The Worst Places To Park In The Louisville Area

Cardinal Stadium

2550 S. Floyd St.
The parking nightmare’s nightmare. If you have a parking pass for the lot at Cardinal Stadium itself… you might not be a regular LEO reader. (No shade.) But if you don’t have one and you try to drive your own car to a game, you’re in for trouble. After crawling into the area at an arthritic snail’s pace, you may have to park in a side lot, perhaps paying $20 to park at an uncomfortably steep angle, in a space that doesn’t have a credit card reader. Bring a book for the 30-minute wait to even leave the lot, because you’ll certainly need one waiting in that traffic, too.
Photo via Google Street View

Bardstown Road

Do we even need to explain this one?
Photo via Flickr / Paul Sableman

Lynn Family Stadium

350 Adams St.
Is there ample parking? Yes. But it’s gravel. And it’s more expensive the closer you get. And, y’know, the recent allegations against the former coach of one of the organizations who uses the venue might make you not want to go anyway.
Photo via Google Street View

Waterfront Park

129 River Road
Waterfront Park is a lovely venue that accommodates a lot of people. The parking lots around it do not. Good luck trying to get a good spot (that doesn’t require a 50-mile trek down River Road) on a Waterfront Wednesday night or during a festival.
Photo via Google Street View

NuLu (for free, at least)

If you love having to verrrrrrrrry slowly back out of a parking spot where you can’t even see behind your car, hoping and praying that another driver does see you before you get too far out into the street, you’ll love parking in NuLu!
Photo via Google Street View

The Expo Center

937 Phillips Lane
Is there ample parking here? Yes. But if you walk around all day at Louder Than Life or Bourbon and Beyond or even just a day at Kentucky Kingdom and you’re not parked within, let’s say, 10 rows of the entrance… RIP to your feet.
Photo via Google Street View

Southern Indiana shopping centers

The parking lot at almost any shopping area in Southern Indiana was clearly designed by a sadist. Whether it’s the maze of trying to exit or the too-small turn windows, it's just awful, and bless your heart if you’re shopping during the holiday season.
Photo via Google Street View

The airport

600 Terminal Dr.
In fairness, no one ever likes parking at any airport anywhere, but Louisville is certainly no exception.
Photo via Google Street View

Old Louisville

The houses in Old Louisville are stately and beautiful because they were generally not designed for a society as car-dependent as ours. During certain big events (like, for example, that one art show), you’ll be extraordinarily lucky to get a free spot within less than two blocks from the main action.
Photo via Google Street View

Germantown

Germantown has plenty of wonderful local performance venues and stores that give Louisville character. The only problem: it’s difficult to park in the area. Between the ancient, weirdly-angled roads and the density of the area, there’s no wonder so many cars get dinged up.
Photo via Google Street View

Baxter Avenue

There are plenty of awesome local businesses on Baxter (including many Readers Choice’ winners!) but there’s only one lane of traffic on each side and very few places to turn around easily without waiting for the traffic opposite you to clear up even for a moment, leaving you feeling guilty for keeping the people behind you waiting. All in all: stressful.
Photo via Google Street View

Cherokee Park

745 Cochran Hill Road
We know it’s difficult to get pedestrians and cars to coexist in the same space, an ongoing issue at Cherokee Park, but the parking there does that situation no favors. There’s limited parking outside of the park, and what’s available inside the park is scattered and ineffective.
Photo via Google Street View

The Shops at Bashford Center (aka the Walmart, Target, etc. in the site of the former Bashford Manor Mall)

3600 Bardstown Road
As one LEO staffer describes it, being in this parking lot is “like watching a middle school bell ring” — everyone is trying to do something completely independent of everyone else, with no concern for anyone else’s needs or right-of-way. Make sure you keep your eyes open.
Photo via Google Street View

Churchill Downs

700 Central Avenue
You probably know where this is going. It’s not hard to park there if you’re siphoning away your pension on a random weekday at noon, but during the week of Derby, parking here is literally impossible. Granted, Churchill Downs does a great job of ferrying most of the Derby traffic via free and plentiful shuttles at the Expo Center, but God help the people who actually have to park at or around the Churchill Downs lot on The Big Day. They are America’s true heroes.
Photo via Google Street View

Iroquois Amphitheater

1080 Amphitheater Road
Pros: has a parking lot. Cons: the parking lot is too small, the overflow is a mess, and alternative parking is almost nonexistent.
Photo via Google Street View

The surface lots downtown

Let’s take it in a different direction: the surface lots downtown, which do offer a lot of parking spaces, have created an urban heat island. (Read this 2018 LEO story for more information on that phenomenon.) The quantity of parking garages makes many of them redundant, and we think they should be converted to green spaces.
Photo via Google Street View

Under the I-65 overpass downtown

Why on earth someone would choose to park their car here instead of, I dunno, a more visible place is beyond us.
Photo via Google Street View

Any downtown street, for that matter

The meter system is confusing and stressful. The end.
Photo via Google Street View