83% of motorists want to ditch parking apps

More than four in five motorists dislike using car-parking apps, according to new research by Autocar.

In a survey of 1387 UK-based motorists, 83% preferred to use cash or contactless card payments to park because they do not like having to download so many apps, worry about online fraud, or find that many of the apps are too complicated.

Only 14% of people preferred parking apps to physical payment machines; most often citing convenience of paying via an app as the main benefit.

There are 30 different parking apps across the country, prompting concerns about ageism from campaigners, such as the over-60s campaign group Silver Voices.

Its director, Dennis Reed, said elderly and vulnerable people struggle to download and navigate the plethora of apps necessary to park and describes the decision to abandon pay-and-display machines as “blatant ageism”.

Autocar editor Mark Tisshaw added: “The British public clearly believe there are simply too many of them and they can be very complicated to use.

“The Government’s proposal to streamline the parking app system into a single point of access will be welcomed by many.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Transport Secretary Mark Harper unveiled plans in October 2023 to launch a national parking platform, which would streamline the process of using apps to pay for parking. More than half (54%) of the Autocar survey respondents said that they supported the initiative.