Drivers in These Cities Are Most Afraid of Parallel Parking – SlashGear

If you’ve driven long enough, and especially if you’ve had the same car for a long time, you develop a keen instinct for which parking spaces are too difficult. However, parallel parking is an exception; it can be difficult to get it done and you might just want to avoid it. If you are one of those very cautious parkers, then this one is for you. In September 2025, Compare the market revealed the results of a survey conducted last year aimed at determining the cities whose drivers are most likely to be concerned about running a parallel park. In the United States, Georgia’s capital, Atlanta, received the highest Parallel Parking Anxiety Index of any city in the country, at 81 out of 100.

As part of the study, Compare The Market determined the Parallel Parking Anxiety Index of 48 cities in the United States. Two different factors were used to compare them. First, it was assumed that social media mentions of parallel parking in the city, weighted by their negative, neutral or positive intent, led to a composite sentiment score. This was then combined with Google searches per 1,000 capita, determining how often that city’s drivers searched social media with searches such as ‘parallel parking tips’, ‘parallel parking help’, ‘parallel parking tutorial’ and ‘parallel parking explained’. Normalizing the data resulted in a score between 0 and 1, which was then translated to a score between 1 and 100. Two more state capitals take second and third spots on the list: Boston and Honolulu, respectively. The world’s first self-parking car was introduced longer ago than you might think, but parallel parking remains a problem that can plague even the best drivers.

On a national level, however, American motorists are not as concerned about the prospect of parking parallel to the road as some of their contemporaries. With a national Parallel Parking Anxiety Index score of 54.53, the US is the eighth most averse to parallel parking in the world, sitting between Ireland with a slightly higher score of 54.86 in seventh place and Great Britain in ninth place, with a marginally lower score of 53.92. The United States’ northern neighbor, Canada, tops the list at 87.35, making Canadian drivers as a whole the world’s most fearful of parallel parking, according to the survey. Even at a considerable distance. The United Arab Emirates, in second place, had a score of 72.73. So it is clear that the specter of this parking maneuver haunts many motorists. Previously, we created a guide to perfect parallel parking that will certainly be useful for nervous drivers, but it’s still a skill that takes a lot of practice and confidence.

For others, according to FIAT, there is something deeper than that. FIAT UK Managing Director Damien Dally commented on the situation“Cars have grown in size in recent years, which can only add to the added stress of parallel parking, caused by things like the fear of holding up traffic or crashing into and damaging another car.” Fally even went so far as to say it was important to try to reduce ‘parallelophobia’ which affects millions of Britons. One advantage of smaller vehicles is that parking can be significantly easier, but the fact remains: parallel parking is a notorious technique that many drivers are reluctant to perform unless absolutely necessary. As a result, they may have very limited experience with it.