An empirical evaluation of an on-street parking pricing scheme : A case study in Stockholm inner city

Sammanfattning: The congestion of on-street parking places in the core of metropolitan areas has attracted considerable attention in recent years. Low fares may result with an over consumption of this public good and result with a wide range of negative impacts such as the reduction of accessibility, deteriorating of the local air quality, extra vehicle miles travelled and increased traffic jams. Parking pricing is hence an important and common urban planning problem. However, a methodology framework for evaluating the impacts of on-street parking pricing is still lacking. The impact of pricing needs to be explored systematically and empirically. The principle aim of this thesis is to develop a systematic approach for evaluating the impacts of on-street parking pricing and attain concrete knowledge from the application of the proposed method for a case study. The project will utilize ticketing machine data and combine it with car floating and parking supply data. The method used in this work has the potential to be applied to various urban areas that utilize a similar ticketing machine system. The outputs of the case study function for supporting future design of on-street parking pricing in Stockholm. Results show that the on-street parking demand is relatively inelastic as a response to pricing change. The estimated own-price elasticity ranges from -0,17 to - 0,29; and the cross price-elasticity is estimated to range from 0,13 to 0,20, for different street types and time-of-day periods. Raising the price leads to a significant reduction in the average parking duration, which contributes to a parking congestion relief. Moreover, the results indicate that the pricing policy affects trip scheduling and yield a more balanced utilization of the available parking supply through the day.