AUSTRALIANS HATE PARALLEL PARKING, SURVEY SHOWS JUST HOW MUCH

BRISBANE, Australia, June 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- It's official – Australians hate parallel parking, a quarter of car owners confess to having parked elsewhere and then walked or taken public transport to their destination, with a further 14 per cent avoiding an area altogether as they couldn't face the parking stress.

A recent survey of more than 1,000 Australian car owners by insurance provider Budget Direct said it was the thought of holding up traffic while they attempted to reverse park that deterred a lot of drivers from pursuing the task. In fact, just 8 per cent of people claimed they felt extremely comfortable in this situation and three times as many would avoid it if possible.

Nearly half (48%) of women drivers surveyed said they rarely or never parallel parked with 31% of men saying the same. Similarly, twice as many women (35%) as men (16%) confessed to usually or always feeling stressed or anxious while parking.

Budget Direct's Chief Growth Officer, Jonathan Kerr, said parallel parking could be a dying art as technology begins to take over the job, while younger generations avoided the task altogether and otherwise people simply opt for smaller cars to make the job easier.

"Gen Z (25%) and Gen Y (26%) car owners surveyed are most likely to have minimal or no confidence when it comes to parking whilst 64% of the Silent Generation and just over half of Baby Boomers (52%) told us they are very or extremely confident," Mr Kerr said.

"Technology is certainly playing a bigger role with nearly half (48%) of car owners surveyed happy to have some help from technology in the form of reversing cameras or parking sensors and nearly a quarter (23%) wishing they had the technology fitted to their own cars.

"Also, more than half of car drivers surveyed (52%) said that they had either already bought or would consider buying a smaller car simply to make parking easier," he added.

Smaller cars and new technology cannot come fast enough for many with 60 per cent of respondents saying they need to parallel park at least once a week and nearly one in 10 doing so daily. 

The main worries about parallel parking include dealing with traffic (61%); judging space or estimating distance (50%); aligning the vehicle and timing of turns (49%), exiting the space from a tight park or being parked in (34%); and maintaining visibility, particularly in larger vehicles (24%).

Car damage is also a deterrent to parallel parking with 15 per cent stating that their car had been damaged while parked and 6 per cent admitted to being the cause of a parking scrape. 

For those struggling with parallel parking, Budget Direct has detailed some easy instructions.

MEDIA CONTACTS

For further information about this data, please contact Betsy Brandon, Communication Executive at Elevate Communication - betsy@elevatecom.com.au

To reach Budget Direct's media department, please contact, mediaenquiries@budgetdirect.com.au 

This survey was conducted by Pure Profile on behalf of Budget Direct in July 2023. The survey was conducted online with a total sample size of 1013, weighted and representative of all Australian car owners (aged 18+).

DISCLAIMER

Budget Direct Insurance is arranged by Auto & General Services, ABN 61 003 617 909, AFSL 241411. Registered Office: 13/9 Sherwood Road, Toowong 4066 on behalf of the insurer, Auto & General Insurance Company Limited ABN 42 111 586 353.

This is general information only, and does not take into account your particular objectives, financial situation and needs and you should consider whether it is appropriate for you, having regard to these factors before acting on it. Read the Product Disclosure Statement, Target Market Determination, Financial Services Guide, Key Fact Sheets available at budgetdirect.com.au, and consider if the product is right for you before deciding to purchase or continue to hold the product.

While Budget Direct has endeavoured to ensure the information we've relied on is accurate and current, we do not guarantee it. Budget Direct accepts no liability for this information.