This free website is like GasBuddy for parking

Parking in a city can be a problem. It’s not just about finding parking—it’s about finding the right parking. Sometimes, there’s a $10 parking spot only a block away from a garage that charges $50!

So how do you know the best place to park—especially if you’re new to an area, as I was a few years ago, or if you’re traveling and aren’t familiar with a city?

For me, the answer is a smart and completely free user-submitted database of parking spots and rates. It’ll help you understand the best place to park. And I’ve personally used it for years.

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Your inside eye on parking prices

First things first, the elephant in the room: Yes, Google Maps can technically navigate you to a place to park. But, like most other mapping services, it often makes it hard to find all the available garages and lots in any given area. And even if you do manage to find them, it doesn’t show you any meaningful info about how much they charge.

➜ So rather than driving in circles and eyeing prices, look at a service called ​Parkopedia​ before you head into a city where parking might be a challenge.

All you have to do is plug a city, address, or street name into the box on the Parkopedia home page. Then, tell it when you’ll be arriving and when you’ll be leaving. (Parking prices function by time of day, and day of the week, after all.)

You’ll get a convenient map with parking rates. Scroll around, and you can find the best parking options.

When I tell Parkopedia that I’ll arrive in Boston in the late afternoon, for example, I see that there’s an underground parking lot I can park in for $9—instead of the $42 spot a block away! That’s the secret.

Like ​GasBuddy​ and so many other apps, Parkopedia depends on user-submitted data, so it may not always be perfect—and it may be better in some cities than others. But Parkopedia is available all over the world and has data for many, many places.

👋 By the way, Parkopedia has a parking reservation feature—but I’ve never used it! I use it solely as a database, and it’s a great way to get started when I’m figuring out where to park for an event in an unfamiliar city. But if you’re thinking of reserving parking online, you might also want to consider ​SpotHero​.

• You can ​use Parkopedia on the web​ as well as via the service’s native ​Android​ and ​iPhone​ apps. (But I recommend the website, as it’s simpler and more polished and doesn’t require any downloads.)
• Parkopedia is free. (The company makes money by integrating its data into other systems and by selling parking reservations, if you’re interested in that.)
• The service ​promises​ never to sell your personal data. You don’t even have to create an account or sign in to use it.

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