After-work parking in Cologne: New hope for stressed parking seekers!

After-work parking in Cologne: New hope for stressed parking seekers!

Finding a parking space in Cologne is increasingly becoming a test of patience. Dozens of parking spaces in heavily frequented Veedeln have been lost and the city administration is faced with the challenge of reducing parking pressure in the city centers. Against this background, Cologne introduced a new concept on August 18th: “After-work parking”. This model offers residents and visitors the opportunity to park their vehicles overnight in selected supermarket parking spaces.

In the future, drivers will be able to park their cars at two locations: at Osterather Straße 26 in Cologne-bilderstöckchen and at Marienstraße 147-159 in Cologne-Ehrenfeld. The hours for after-work parking are possible on weekdays from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. This allows grocery shoppers to conveniently park while they do their shopping, while also ensuring a relaxing night without having to worry about parking. To use this option, booking via the Amidop app is required, which also includes digital access control with automatic license plate recognition.

Cost and usage

The offer is supported by Aldi Süd, and the fees for after-work parking are quite fair at 4 euros per night or 30 euros per month. The city of Cologne's goal is to attract even more food retailers to the concept in order to promote the use of empty supermarket parking spaces. This initiative brings life to the often unused areas, which has already proven successful in Düsseldorf, where a similar program is running successfully. Aldi Süd and Lidl have already opened their branches there and provide over 190 parking spaces.

Cross-city solutions

It's not just Cologne that has space problems. In Düsseldorf, too, the new parking program is seen as a solution to the increasing parking pressure in urban residential areas. Especially since the increase in newly registered cars is growing faster than the population. According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, 49.1 million cars were already registered in Germany on January 1, 2024 - a record that only exacerbates the challenges. The mayor of Düsseldorf, Stephan Keller, sees this concept as a pioneer that other cities should also promote.

Operating hours in Cologne are from 6 or 6:30 p.m. to between 6 and 8:30 a.m. in the morning. During this time, vehicles are allowed to park in the parking lots, but are closed overnight. By using these parking spaces across the board, those responsible not only hope to provide relief for residents, but also ensure effective use of the available spaces, which are unfortunately often deserted at the moment.

A round table with the largest food retailers will also be convened on September 1, 2025 to further advance ideas for multiple use of parking spaces. After-work parking could therefore be just the beginning of a long-term and sustainable solution for parking space management in urban areas.

In summary, it can be said that after-work parking in Cologne is a promising approach to alleviating the parking shortage in the city. We can only hope that other retailers and cities will follow this example to give drivers a relaxing night.

For more information, please visit the articles from Express, CMD NRW as well as ZDF Today.