short-stay car parking choice behaviour qc (2)

1Cardiff School of Planning and Geography

Short-Stay Car Parking Choice Behaviour: A Case Study of Cardiff City Centre

Chao QiSchool of Planning and Geography

Cardiff University

September 2014


Study Background

• Dissertation for MSc Transport and Planning of Cardiff University

• Cardiff Council is currently reviewing the parking policy for short-stay parking users in Cardiff city centre

• The study was funded by the British Parking Association through the John Heasman Bursary


Background --- from the literature review

• Individuals’ parking choice behaviour is influenced by various factors, such as parking fares, parking-space availability, ease of ingress/egress, distance to destination, parking safety and comfortability, etc.

• Parking charge and parking-space supply management are the core components of parking policies. Transport planners usually use them as efficient tools to control the travel demand for urban areas.

• Capturing parking users’ sensitivities to the changes in parking pricing and availability can help decide the specific degree of policy intervene to manage individuals’ parking behaviour.


Background --- from the literature review [2]

• Many previous studies have developed discrete choice models to obtain parking users’ sensitivities to parking features for different areas, such as the CBD of Edmonton, Oregon and Sydney.

• However, these findings for other regions may not be suitable in the context of Cardiff city centre. Parking users’ sensitivities tend to vary across different local conditions.

• The study tries to identify short-stay parking users' sensitivities to parking pricing and availability, in particular for Cardiff city centre. The findings can provide useful references to the parking policy making in this area.


Research Objectives

• What is the profile of short-stay parking users in Cardiff city centre?

• What are the current parking issues in Cardiff city centre from the users' perspective?

• What are people’s sensitivity to parking pricing and parking-space availability?


Study-area Background and Motivation

• Cardiff city centre is one of the most successful shopping hubs in the UK with a huge footfall. An efficient parking policy can ease the congestion and externalities for this area.

• A thorough study of people’s parking behaviour can directly contribute to the parking policy making for Cardiff Council.

• Few specific parking studies, especially in terms of the discrete parking choice modelling, have been conducted in the context of Cardiff city centre.


The empirical work was organised into three phases

1. Survey design

2. Survey testing and implementation– Testing with experts – Pilot survey– Main survey

3. Survey data analysis



1. Survey design




Survey Design

The survey questionnaire included three components:• Background questions regarding

users’ age, travel purpose and parking duration and others

• A rating question to obtain parking users’ levels of satisfaction to several parking features(pricing, availability, pay machine conditions and parking safety)

• A small stated preference discrete choice experiment focusing on parking pricing and parking-space availability


Survey Design [2]

The survey questionnaire included three components:• Background questions regarding

users’ age, travel purpose and parking duration and others

• A rating question to obtain parking users’ levels of satisfaction to several parking features(pricing, availability, pay machine conditions and parking safety)

• A small stated preference discrete choice experiment focusing on parking pricing and parking-space availability


Stated Preference Discrete Choice Experiment• Respondents were presented with hypothetical pricing and

parking-space availability scenarios at the Council’s short-stay parking facilities and were asked to choose across four alternatives:1. Continue to park at Council’s short-stay parking space2. Park elsewhere3. Travel by other mode {specified by the respondent}4. Not make the trip

…


Stated Preference Discrete Choice Experiment

• The experiment looked at trade-offs between two attributes– Parking pricing, defined as potential increase in parking fees, and– Parking availability, defined as time to find a parking space

• Parking price increase included six levels:

• Parking availability’ included four levels

1 2 3 4 5 6+£0.50 +£1.00 +£1.50 +£2.00 +£2.50 +£3.00

1 2 3 4Immediately 2 minutes 4 minutes 6 minutes



1. Survey design




Testing with Parking Experts

• British Parking Association

• Cardiff City Council

• Transport professionals


Pilot survey

• A pilot survey has been conducted prior to the main survey on 7th and 9th in July 2014.

• The pilot survey obtained a total of 43 respondents from four parking places in Cardiff city centre: St. Andrews Crescent, North Road, Cardiff City Hall and Sophia Gardens.

• The pilot survey helped to determine the survey time and survey locations for the main survey.

