Survey methodology for measuring parking occupancy: Impacts of an on-street parking pricing scheme in an urban center

Parking pricing policies can be used as a policy instrument to steer the parking market and reduce the externalities caused by traffic in general and parking in particular. A more efficient management of parking demand can improve the utilization of the limited parking capacity in high-demand areas. Even though parking policies are often a topic of public debate, there is lack of systematic empirical analysis of various parking measures. This paper proposes a survey methodology to empirically measure the impacts of on-street parking policies based on automated parking transaction data. Parking performance is computed based on data available from ticket vending machines calibrated using floating car films. The survey method allows comparing parking occupancy including its temporal variations, allowing the analysis of the accumulated utilization pattern. Average and maximum parking occupancy levels, throughput, parking duration and total fare collection are compared prior and following the introduction of a new parking scheme for visitors to Stockholm inner-city, Sweden. The results indicate that the policy fulfilled its objective to increase the ease of finding a vacant parking place in the central areas and even resulted with underutilized parking spaces.