The effect of parking charges and time limit to car usage and parking behaviour

Parking policies are considered a powerful tool for solving parking problems as well as problems of the transportation system in general (traffic congestion, modal split, etc.). To define parking policy properly, its effects must be estimated and predicted. In this paper, based on stated preference data and using a logistic regression, a model to predict the effects of introducing or changing the parking price and time limitation was developed. The results show that parking prices affect car usage, while time limitations determine the type of parking used (on-street or off-street). A positive finding for policy makers is that users with work are more sensitive to parking measures than are other users, so parking measures can be used to manage user categories. Although there is a concern that parking policy can jeopardise the attractiveness and efficiency of a zone, the results show that a very small number of users would give up travelling into the zone. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.