Deterrent Parking in Spain: Park & Ride
Sustainable Parking in cities
What is deterrent parking or Park and Ride?
Park and Ride or Deterrent Parking is a massive parking lot, generally located on the outskirts of cities, very well connected with large public transport links, whose objective is to allow drivers who intend to access the city centre from the surrounding metropolitan area to park in them and continue their trip by public transport.
Why Park and Rides are related with LEZs
Due to the increasing difficulty that certain types of vehicles have in accessing city centres due to the amount of polluting emissions they produce, parks and rides were created as a complement to be able in some cases for free and in others at cheap rates to park your vehicle in well-connected car parks, on the outskirts of the urban core of the cities, with major public transport links (metro interchanges, bus stops, suburban stations) and promote this form of mobility around the city so that the concentration of pollution decreases and air quality is improved. a las afueras del nucleo urbano de las ciudades, con grandes enlaces de transporte públicos (intercambiadores de metro, paradas de autobus, estaciones de cercanías) y fomentar esta forma de movilidad por la ciudad para que la concentración de polución disminuya y mejore la calidad del aire.
Map of park and ride parking in Spain 2023
How do park & rides work?
Park & rides are for public use.
The vast majority of public park & rides are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are also private park & rides which have closing times. But most of the park & rides with closing times cover the average working day in Spain.
Most of the park & rides are free, but there are also paid parks and rides whose rates are inexpensive as they are focused on long stays, with an average of 8 hours.
There are no conditions as such to be able to park in them.
But there are incentives to use them: for example, in Madrid public park & rides are free of charge as long as you prove that you have a public transport card.