Examining spatial variations in minimum residential parking requirements in Melbourne

Minimum off-street residential parking requirements are used in many cities as a way to accommodate parking demand associated with new residential development. In some cases, variations to these requirements are used in the form of reduced (or eliminated) minimums and/or maximum parking requirements to more actively manage parking demand. This paper assesses how such variations affecting new residential apartment development in Melbourne, known locally as parking overlays, compare against residential parking demand. Using household car ownership data as a proxy for off-street residential parking demand, a case-control analysis was undertaken to compare car ownership within and immediately outside areas affected by the parking overlays, while controlling for a range of built environment, public transport, demand management and socio-demographic variables. Key findings indicate that car ownership is generally lower in areas affected by parking overlays, yet this was either roughly the same or well below the actual parking requirement. Through regression modelling, the results highlighted the importance of public transport service quality, car parking requirements and demographics in influencing car ownership within and immediately outside the parking overlay areas. These results were used to develop a parking overlay index to identify other areas that could benefit from more flexible residential parking requirements. Despite parking overlays considered as a form of parking management, the results imply that, in Melbourne, they represent little more than a conventional supply-side approach to parking policy. The results indicate that residential off-street parking requirements could be reduced further in Melbourne, both within and outside of areas affected by parking overlays, to more actively manage parking demand.     

Can high quality public transport support reduced car parking requirements for new residential apartments?

This paper explores the extent to which high quality public transport can support reduced car parking requirements for new residential apartment buildings. Using a case study of Melbourne, the demand for car parking at residential apartment buildings in proximity to high frequency public transport is assessed, while controlling for a range of socio-demographic, urban design and demand management variables. Key findings indicate that while lower demand for car parking is associated with proximity to high quality public transport, this association is not significant when controlling for other factors that influence car ownership. Public transport service supply within 800 m of residential apartment buildings was instead found to be significant, rather than simple distance to transit. Modelling results suggest an inelastic relationship whereby a 10% increase in public transport service supply is associated with a 0.9–1.2% reduction in car parking demand as measured by levels of car ownership. Notwithstanding broader criticisms of residential off-street parking minimums, the findings have important implications for the development of residential car parking policies, suggesting that city-wide car parking requirements should appropriately reflect the spatial distribution and quality of public transport services.     

The role of market research and consultation in developing parking policy

There is a demonstrable link between parking availability, price and mode choice, and parking policy has been shown to be a powerful demand management tool. Parking however is clearly an area of policy conflict since using it to manage demand may reduce revenue generation, or (be perceived to) damage the local economy. In terms of on-street and off-street parking there are a wide range of users who often have conflicting opinions, which have to be taken into account in its management, invariably leading to parking policies and measures that do not maximise the demand management potential of parking.This paper presents a range of public and business opinion data, from the case study of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, collected as part of the consultation for its parking strategy in 2005–2006. The strategy covers a wider geographical area than simply the city centre, and whilst this paper makes reference to this wider area it primarily deals with the city centre since that is where the majority of the parking strategy issues are to be found. After setting the policy and political context, the paper goes on to present these data. It then shows how the city's parking policies were changed in response to the consultation. These policy changes are compared with parking policies that would solely manage travel demand, to demonstrate how the political process leads to compromise in the formulation of parking policies and measures.     

GIS-based method for assessing city parking patterns

Every car trip ends with a parking search and parking. However, current transportation research still lacks practical tools and methodologies to analyze parking needs and dynamics, which cannot be adequately performed at an aggregate level. This paper presents PARKFIT, a novel algorithm for estimating city parking patterns that is based on a spatially explicit high-resolution view of the inherently heterogeneous urban parking demand and supply. Using high-resolution data obtainable from most municipal GIS, we apply PARKFIT to evaluate the fit between overnight parking demand and parking capacity in the city of Bat Yam, both currently and within the framework of the Bat Yam 2030 transportation master plan. We then analyze PARKFIT’s capabilities and limitations, and supply PARKFIT as a free ArcGIS-based software.     

