A Day in the Life of a Parking Space: Testing a Parking Hour Utilization Metric

Abstract

The peak period utilization metric is the basis for most parking studies. This long-held practice frames the problem as being a limited number of peak occupancy periods. This practice became established when few parking management tools were available and the cost of parking was ignored. Although the effectiveness of parking management varies across context, many more tools are now available. For most land uses, basing supply decisions on peak period utilization leads to grossly oversupplying parking on a parking hour basis. “Parking hour utilization” is the percentage of total hours that a parking space is occupied per year. This paper demonstrates the parking hour utilization metric by using three suburban land uses in Southern California. The methodology employs field counts, air photo interpretation, and Urban Land Institute data to compare peak period and parking hour utilization. The results show low parking hour utilization in these freestanding suburban land uses that ranges from 20.3% for an office complex to 30.1% for a shopping mall and 60.1% for a multifamily residential development. The paper argues that this metric should be employed in parking studies so that parking supply decisions can be made with better information on the efficiency with which parking resources are used. Adopting this metric will lead to strategies, such as shared parking and peak period management, that better use parking resources.