(from chicagoreader.com)

Chicagoans are paying more money for street parking than drivers in any other city in the U.S., according to a study from INRIX. It costs $13 to park at a metered spot downtown for two hours, compared to $12 in San Francisco and $7 in New York City. The average driver in the city also spends about 56 hours a year looking for parking in downtown. “When parking fines, congestion and the difficulty of finding parking are added together, being a motorist in Chicago is costly indeed,” DePaul University transportation expert Joe Schwieterman told the Tribune. “Chicago’s unusually high fees for parking no doubt encourages people to switch to transit, but they also are a drag on downtown retail and tourism when supply doesn’t meet demand.” (MORE HERE)