Parking during the holiday rush is never an enjoyable experience. But whether you're stuck circling around the parking lot looking for a spot, trying to get out of the lot, or just trying to find your car, the combination of a little common sense with technology can make the experience less stressful.
Scout the Parking Situation with Google Maps Before Your Leave
Obviously Google Maps doesn't update it's maps in real time with parking information, but if you're visiting a new store or part of town you can still use Google Maps to your advantage. As we've mentioned before you can use Google Maps and Street View to get a better idea of the parking situation in new parts of town.
This is most useful when scouting for possible parking areas in a downtown area, but you can also use it to see if a mall or big box store has a lesser known parking lot slightly off-site.
While you're scouting out lots, you can also get a general idea of how busy a business might be with FoursCrowd. The webapp using your location and checks on Foursquare or Twitter check-ins to estimate how many people might be there. It's not perfect by any means, but if you're thinking you can sneak in for a quick shopping spree by going before work it's worth a glance to get an estimate on how many people are typically there.
Find a Spot Quickly (Even If the Lot is Full)
In most cases it's best to just venture to the back of the parking lot (or the top of a multi-level parking lot) if you want to find a spot quickly and get it over with. That's not always an option in every parking lot, and on the busiest days even the biggest parking lots can get full.
Traditionally, when you're looking for a spot, the entrances are the worst place to start. If the store has a parking lot that's catty-corner to the entrance, it's the most likely place you'll find a spot quickly.
If you're stuck hovering and waiting for a spot, the Wall Street Journal suggests you sit in a location where you can see 20-25 parking spots. In a mall, your wait time should be no longer than nine minutes based on the average time people spend in the mall. In a place where people spend less time, like the grocery store, your wait should be even less. Just don't block the entire street while you're hovering. Photo by Alex.
Focus On a Quick Exit Instead of a Close Spot
It's a pretty natural reaction to try and find the closest spot to the door when you're looking for a parking spot, but as we've noted before, it might be better to consider how quickly you can leave instead. Productivity 501 explains:
Not every slot is equal when it comes to exiting the parking lot. Some will dump you out into a flow of pedestrian traffic and can waste considerable time. This is one of the advantages of picking a side lane and taking the first space you find while moving away from the store. Also, watch out for things like pharmacy pick-up spots that are likely to have a high rate of vehicle changes and thus can make it difficult for you to get out of the parking lot if others are pulling in and out when you need to leave.
It's a pretty simple idea, but it works incredibly well. If you have to go through three crosswalks, past a cart return, and near a pharmacy pick-up it's going to add a pretty significant amount of time to your visit.
If you really want to speed up the process of getting out of there, Slate suggests that backing into a parking spot is not only speedy, it's also safer. Photo by Brian Reynolds.
Use Your Smartphone to Remember Where You Parked
If you're parking your car in a gigantic parking lot, then it's incredibly easy to lose track of it. Thankfully, your smartphone (or a piece of paper) can keep you from losing it.
All you need to do is snap a picture of the lot you're parked in with your car, and make a note (in any app you like) with any other details to help you remember where you're parked. This might include which store entrance you walked in, and what department that entrance is in.
If you prefer, you can also use specialized apps. On Android, we like Park Me Right, and on iPhone we like Parkbud. Both apps allow you to mark your parking spot so you can easily find you car when you're done shopping, but they also have features to add notes, find close parking spots, and more. Since they both use GPS data they're not perfect, but they're better than nothing.
If you're looking for lots and you live in a city it supports, Parker for Android and iPhone does a reasonable job of showing you potential parking and pricing in an area. It's not a miracle worker and can't automatically find you an empty spot, but it's helpful if you're trying to find a parking lot in a busy city. Photo by uvuphotos.
Title photo by Kevin Krejci.
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