PARKING POLICY SMOOTHS THE WAY FOR TRANSPORT POLICY

Reaction over car parking policy in the last decade has given rise to increased congestion, worse access and reduced ability to regulate traffic growth. The decision to park illegally is investigated. Very little is known about the elements in a drivers' perception of the risk involved. Ineffective enforcement leads to increased violation. Various alternative approaches have been tried, and experiments have shown that a concentrated effort to apprehend illegal parkers in a small area reduces parked hours by 39 per cent. Changing the nature of the penalty, such as the use of wheel clamps, showed no reduction in the number of offences but a 40 per cent reduction in the time spent illegally parked. This reduced density of illegal parking produced a reduction in journey time of around 7 per cent. Improved procedures for dealing with fixed penalties and with those who refuse to pay could substantially reduce the cost of court and police action. Further improvements could be achieved by redesigning much of the street parking areas and providing more meter parking. There is evidence that many of the illegal parkers are unaware of the location of off-street parking space. Motorists could be made more aware by linking information on parking availability to traffic signals. This is a shortened version of a paper given by the author at a British Parking Association seminar, held in London, 1985. (TRRL)

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00396303
• Corporate Authors:

  Specialist and Professional Press

  Surrey House, 1 Throwley Way
  Sutton, Surrey SM1 4QQ,   England 
• Authors:
  • May, A D
• Publication Date: 1985-6-20

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Photos; References;
• Pagination: p. 9-10
• Serial:
  • SURVEYOR
  • Volume: 165
  • Issue Number: 4849
  • Publisher: Hemming Group, Limited
  • ISSN: 0039-6303

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Parking; Traffic forecasting
• Uncontrolled Terms: Enforcement; Violations
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• ITRD Terms: 632: Congestion (traffic); 1534: Enforcement (law); 9108: Improvement; 955: Parking; 173: Policy; 8119: United Kingdom
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00457343
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 27 2004 10:01PM