Parking Demand

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter examines the primary factors affecting the demand for parking, distinguishing between residential demands and parking at other destinations. The demand for parking relates not only to where people may want to park, but also at what time and for how long.

Methodology/approach

This chapter is largely based on an analysis of the Great Britain National Travel Survey (NTS), over the period 2002–2010. While data on residential parking is straightforward to obtain, extracting data for non-residential parking involves ‘following’ successive trips made by the same vehicle and deriving the duration of parking, using the NTS 7-day trip diary.

Findings

At the home end, the main variations in parking demand are related to housing type and residential density: the issues associated with residential parking are essentially an urban problem. At the destination end, commuting parking dominates because (a) it is the largest single purpose category; (b) with the minor exception of Holiday parking, it has the greatest duration; and (c) the onset of working time is more concentrated than that for other purposes. Nonetheless, at the peak of destination parking activity (around 12 noon), other purposes add about 44% to the base demand due to workplace parking.

The analysis also reveals that only a small percentage of destination parking acts make any payment, and that for those that do, the average is under £2 per stay. On an annual basis, it is suggested that parking consumes about 3% of motoring expenditure but 97% of motoring time (on average).

Practical implications

Residential Parking is only a significant problem at higher densities (above 45 ppHa, say) where the housing types required to support the population density result in competition for on-street parking. For non-residential parking, the dominance of commuter parking causes particular problems both in terms of space provision and its impact on mode choice. Neither form of parking capacity appears to be well managed by current pricing policy, at least on the basis of the British evidence.

Originality/value of paper

To the author’s knowledge, diary travel surveys have not previously been analysed to investigate parking demand. While the technique is most relevant to multiple-day diaries like NTS, the approach opens up the possibility of more extensive analysis of other surveys to reveal the patterns of parking, and duration in particular.

Citation

Bates, J. (2014), "Parking Demand", Parking Issues and Policies (Transport and Sustainability, Vol. 5), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 57-86. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2044-994120140000005010