An hour's off-street parking in the Brisbane CBD will gouge $28.71 from a driver - higher than either Sydney or Melbourne - a motor insurance group has found.
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Just 30 minutes of off-street parking in Brisbane costs an average of $16.98.
On average, Brisbane had the second-highest overall parking costs nationally, behind Sydney.
In contrast to off-street parking, Brisbane's on-street parking was still cheaper than Sydney or Melbourne, at $4.90 an hour compared with Melbourne's $7 and Sydney's $7.20 an hour.
RACQ head of public policy Rebecca Michael described the off-street parking charges as "daylight robbery" that discouraged people from driving into the city for a meal, recreation or shopping.
“Since 2001, average weekday casual parking rates have more than quadrupled and there’s no justification for it – motorists are being ripped off," Dr Michael said.
“If we don’t see more competitive pricing of parking in the CBD, drivers will vote with wallets and favour suburban shopping centres where parking is cheaper or, better yet, free.”
The RACQ's CBD parking costs report compared the costs of parking in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne since 2011, sourced from the websites of car park operators and was collated by city, parking station and the duration of stay.
Arguing the parking costs were discouraging short-term visitors for shopping, movies or meals, and were favouring long-stay workers and residents, the RACQ was calling for a "rethink" on how to attract visitors to the CBD.
"We find that motorists who are coming into the city for short-term are avoiding parking stations and their outrageous rates and they're actually looking for that on-street parking," Dr Michael said.
"That actually then contributes to motorists circling around looking for those on-street parks, which increases congestion."
Seven parking stations around the city still charged a maximum of $89 for a full day of parking, down from 11 stations, but Dr Michael said more needed to be done.
Drivers who had to go into the city, she said, needed to be "savvy" by booking online for discounts, and using early-bird parking when possible.
Brisbane's off-street hourly rate increased 1.4 per cent since last year, and 1.7 per cent for two hours, well above inflation.
"Since 2010-11 many of Brisbane’s parking rate increases have been above inflation, suggesting
that parking operators are still in a comfortable oligopoly position and are able to extract
maximum prices from motorists," the report said.
Parking centres operated by Brisbane City Council at King George Square and Wickham Terrace were the cheapest in the city, compared with private operators.
