Parking, Carbon Emissions, and the Indian City | Parksy
Most parking studies focus on convenience and cost. The climate angle is rarely discussed, but it's measurable: a car cruising for 10 minutes at idle-low speeds in a dense Indian metro burns 0.15–0.25 litres of petrol and emits ~0.4 kg of CO₂. Multiply by 1 crore+ vehicles doing this twice a day, and cruising for parking contributes a meaningful share of Indian city-level CO₂. The fix is simple: a well-mapped parking supply, accessible to every driver.
Why this is hard in India
- A 2018 IIT-Bombay study estimated 35% of Mumbai road congestion is parking-related, with a measurable CO₂ share.
- A typical car searching for parking in a dense Indian metro emits 0.4 kg CO₂ per search session.
- Indian cities collectively emit 1.5+ million tonnes of CO₂/year from parking-search traffic alone (rough estimate based on INRIX + vehicle-count data).
- A 1-minute reduction in parking-search time across 1 million daily vehicles saves 40,000 kg of CO₂ per day.
How Parksy helps
Map the supply
Parksy's mission is to make every legal parking spot visible. The more we map, the less time drivers spend searching.
Measure the impact
We plan to publish per-city emissions-saved estimates as the data grows. If you're a researcher, get in touch via the contact page.
Switch to public transit for short trips
Parksy is for the cases where driving makes sense. For shorter trips, transit + park-and-ride is the climate-friendlier option.
Find it in your city
FAQ
How much CO₂ does cruising for parking emit?
0.4 kg CO₂ per car per search session, on average. A session averages 5–15 minutes of low-speed driving in a dense area.
How much Indian city traffic is parking-related?
20–40% of urban traffic, depending on density and time of day. The 30% middle estimate is the most-cited.
What's the cleanest way to reduce this?
Map the parking supply. Crowdsourced maps work. Singapore and San Francisco have reduced parking-search emissions by 15–25% with city-operated parking APIs.
Is this a real or estimated number?
Both. The per-car CO₂ is from a measured study (RICE 2011). The city-level total is an extrapolation. We will publish a more rigorous number as Parksy data grows.