Changing trip behavior in a higher education institution: The role of parking fees

Higher education institutions are major trip-generating locations and the transportation to and from them has negative environmental influences. To discourage car owners from solo driving and encourage them to use more environmentally friendly travel modes, it is important to understand what factors influence their travel mode choice. Using a discrete choice model, we examined the motivations to leave the car at home, with and without parking fee. Besides parking fees, we examined the effects of other variables known to predict commuting choice, such as time and social discomfort, pro-environmental attitudes, reduced vehicle maintenance expenses and awareness of alternative commuting options. Results show that adding a parking fee not only increased the tendency to leave the car at home, it also influenced the relative weight given to the considerations that determine to leave the car at home. Specifically, after the introduction of a parking fee, the previously significant impacts of pro-environmental attitudes and social discomfort on leaving the car at home became non-significant, and the impacts of other, more instrumental factors (e.g., time discomfort, costs related to car ownership and maintenance, time wasted searching for a parking space and in traffic jams) which were insignificant beforehand, became the significant predictors. Parking fees were found to be effective and can change to accommodate different policies (revenue collection, pollution reduction, and students’ discomfort). The implications of such a study are the trade-off between monetary (parking fee) and non-monetary variables to accommodate more sustainable traffic management.