Marginal Impacts of Park-and-Ride Facilities in the Twin Cities Region of the US

Abstract

Understanding the marginal impacts of park-and-ride (P&R) transit facilities can help in planning an efficient transit system. However, these marginal impacts are not well established in a U.S. context. This study helps to fill this gap using a survey of P&R users from the Twin Cities region in which the questions were specifically designed to determine how respondents would react to the removal of a P&R facility. The responses allow for an estimation of the net (or marginal) impact on ridership and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) directly attributable to the presence of P&R facilities. Over 80% of the surveyed P&R users would only use transit if they had access to a P&R facility. They would generate an average of 19 additional VMT per round trip without a P&R option. If access to their current P&R facility was removed but they were given the option to choose an alternative facility, the respondents who would quit using transit dropped to 32% with an average of 10 additional VMT generated, although these numbers vary to some degree when broken down by specific P&R facilities.