Toronto is among the most expensive cities globally when it comes to car parking charges and fines, according to a new study by car rental platform DiscoverCars.com.
Researchers looked at 80 of the most populated cities worldwide to find out the most expensive and cheapest cities for hourly on-street parking as well as parking infraction fines. Each city was given a score out of 160 points — the more points a city has, the higher the parking-related charges.
With 127 points, Toronto is the only Canadian city to make the top 10 list of cities with the highest fines and charges combined, sharing the 9th spot with Dublin, Ireland. Fines for parking infractions in Toronto are about USD 176.11 (CAD 241.49) and hourly parking charges are around USD 3.32 (CAD 4.55).
“Whether exploring Toronto’s CN Tower or St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Ireland’s capital, stay aware of the nearby parking meters and laws and your pockets will be fuller and your memories richer,” DiscoverCars researchers jokingly warned.
As expensive as Toronto is, commercial parking levies have been looked at as one way for the city to increase revenue, with some suggesting that larger vehicles pay higher parking prices (similar to measures recently implemented in Paris) or pay additional annual registration fees based on the vehicle’s weight.
Dublin, which also scored 127 points, has slightly cheaper infraction fines than Toronto (about $130.50) and hourly parking charges ($4.03).
The United States and the United Kingdom both appear twice on this list, with 60% of these highest-ranking cities all being in Europe:
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, ranks first with a score of 158 points (parking fines in the Dutch capital are about $331.70 with hourly parking charges of $6.72). In second place is Chicago, Illinois (156 points), followed by London, UK (143 points), Copenhagen, Denmark (141 points), Seattle, Washington (139 points), Sydney, Australia (136 points), Edinburgh, UK (N/A), and Barcelona, Spain in 8th place with 133 points.
As for the cities with the cheapest average hourly parking charges and fines — cities in Brazil seem to be the least expensive, but Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ranks first with 6 points (parking costs are about $0.31, and fines are only around $10.65). This is followed by New Delhi, India (7 points), with Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Ankara, Turkey tying for third spot (8 points each). Belgrade, Serbia ranks fourth with 11 points, followed by Cape Town, South Africa (13 points). Rounding off the list is Belo Horizonte, Brazil (22 points), Istanbul, Turkey (23 points), Bucharest, Romania (26 points), and São Paulo, Brazil (33 points).
The data costs were calculated using the average cost of one hour of parking on the street of each city on a weekday (Monday to Friday), on non-public holidays. Data were pooled in May from sources like government websites and national databases.
