[ibimage==47081==Original==none==self==ibimage_align-center]After conducting a survey and concluding that high and unpredictable costs are causing problems for Chicagoans — and in many cases deterring them from going downtown — ParkWhiz has unveiled its Simple Price Parking for some much-needed relief.
The creator of the parking app announced today the results of said survey and a new pricing model that will soon take effect at all its 400 partner garages in the city, beginning with 100 of them. Users will pay a flat rate of $5 for one hour, $10 for two hours, and $15 for all-day parking, a model that ParkWhiz CEO Aashish Dalal said cuts parking costs by 45 percent to 70 percent.
The new model resulted from the results of a survey ParkWhiz conducted with 500 Chicagoans. Ninety-seven percent of those surveyed said city parking is expensive, and 73 percent said high prices are the worst part about parking. Additionally, 81 percent of Chicagoans surveyed said they would be more likely to travel downtown if not for the cost of parking. And, as Dalal pointed out, 71 percent of those surveyed said the price they wound up paying was different than what they were expecting.
“Obviously you can walk, obviously you can take public transportation, you can take an Uber,” Dalal said. “I think with driving, the uncertainty always becomes around parking, and if you can remove that friction … you make driving a much more palatable option.”
According to ParkWhiz’s research, the average price to park in a Chicago parking garage is $21 for one hour and $27 for 12 hours. Furthermore, there can be 130 unique rates in Chicago at once, making finding the best price even more challenging for consumers.
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