What's that garage for? Private parking and on-street parking in a high-density urban residential neighbourhood

High-density inner-city residential neighbourhoods are often characterised by serious parking pressure and illegal parking. We study parking choices in a historical neighbourhood in Dortmund, Germany, using a household survey. Specifically, we look at the availability of and distance to private parking, the use of available private and on-street parking, and search duration. Additionally, we look at simple measures of satisfaction with parking and with the neighbourhood in general. Our results show that available private parking is not necessarily used where there is little control of illegal on-street parking. Furthermore, search durations and distance to cars parked on-street suggest that parking pressure is lower than commonly perceived in the neighbourhood. Private parking is under-utilised to the extent that we estimate that illegal parking can be reduced by 28 to 49% if private parking were consistently used by those who have it available. Even more substantial reductions in illegal parking can be achieved by deviating from standard sizes for public parking spaces. From our results we draw conclusions for urban parking policy. These include introducing parking fees, coupled with paid parking permits for residents and, perhaps, employees; defining short-stay parking zones; providing parking spaces of different sizes; and increasing the level of enforcement.     

Parking fare thresholds: a policy tool

The paper estimates drivers’ behaviour for changing an already chosen parking location and the thresholds of current parking fare increases that would make them shift to another mode from the currently used private car. The models are calibrated with data from the Central Business Area of Athens employing revealed and stated preference methods. They can be employed to estimate the impacts of a specific transport policy related to parking fares, and as such they are useful policy tools providing the means to estimate changes in car usage and parking locations utilisation.     

Home-end and activity-end preferences for access to and egress from train stations in the Copenhagen region

Increasing public transport use with the aim of improving the sustainability of cities should focus not only on enhancing level and quality of the service offered, but also on understanding determinants of the choice of access and egress modes to and from the railway network. This study analyzes the difference in preferences at the home-end and activity-end for travelers who have chosen train as their main travel mode while investigating the effect of policy variables such as car parking availability, bicycle parking availability and type, and bicycle on train possibility. Specifically, this study analyzes the choices between five transport modes (i.e., “walk,” “bicycle,” “car driver,” “car passenger,” “bus”) for 2921 home-end and 3658 activity-end trips. Joint mixed logit models are specified and estimated to account for heteroscedasticity and correlation across alternative modes as well as taste heterogeneity across travelers. Model estimates and pseudo-elasticities uncover the importance of travel time and underline how the improvement of walkability, bikeability, and bus service would contribute significantly to the increase in the probability of choosing sustainable modes to and from train stations. Moreover, model results emphasize the role of bicycle parking in terms of the sheer number of spaces to be increased as well as covered places to be offered at the activity end, de facto giving the possibility to leave a bicycle at that end during the night. Lastly, model results show that it is a matter of not only time and trip characteristics, but also traveler characteristics, occupation, and purpose.     

Evaluating the effects of parking policy measures in nature areas

Parking policy measures are widely used to manage cars in nature areas. Only with data from long-term monitoring projects is it possible to separate “normal” fluctuation in the number of cars from fluctuation caused by trends or caused by the effects of these measures. An evaluation of measures implemented in two dune areas in the Netherlands shows that parking policy measures affect the number of cars. While the number and location of parking places can be used to manage the number of cars and their spatial distribution in the area, the implementation of parking charges only brings about a temporary effect.     

Disruption-driven supply chain (re)-planning and performance impact assessment with consideration of pro-active and recovery policies

In this study, an approach to re-planning the multi-stage supply chain (SC) subject to disruptions is developed. We analyze seven proactive SC structures, compute recovery policies to re-direct material flows in the case of two disruption scenarios, and assess the performance impact for both service level and costs with the help of a SC (re)planning model containing elements of system dynamics and linear programming. In the result, an explicit connection of performance impact assessment and SC plan reconfiguration issues with consideration of the duration of disruptions and the costs of recovery has been achieved.     

Temporal variance of revealed preference on-street parking price elasticity

This paper utilises revealed-preference parking trend data from parking meters ex ante and ex post of a general 50% price increase in the hourly cost of on-street parking to estimate the on-street parking price elasticity of demand in an area of Dublin, Ireland. Estimates are presented for the aggregate price elasticity of demand level and individual estimates for specific time periods and days of the week. In terms of reduced parking frequency, the average price elasticity of demand reported is −0.29. Daily average estimates are consistent, with one notable exception being Thursday, a ‘late night shopping’ day for which a lower price sensitivity is reported. Morning periods are also shown to be more responsive than other time periods in the test area, indicating some potential for influencing morning inbound peak traffic levels.     

Parking enforcement and travel demand management

This article deals with on-street, non-free parking policy. The aim is to show how parking meter violation challenges the travel demand management policy. The literature widely admits that only the increase in the enforcement effort both deters drivers from offending and contribute to moderating car use. Nevertheless, the link between parking non-compliance, enforcement effort and travel demand has never been examined. We show that when parking meter violation behaviour, fine level choice, modal split and travel demand are connected, the fine increase paradoxically supports car use and encourages parking violation in the case of large parking congestion in particular.     

