COMMUTER PARKING AT A ROUTE-TERMINAL METRORAIL STATION

Passenger service to and from the New Carrollton Metrorail Station, the first of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) route-terminal rapid transit stations, was begun on November 20, 1978. The New Carrollton Station marked completion of the first of nine suburban routes and branches on an approved 101-mile system, all of which will not be in place until 1990 or later. At New Carrollton, WMATA has provided 2251 automobile parking spaces for long- or short-term use. Surveys of parking-lot use were conducted in 1979. License-plate numbers on cars parked in the all-day lots (1874 spaces at the time of survey) were recorded on 50 different days (10 five-day weeks) during 1979. License numbers for all 50 days were matched by computer to established weekly and longer-term parking frequencies by persons who drove to the New Carrollton Station. Time-of-arrival and car-occupancy surveys were made during the course of these studies to establish commuter arrival habits. These data are being used to find out how all-day parking spaces are being used, who the users are, and something about how parking fees affect lot use. All-day parking lots at New Carrollton were fully occupied throughout the study period; lots were filled to capacity before 8:00 a.m. each day. About 8000 Maryland license numbers were recorded each week, and of these 3000-4000 were different numbers. Contrary to popular belief, fewer than 10 percent of the cars left in the lots were parked every day during the typical week. Data compiled for several weeks show that some drivers reappear about once a week, or once or twice a month, but nearly half (49.3 percent) of the different license numbers were seen only one time during the 50-day survey. The more than 80,000 Maryland license-plate numbers recorded during the 10-week period belonged to 14,700 different cars, which represents a significant fraction of the approximately 100,000 cars garaged in the travel corridor directly tributary to the New Carrollton Station.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1982/877/877-022.pdf
• Summary URL:
  https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=COMMUTER+PARKING+AT+A+ROUTE-TERMINAL+METRORAIL+STATION&author=H.+Wynn&publication_year=1982
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0309034655
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Intermodal Transfer Facilities. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Wynn, Hugh
• Publication Date: 1982

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; Maps; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 123-129
• Monograph Title: Urban public transportation planning issues
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 877
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Commuters; Park and ride; Parking facilities; Passenger terminals; Rail transit stations; Ridership
• Identifier Terms: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation; Terminals and Facilities;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00372428
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309034655
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Apr 29 1983 12:00AM