Accessibility

Parking in urban areas

Off-street parking facilities have a positive impact on the quality of life in urban areas and in large cities in particular. After all, a city is more attractive if it is easily accessible while having fewer cars parked on streets and town squares. With our parking facilities and services, we contribute to the accessibility of vital functions.

Some visitors prefer to travel as close as possible to their final destination by car and are willing to pay for that service, opt for a journey including Park+Ride or Park+Walk.

Inner-ring purpose-built parking facilities particularly enhance accessibility while maintaining mobility and access for all. They reduce inner-city search traffic and on-street parking which, in turn, improves the liveability for residents and visitors alike.

With purpose-built parking facilities at varying distances from the city centre and with varying parking tariff schemes, Q-Park contributes to:

• accessibility to amenities such as public transport, hospitals, shops and events;

• decreasing traffic searching for a place to park;

• freeing up public space for urban parks and town squares;

• creating opportunities to reduce on-street parking;

• nudging motorists to make informed choices;

• creating sustainable parking solutions;

• decreasing subsidised parking, by pursuing the 'user pays' principle.

We select strategic locations

We capture value through our portfolio of purpose-built and off-street parking facilities (PFs) at strategic locations: in or near multifunctional inner-city areas, at or near major transport stations, and at hospitals.

In cities where we operate three to five or more car parks, we become a highly efficient parking operator and profound mobility partner. We can then engage in meaningful dialogue with other parking and mobility partners, including:

• providers of parking route information systems;

• urban planners on capacity and routing traffic;

• shared mobility and public transport providers;

• landlords to efficiently operate their car parks;

• parking tariff policy makers.

With our integrated and connected expertise, municipalities can take multiple measures to:

• reduce traffic searching for a place to park;

• improve air quality and reduce emissions;

• provide for sufficient parking capacity and proper usage, both on and off-street;

• create a more liveable urban environment.

Multiple contract types

We work with a range of contract types to provide value for our stakeholders.

• We capture value for public and private landlords by offering a range of contract types and value propositions.

• We operate parking facilities that we own, have in concession or lease contract, and we manage parking facilities under management contracts too.

• We also have control fee contracts in our portfolio, ensuring that parking capacity is used according to set rules and regulations.

Results

We operate in seven western European countries: Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, UK, Ireland and Denmark where we are present in more than 320 cities. We operate three or more PFs in 88 cities and five or more PFs in 52 cities. 

We manage a total of 3,616 parking facilities with 706,223 parking spaces.

We manage more than 2,500 control fee contracts, serving more than 125,000 parking spaces which are regulated under private property rights and controlled by our parking attendants.

The following table shows the numbers of parking facilities (PFs) and parking spaces (PSs) in the most important contract forms. Acquisition efforts in 2023 have expanded our portfolio by about 5%.

Table 2 Q-Park portfolio in contract types