A multilayer model to simulate cruising for parking in urban areas

In this paper we propose an assignment model on urban networks to simulate parking choices; this model is able to simulate the impact of cruising for parking on traffic congestion. For simulating parking choice and estimating the impact of cruising on road congestion we propose a multi-layer network supply model, where each layer simulates a trip phase (on-car trip between the origin and destination zone, cruising for parking at destination zone and walking egress trip). In this model the cruising time is explicitly simulated on the network. The proposed model is tested on a trial network and on a real-scale network; numerical tests highlighted that the proposed model is able to simulate user parking choice behaviour and the impact of cruising for parking upon road congestion, particularly when the average parking saturation degrees exceed 0.7.     

Cruising for parking

Suppose curb parking is free but all the spaces are occupied, and off-street parking is expensive but immediately available. In this case, you can cruise to find a curb space being vacated by a departing motorist, or pay for off-street parking right away. This paper presents a model of how drivers choose whether to cruise or to pay, and it predicts several results: you are more likely to cruise if curb parking is cheap, off-street parking is expensive, fuel is cheap, you want to park for a long time, you are alone in the car, and you place a low value on saving time. The model also predicts that charging the market price for curb parking—at least equal to the price of adjacent off-street parking—will eliminate cruising. Because the government sets curb parking prices, planners and elected officials strongly influence drivers’ decisions to cruise. The failure to charge market rates for curb parking congests traffic, pollutes the air, wastes fuel, and causes accidents. Between 1927 and 2001, studies of cruising in congested downtowns have found that it took between 3.5 and 14 min to find a curb space, and that between 8 and 74 percent of the traffic was cruising for parking.     

Spatial competition between parking garages and downtown parking policy

This paper looks at optimal parking policy in dense urban districts (“downtown”), where spatial competition between parking garages is a key feature, from the perspective of economic theory. The paper has four parts. The first looks at the “parking garage operator's problem”. The second derives equilibrium in the parking garage market when there is no on-street parking, compares the equilibrium to the social optimum, and examines optimal parking policy in this context. Since parking garage operators have market power, the spatial competition equilibrium is generally inefficient, and parking policy can be used to mitigate the distortion. The third adds on-street parking and considers how its underpricing affects second-best parking policy. The fourth adds mass transit, and considers how economies of scale in mass transit interact with minimum and maximum off-street parking standards.Preliminary draft: Please do not cite or quote without the permission of the author.     

An examination of the effects of ride-hailing services on airport parking demand

The emergence of ride-hailing services offered by the Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) globally are substantially affecting how we travel by car, and as such, use parking facilities. Airport parking, which is a substantial source of revenue for the airports, is no different and anecdotal evidence suggest a reduction in parking revenue in airports in recent years as a result of the popularity of ride-hailing services. This research investigates the effects of the entry of ride-hailing services on airport parking patronage using three large airports (John F Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International and LaGuardia) in the US as a case study. Intervention analysis technique was used on time-series monthly parking data at these airports, controlling for passenger numbers. Results indicate there was a statistically significant reduction in the numbers of cars parked at all three airports since the introduction of ride-hailing services, confirming the anecdotal evidence. Findings have implications not only for airport business and revenue models, but also for wider effects of ride-hailing and automation.     

Support for innovative on-street parking policies: empirical evidence from an urban neighborhood

Municipalities and planners often hesitate to implement restrictive parking policies because residents regularly oppose any changes to on-street parking space. Residential parking is one key factor of parking management because its location and availability influence a household's car ownership and use. Moreover, as more residents regularly use other means of transportation that need space and infrastructure in the urban realm, and as parking takes up a vast amount of land, municipalities are considering the reuse of on-street parking space for other purposes. As public acceptability is a precondition for the successful implementation of a proposed policy, our empirical analysis investigates to what extent residents support restrictive and demand-oriented on-street parking policies in the dense, highly urbanized neighborhood of Frankfurt-Bornheim, Germany (N = 1027). Surprisingly, despite some variations, the majority of the residents in our survey are in favor of the policy options suggested. Support for the demand-oriented policies (extension of bicycle infrastructure, improved sharing supply and mobility hubs, neighborhood garages, and improved public transit supply) is higher than the acceptance of the restrictive policies, and of policies that are a combination of restrictive and demand-oriented policies. However, surprisingly, a majority is still in favor of many of these (extension of parking fees and parking restrictions, and reuse of parking space for better livability). Furthermore, we classify residents who live in a household with private cars into the stage model of self-regulated behavior change to analyze their intention towards a reduction in private car use. Results from linear regression analyses indicate that residents who have intentions to change their behavior towards car use reduction assess the policy options more similarly to car-free households and regular bike users, and not like the other car-owning households. The findings suggest that while the residents support financial-related policies the least, they are more receptive towards parking policies than policy makers and planners assume if the reuse of parking lots creates space for other users or if it increases the quality of life, for instance, by adding bike lanes, wider sidewalks or greenery. Hence, a combination of restrictive and demand-oriented on-street parking policies results in high acceptance among residents, and the communication from municipalities regarding the implementation of the different policies needs to vary depending on the kind of household.     

