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Current trends in parking policies city parking in Europe

Prof. Dr. Elmar Kulke,

Humboldt University

1 Introduction

Each beginning and end of any car based journey is connected with a parking process.

That simple fact reflects the importance of parking for a car orientated society. Until the

1980s planning policies considered the principle of each car user expects three parking

places: at home, at the working place and on any other trip necessary as its maxim.

Parking was only a matter for the building code, meaning: providing more parking

spaces. From the 1950s most European cities provided new parking space through the

construction of off-road parking spaces in inner city areas. On-road parking was rather

the exemption and was unrestricted and unproblematic. The mid 1980s represented a

turning point concerning parking strategies: inner city space was short and valuable, the

competition between space for parking and the increasing space demand for other urban

functions (retail, services, areas for recreation and green) and the remaining mobility

means (public transport, pedestrians, bicycles) grew.

Additionally, traffic problems and congestion became a development obstacle for the

social, economic and cultural urban potential and an environmental burden. A beginning

public discourse calls for Sustainable development in terms of land-, emission- and

energy-saving strategies.

This gain of importance for environmental issues and the fact that many municipalities

faced major budget problems in this period led to a shift of responsibilities: parking

became no longer only an issue for the building code but a part of city- and transport

planning with a growing concern regarding sustainable mobility.

Today parking management is and should be an important element of urban transport

policy in most European cities and urban regions. The last ten years show undoubted that

parking space policies can influence and determine mobility and transport choices, as

well as the quality of traffic flow and partially even land use. By that municipalities have

an effective tool to control and channel the flow of traffic.

To what extend parking plays a role in planning and policy differs as much as the various

transport policies and traffic management and organisation that have been implemented

in urban areas over the past twenty years.

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Furthermore, and this is what other projects in the field of transport and traffic research

state, no two cities are the same, and any attempt to deal with the challenges of urban

mobility on a European level have to take into consideration the uniqueness of each city,

its particular development and settlement structure before a varying background of

historical, cultural and economic conditions, even if sustainable urban mobility is the

general objective.

Facing the broad requirements cities have to meet today, the project is looking for

innovative methods to solve parking problems and regulate parking in inner cities, to find

out about new trends and good practise examples.

Before coming up with some actual trends in parking policy, which can be supported by

experiences and developments in the partner cities, I want to go one step back.

For better understanding general tendencies of municipalities to handle the constant

traffic flow in inner cities one has to highlight the underlying basic conditions, meaning

the current mobility patterns. I just want to mention some crucial points.

2 Trends in Mobility

2.1 Mobility will stay an important location factor.

Even in times of intensive use of telecommunication technologies the accessibility of the

inner cities by car is one of the important hard location factors for cities and urban

areas. The competitiveness of cities and urban regions depends to a high degree,

particularly regarding goods traffic, on the road traffic system and its expansion.

The importance of other mobility means (public transport, pedestrians, bicycles) is often

undervalued, particularly regarding public investments in infrastructure, although they

are incontestable important for an integrated mobility strategy in high density areas.

The evaluation of the importance of parking as part of urban accessibility differs,

depending on the perspective. Shop owners in inner city areas for example tend to

overestimate the impact of parking place offers for the volume of sales. On the other

hand you all know that soft location factors like the sojourn quality, leisure quality,

environmental conditions and similar factors are relevant influencing variables for the

decision where to work, to invest, to live, to shop and to recreate.

Safeguarding the accessibility by car therefore was and is in the centre of every urban

transport strategy and is basically attached to the offer and quality of parking space.

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2.2 Traffic volume in urban agglomerations will continue to increase.

The constant increase of the traffic volume in urban areas is closely linked to the land

use. As any human and economic activity have spatial consequences and the spatial

allocation of functions have consequences for the transport system. Descriptive models

demonstrate that the city structure is significantly determined by the predominant

transport system and vice versa.

This means, analysing the city structure is a precondition for deciding on the appropriate

parking policy.

The strong correlation between urban transport and urban form patterns shows the

following dependencies:

High population density decreases car use.

Larger settlements sizes show a lower proportion of car use than small ones.

Areas of mixed use are associated with a lower proportion of car use.

Therefore a restriction of the urban sprawl and the mixture of functions are important

elements for decreasing traffic volume in urban areas.

Potentials for traffic reduction are obvious, particularly when analysing the average trip

length of mobility by cars. In Germany 10 % of all trips done by car are lower than 1000

meters and one third is lower than five kilometres (see Mobilitt in Deutschland).