• The rationalities of the designed survey questions, especially the stated-preference discrete choice experiment, has been verified through analysing the data from the pilot survey.


Main Survey Implementation• Face-to-face survey has been conducted at two main short-stay

parking places around the city centre: Cardiff City Hall (CF10 3ND) and St Andrews Crescent (CF10 3DB).

• Four interviewers collected data in the main survey during a period of six weekdays in 2014(Monday, Tuesday and Thursday during 14-18 July; Monday Tuesday and Wednesday during 21-25 July). The survey time is from 9:00am to 12:00am each day.


Survey Locations: Cardiff City Hall and St Andrews Crescent


Research Findings


Research Objectives





• The main survey has obtained a total of 233 respondents from short-stay parking places around Cardiff city centre.

• Among these 233 respondents, 106 are male parking users and the other 127 are female parking users.

• The majority of the parking users travel from the Cardiff local area (79.0%). 15.9% of parking users are from surrounding areas such as Newport, Swansea and Bristol.


Individuals aged from 35 to 44 account for the majority of parking users

12.4%

22.7%

29.2%

20.2%

13.3%

2.1%

Percentages of parking users' age groups

17-2425-3435-4445-5555-65Over 65


55.3% of parking users travel for shopping or leisure, and 28.3% come for work or business reasons

40.3%

28.3%

15.0%

16.3%

Percentages of parking users' travel purposes

ShoppingWork/BusinessLeisureOther


Age Group and travel Purpose crosstabulation

Travel Purpose Total

Shopping Work/Business Leisure Other

Age Group 17-24 Count 9 9 4 7 29

% within Age Group 31.0% 31.0% 13.8% 24.1% 100.0%

25-34 Count 21 11 15 6 53

% within Age Group 39.6% 20.8% 28.3% 11.3% 100.0%

35-44 Count 32 21 7 8 68

% within Age Group 47.1% 30.9% 10.3% 11.8% 100.0%

45-55 Count 14 17 5 11 47

% within Age Group 29.8% 36.2% 10.6% 23.4% 100.0%

55-65 Count 16 7 3 5 31

% within Age Group 51.6% 22.6% 9.7% 16.1% 100.0%

Over 65 Count 2 1 1 1 5

% within Age Group 40.0% 20.0% 20.0% 20.0% 100.0%

Total Count 94 66 35 38 233

% within Age Group 40.3% 28.3% 15.0% 16.3% 100.0%


On weekdays, 58.4% of parking users travel to Cardiff city centre without other adult companions; 79.8% of parking users don’t bring children with them

58.4%

30.5%

7.7% 3.4%

Percentages of travel group size (adults)

1234

79.8%

12.9%

5.6% 1.7%

Percentages of travel group size(children)

0123 or more


The mean short-stay parking duration is 3.10 hrs. Parking users who choose to park for 2 or 5 hours account for the largest part

1 or less 2 3 4 50

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

39

62

40

18

74

Distribution of short-stay parking users' parking duration

Hours

Frequencies


Parking duration and travel purpose crosstabulation

Travel Purpose Total

Shopping Work/Business Leisure Other

Parking

duration

1 or

less

Count 9 13 3 14 39

% within

Parking_duratoin

23.1% 33.3% 7.7% 35.9% 100.0%

2 Count 30 15 9 8 62

% within

Parking_duratoin

48.4% 24.2% 14.5% 12.9% 100.0%

3 Count 20 11 4 5 40

% within

Parking_duratoin

50.0% 27.5% 10.0% 12.5% 100.0%

4 Count 9 5 3 1 18

% within

Parking_duratoin

50.0% 27.8% 16.7% 5.6% 100.0%

5 Count 26 22 16 10 74

% within

Parking_duratoin

35.1% 29.7% 21.6% 13.5% 100.0%

Total Count 94 66 35 38 233

% within

Parking_duratoin

40.3% 28.3% 15.0% 16.3% 100.0%


27.5% of travellers park at the current location at least once a week

3.9%

13.7%

9.9%

18.5%37.8%

16.3%

Percentages of individuals' parking frequency

Every weekday2-3 times a weekOnce a week2-3 times a monthOnce a monthFirst time


The majority of parking users choose these locations because of the short distance to destination

