parking is the responsibility of 33 local boroughs, so London as a whole lacks a coherent, city-wide approach to finding, reserving and paying for parking spaces. London is also filled with a dizzying array of payment machines for buying parking tickets, many of which are bewilderingly difficult for motorists to use correctly. Different parking apps for paying for parking spaces online add to the range of solutions available.
To meet local parking needs, many of London's boroughs have implemented rigid solutions that allocate street parking by space and time, using schemes such as controlling parking zones – schemes that do not optimise parking space use. In additional, different private operators run different forms and sizes of parking facilities in across London. However, the number of parking spaces in the capital is often lower than the demand for them. And the extra driving that is needed to find parking spaces contributes to the high levels of air pollution that is damaging the health of Londoners.
So, to improve the quality of life of people who work and live in London, as well as to enable businesses to operate in the capital more effectively, a new integrated service to improve vehicle parking in London is needed.