Nested logit model formation to analyze airport parking behavior based on stated preference survey studies

The rapid growth of private car ownership and utilization has resulted in significant parking-related congestion problems at large-scale international airports. Parking facilities located in the peripheral areas of airports could be more efficiently used to mitigate congestion and reduce delays due to dramatically increasing traffic demands and inferiorly designed parking lot configurations. In order to analyze the travelers' parking choice preferences for the off-site airport parking activities, a stated preference survey study was conducted around Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport. Two nested logit models were formulated to analyze the correlation between travelers' parking behavior and their travel characteristics. The research results indicate that travelers prefer to choose off-site parking facilities for long-term parking. A free and fast operation of connections should be provided in consideration of the long-distance layouts of parking facilities. A classification analysis of travelers with different preferences was conducted and the potential changes in travelers' parking choices to off-site parking lots were quantified. The research findings are helpful for traffic management agencies to develop practical guidelines for the establishment of new parking facilities with multiple access points at airports.     

Understanding the parking supply mechanism in China: a case study of Shenzhen

Parking policy in China is characterized by “high regulation in supply and mispricing.” City governments rely on the “minimum parking requirement,” the conventional approach, to manage parking quantity, which shapes a unique phenomenon called the “developer-led supply pattern.” In this paper, we establish ordinary least squares models to explore “spatial-mismatch” characteristics that result from the current parking policy and infer the latent mechanism of parking supply using geographical correlation analysis. In the case of Shenzhen, we found that few urban factors at the district level are involved in the decision making of developers regarding parking provision, which compromises the endeavor of creating sustainable transport and thus requires further policy intervention. Market force serves its role in strict planning regulations at the neighborhood level because of the dominant role of property developers. These models not only confirm the mismatch of parking supply with the objectives of sustainable urban transport but also reveal the willingness of developers as a driving force that interacts with the regulatory environment. Such willingness leads to a spatially inconsistent, inefficient parking supply pattern over the entire Shenzhen metropolis. Based on these findings, two suggestions are made for parking policy on district and neighborhood bases that address the situation of high-density urbanization in Chinese cities and similar circumstances.     

The evidence base for parking policies—a review

Parking policy is one of the key links between transport and land-use policy. Parking policies are often compromised in their effectiveness due to the perceived tension between three of the objectives that parking supports: regeneration, restraint and revenue. In particular the belief that parking restraint measures could damage the attractiveness of city centres to both retail and commercial enterprises limits the political acceptability of pricing policies and planning.This paper presents a review of the evidence base upon which commuter, leisure and shopping and residential parking policies are based. Whilst underdeveloped, the literature suggests that greater attention should be given to analysing and presenting the accessibility impacts that different parking restraint measures have on travelers of all modes. The research base in many instances does not support, or provides evidence counter to, the assumption that parking restraint makes centres less attractive. Further disaggregate work is needed to understand how context specific these findings might be.     

Car parking management at airports: A special case?

The number of employees who daily commute to an airport represents, on average, one quarter to one half of the daily number of passengers. At UK airports it is rare for employees to pay for their car parking, with most employers absorbing the charges imposed by the airport authority. This paper details the main issues with offering free parking to employees drawing comparisons between a selection of case studies where parking management measures for employees have been introduced, and the airport sector. The paper then reports on a survey and a series of focus groups that were conducted with employees at a large UK airport in order to gauge their attitudes and likely behavioural responses to potential parking management strategies. Key findings are presented to show how airports may be able to learn from the experiences of others in the successful introduction of parking management strategies, but that there are also key barriers that are specific to airports that would need to be overcome.