Assessing Park-and-Ride Use and User Reactions to Parking Management Strategies: A Case Study in Puget Sound, Washington

This study examines the use of park-and-ride facilities in the Central Puget Sound Region of Seattle, Washington to support possible implementation of new parking policies. Many of these lots are currently operating at or over capacity and resources do not exist to expand the lots to provide additional parking spaces. Instead, parking management strategies are being considered that are designed to increase the number of people who are able to use the parking spaces to access transit. An audit of existing facilities was performed using a new methodology to estimate the person efficiency of these lots (i.e., the average number of people served by each space). The person-efficiency of all lots was nearly one person served by each parking space, which confirmed expectations that most users drove alone to the lot. Furthermore, a user intercept survey was performed to obtain more detailed information about how these facilities are actually being used. This survey also collected user feedback on the proposed parking management strategies. The survey revealed that park and ride users are generally unwilling to pay for parking. However, a quarter of respondents indicated that they would be willing to carpool if carpools could avoid the parking fee; thus, pricing may help to improve person efficiency by encouraging carpooling. The same fraction of users also indicated they would be more willing to carpool if carpools were provided guaranteed “carpool only” spaces. The information obtained from this study can help transit agencies implement more effective policies for parking management at park-and-ride facilities.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE50 Standing Committee on Transportation Demand Management.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Stieffenhofer, Krae E
  • Barton, Michael
  • Gayah, Vikash V
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2016-1-10 to 2016-1-14
• Date: 2016

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 19p
• Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Carpools; Case studies; Evaluation and assessment; Park and ride; Parking demand; Parking fees; Surveys
• Geographic Terms: Puget Sound Region
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Terminals and Facilities; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01589142
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 16-0564
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 1 2016 9:27AM