This is an edited version of a column in the Nov. 28, 2008 edition of The Citizen:
The Christmas shopping season is well underway so it's time to obsess even more than usual about a topic we fret about almost as much as the weather.
Where are we going to park?
Tom Vanderbilt's book Traffic features the results of some interesting research in parking habits.
If you thought we all turn into animals when we get behind the wheel, our animal nature continues to shine through whenever we arrive at a parking lot.
Turns out we're just like critters foraging for food when searching for parking.
Animals exhibit two kinds of behaviour when on the prowl for their next meal: they will either take the first thing they find or they will take some time to find the best food source available. Drivers either take the first parking stall they find or they circle the lot once or twice in the hopes of finding one of the prime spots not far from the door.
If you're in a rush, the first method is the way to go.
When conducting interviews with shoppers in parking lots, researchers found most of the respondents underestimated the amount of time they spent looking for a spot and overestimated the amount of time it took them to walk from their vehicle to the store entrance.
Vanderbilt explains that the vehicles in a busy store parking lot collectively park in the shape of a Christmas tree, with the lane directly across from the front door stretching out the furthest (the tree) with parked vehicles and the lanes off to the side with progressively fewer and fewer vehicles (the branches).
Again, if you're in a rush, the outside lanes or the lower branches of the imaginary Christmas tree are the way to go because you park faster, having to stop for fewer vehicles also looking for those prime spots, and you often end up closer to the entrance than the person who parked at the top of the Christmas tree, with a straight but lengthy walk to the door.
Parking is one of those resources that we don't fully appreciate. During the busy Christmas season, we go to the popular stores and shopping centres anxious about all the other cars there and how difficult it will be to find a place to park.
But even with parts of the parking lots taken up with hills of snow made from clearing the rest of the lot, there's always a spot open somewhere.
Just ask yourself - have you ever been to Costco or Wal-Mart or Home Depot or Canadian Tire or Parkwood or Pine Centre and you could not find a parking space ANYWHERE?
Chances are you haven't and neither has anyone you know.
You might have to park further from the door if you have the misfortune of needing to pick up a last-second gift on the Saturday afternoon before Christmas but there's always room for one more vehicle in the outlying areas.
The same goes for downtown. It's a rare day when drivers can't find a place to park within a square block radius of where they want to go. Even during the Festival of Trees or any other major event at the Civic Centre, there's always parking within a five-minute walk of the entrance. Why waste time trying to find a non-existent spot under the library when you can park in an easily accessible spot on Brunswick or Quebec Street or on Sixth or Seventh Avenue?
The walk will do you good, you'll save money on gas, you'll save time and you'll reduce your stress, which are all important benefits during the hectic holiday season.
