PARKING POLICIES AND COMMUTING BEHAVIOR

This article examines the connection between the regulation of parking by cities, transit service levels, and travel and parking behavior in the U.S. Travel behavior information comes from the 1990 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS) and the Federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration's 1990 Section 15 Report. Data on the current state of parking programs in place in central business districts of the U.S. is identified through telephone interviews of local officials responsible for parking policies from the 20 cities identified in the NPTS. The travel behavior analyses and the data from the parking officials' interviews were combined with data from the Federal Highway Administration's journey-to-work data to group cities according to their parking policies, transit service, and ridership levels on a continuum of transit-accommodating cities and auto-accommodating cities. A key finding is that cities with interventionist parking policies - high parking prices and limited supply - frequent transit service, and a high probability that travelers will pay to park are the most likely to have high transit ridership figures.