San Francisco ranks third in study of 'parking pain'

A parking ticket is left on a car parked at an expired meter on Harrison Street in San Francisco on June 28, 2013. A parking ticket is left on a car parked at an expired meter on Harrison Street in San Francisco on June 28, 2013. Photo: Paul Chinn, File Photo Photo: Paul Chinn, File Photo Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close San Francisco ranks third in study of 'parking pain' 1 / 29 Back to Gallery

Ever feel like your life is slipping away while you're hunting for a parking space? Well, it's not just you. According to a new parking study out this week, San Francisco drivers waste an average of 83 hours a year trying to find a spot.

The study was conducted by traffic analytics company INRIX, and was the result of a survey of 6,000 drivers in 10 U.S. cities. The goal was to measure each city's "parking pain," along a slew of specific metrics. The results aren't pretty: San Francisco ranks No. 3 overall, behind just New York and Los Angeles.

San Franciscans paid an average of $12 for every two hours of parking. That's steep, though it's peanuts compared to New York's whopping $33 bi-hourly rate. (Los Angeles is just $2 higher than San Francisco, at $14 per two hours.)

The study, however, found that Americans are so afraid of getting slapped with a parking ticket, they tend to overestimate how long they'll need to park and wind up overcharging themselves. Each year, the study found, Americans spend eight times more on spare parking time than they do on parking tickets. San Franciscans are not immune to this effect; San Francisco drivers receive, on average, less than one ticket a year (ranking third, again below Los Angeles and New York), but they still shell out $404 yearly for unused parking.

But parking woes can take a toll on more than just drivers' wallets. More than 60 percent of Americans surveyed said finding a parking space stressed them out, and more than 40 percent had missed an appointment due to lack of parking. Nearly a quarter said they'd actually experienced parking road-rage.

Public transit alternatives have their own drawbacks, of course, and San Francisco residents can turn to parking space-finding apps like Waze and SpotHero to help them save time. But as San Francisco was recently ranked as the absolute worst city in the country for drivers, maybe it's best to hang onto your Clipper card.