68.7%

9.9%

15.5%

2.1%3.0%0.9%

Percentages of reasons for parking location choices

Close to destinationEasy to find a parking spaceReasonable parking priceIt is safe to park hereOnly car park I knowOther


62.7% of parking users can find a parking space immediately upon arrival

62.7%

30.5%

6.9%

Percentages of searching time for parking spaces

Immediately1-5 minutes6-20 minutes


86.7% of parking users can reach their trip destinations from parking spaces on foot within 5 minutes

86.7%

10.7%

2.6%

Percentages of walking time to destinations

1-5 minutes6-10 minutesAbove 10 minutes


Relations across parking users’ profiles

• Chi-square tests are developed to identify the relations between parking users’ profiles

It is found that:• Parking users who travel for work purposes tend to travel

alone, while people coming for shopping or leisure are more likely to bring companions with them.

• Parking users who travel for work reasons tend to park more frequently than the other users who come for shopping or leisure.

• Female parking users tend to visit Cardiff city centre for shopping or leisure, while male parking users tend to travel for work or business purposes.


Research Objectives





Percentages of ratings for different parking features (1 represents very ‘dissatisfied’ and 5 represents very

‘satisfied’) Ratings

Features

1 2 3 4 5

Parking charge 4.7% 10.3% 31.8% 32.2% 21.0%

Ease of finding a parking space

2.1% 8.6% 21.9% 33.5% 33.9%

Clarity of information on pay machines

3.9% 9.4% 18.9% 34.3% 33.5%

Range of payment options

3.0% 9.9% 17.2% 38.2% 31.8%

Personal safety 0.0% 0.4% 8.6% 41.2% 49.8%

Vehicle safety 0.0% 0.9% 11.6% 46.4% 41.2%


Potential issues in the parking service

• 15% of parking users complain that the tariff of short-stay parking in Cardiff city centre is expensive.

• 10.7% of respondents are dissatisfied with the parking availability. Parking spaces are hard to find in late time periods.

• 13.3% of parking users are dissatisfied with the information clarity of payment machines. This is mainly caused by the lengthy and confusing payment guidance. Meanwhile, 12.9% of respondents are dissatisfied with the payment options. Pay machines sometimes fail to support payment by cards.


Research Objectives





Parking users’ sensitivities to parking features

• Binary logistic regression has been developed to identify parking users’ parking possibility under the changes in parking charge and parking availability

• To general parking users, a £1 increase in parking charge will decrease the log odds of continuing to park by 1.492 (the probability will be times as much as the previous probability). Similarly, a one-minute increase in searching time will decrease the log odds by 0.226 (the possibility will be 0.797 times as much as the previous one).


Taste variations across various parking user groups

• Parking users with different profiles tend to have different sensitivities to parking pricing and availability.

• The study tries to consider the influence of parking users’ travelling and personal characteristics into the modelling and finds that:

• Compared with those who travel alone to Cardiff city centre, parking users who travel with companions are less sensitive to the increase in parking charge.


Taste variations across various parking user groups [2]

• Parking users who travel for shopping or leisure purposes are more sensitive to the searching time for parking spaces than those who are less free in parking location choices, like working population.


Taste variations across various parking user groups [3]

• Parking users aged from 25-44 are more sensitive to the increases in parking price than individuals belonging to other age groups.


Recommendations for future research

• Future studies are recommended to analyse parking users’ behaviour in the context of multiple parking types such as off-street private car parks, multistory parking and park-and-ride, etc.

• Besides parking charge and availability, future studies can analyse the impacts of other parking features on parking choice behaviour, such as parking safety and comfortability.

• Multinomial logit or nested logit models are suggested if future studies can obtain more thorough data to classify individuals’ parking choices into more categories.


Thank You !

Chao QiSupervisor: Dr Dimitris Potoglou

MSc Transport and PlanningSchool of Planning and Geography

Cardiff University

short-stay car parking choice behaviour qc (2)

Documents

parking pricing

parking charge

parking safety

parking fares

cardiff school of planning

parking users sensitivities

parkingspace availability

parking space availability