Live near a station? Hire out your drive for commuters?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Driving to a station near to home and catching the train from there is perhaps the travel mode combination that has plummeted the most this year, with station car parks lying more or less deserted in many places, even while walk and cycle to station traffic had picked back up - at least until last week.

There are ... some ... GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) managed stations where the car parking has been inadequate to meet the latent demand, and indeed some where there have been major issues with roadside and residential area parking near to stations. The idea of people renting out their driveways is something I have noted in the past, but not brought up on the forum - but it's in the news this morning for the wrong reasons ... see the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

A parking website has apologised after scammers exploited it by listing spaces on driveways which they do not own.

Just Park is one of several websites which allow people to make money by advertising parking spaces for hire on their own land.

But some homeowners have been surprised to discover their driveways have been listed without their permission.

[CyclingSid]

Residents of Wimbledon used to make a tidy sum from this for a few weeks of the year. Could also make more if you went away and rented out your house.

[stuving]

At first thought, this looks like a business that would almost dry up at the moment. But then perhaps not - if its main advantage was price, and station car parks may be empty but their prices have not dropped. Or have they? Last time there were some free deals for key workers, but this time I've not seen any.

Round Wokingham station it was certainly quite common, but as much due to lack of capacity and flexibility as price (before the car park was expanded upwards). I think my neighbours did try it, but have ended up with occasional use by a couple of friends/contacts, and no website fee. So maybe that business model is inherently self-limiting.

[johnneyw]

What sort of radius from the station would people be willing to pay to park their car on a person's drive for?
I doubt that my address would appeal much being fairly close to a mile from the nearest station in Redland. In any case, access my garage is by one of those shared tracks that are common in my area and it would not be very neighbourly to clutter this with these cars.
Now a expensive electric bike might be different as it could easily be secured in my garage if the owner was wary of leaving it regularly at a station.

[Phantom]

just park website has been around for years
Often use for going to sporting events and concerts

No harm in advertising your driveway if you live near shops etc