The consequences of demographic trends on the traffic volume on the contrary are not

yet clear. The shrinking of population, which can be stated in several countries,

associated with an aging of the society, may have on the long term for consequence a

decline of the traffic volume. Regarding the absolute volume of traffic in urban regions,

the ongoing urbanization up to know seems to compensate the drop in population, which

differs from region to region.

Looking at the purpose of trips, a shifting of commuter traffic towards leisure and supply

traffic can be noted. In Germany one third of the kilometres per person are related to

this category with high growth rates (grafik). That is important to mention, because the

trip length of leisure and supply mobility increases.

2.3 Car orientated mobility will continue to play a major role for the urban traffic system.

Due to the fact that private motorization still grows, even if population and household

income stagnates, car orientated mobility is still more or less dominant in urban

agglomerations. Most of the partner cities are confronted with an ongoing motorization.

In Athens for example the car number has doubled in the Metropolitan Area during the

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last ten years.

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

1970

1980

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

Fig.1: Number of passenger cars per 1000 inhabitantsin participating countries

Belgium

Germany

Spain

Bulgaria

Italy

Greece

EU 15

source: Eurostat

Figure 1 shows the number of passenger cars per 1000 inhabitants in the participating

countries. You can see the increase of motorization on different levels of the last thirty

years. Unfortunately data for motorization which take into account only the national high

density areas were not available. As you can see the increase slows down in the last

years, or even declines, as in Italy.

The second figure allows a closer look at the participating cities and shows a very

heterogeneous picture. Smolyan is an outlier, the municipality is very large in space with

only few dense areas. People need the car, there are no real alternatives. Santa Cruz

definitely has a problem, when looking at the impressive motorization. Berlin and

Antwerp show a comparable picture. Even if motorization is lower in Belgium, both cities

give a positive picture and posses an efficient public transport system and parking space

management; they are beyond the national and European average, in Berlin the

discrepancy between the national and local level is the biggest. The Italian cities are

beyond the European level, as well as national as local, showing the high motorization

grade in general.

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0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1 2 3 4 5 6

*Gre

ece

Bel

gium

Ant

wer

p

Ath

ens

Ital y

Bar

iB

olog

na

Ger

man

yB

erlin

*Spa

in

*San

ta C

ruz

d. T

.

Bul

garia

Sm

olya

n

*EU 15

Fig. 2: Number of passenger cars per 1000 inhabitantsin participating cities, countries and EU 15, 2004

source: Eurostat, various statistical off ices* : 2003

Causes for the high motorization can not only be found in the land use but also in the

fact, that mobility patterns show a strong habitualization, meaning that the decision to

take the car is not based on a rational economic decision. It is a result of a mobility

attitude, which depends amongst others on variables like socialisation and live style and

consumer behaviour.

The frequent use of the car for short distance trips, as already mentioned above shows

that unfavourable conditions (regarding costs, congestion, stress) do not restrain people

from choosing the car as mobility mean. Under favourable conditions (no congestion, no

parking problems) the car holds a systematic advantage in comparison with alternative

transport means. The economy of time resulting from the car use, is used to expand the

cruising radius (does not apply for freight traffic).

This leads us to the next point:

2.4 The choice of transport means will not change radically.

In general, the distribution of trips according to the different mobility means (modal split)

does not show significant changes. Passenger kilometres by public transport means

stagnate, the proportion of non-motorized mobility means declines (pedestrians, bicycle).

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Figure 3 illustrates the above mentioned: the ratio between passenger kilometres by

public transport and by private cars stays basically constant while the traffic volume

constantly increases. People undertake more and/or longer trips, but do not basically

change transport means.

0

1 000

2 000

3 000

4 000

5 000

6 000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Public TransportPassenger Cars

Fig. 3: Modal Split in 1.000 mio passenger-km for EU-25

source: eurostat

High density areas show a growing importance of public transport in general, but the

private car still has a dominant function for urban mobility.

Figure 4 shows, that all listed participating cities are below the national average, which

underlines the strong correlation between urban form patterns and transport patterns.

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Belg

ium

Ger

man

y

Berli

n

Gre

ece

Athe

ns

Spai

n

Sant

a C

ruz

d. T

.

Italy

Bolo

gna

Passenger Cars Public Transport

**B

erlin

*Ath

en

***S

anta

Cru

z d.

T.

**B

olgo

na

Fig. 4: Passenger cars vs. Public transport in passenger-km in %, 2002

* 2004**2001*** no yearsource: eurostat, vearious statistical off ices

EU 15

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Lots of efforts are concentrated on reaching a shift of the modal split towards sustainable

transport means as main target of urban mobility strategies. Up to now it can be stated,

that expanding and maintaining the public transport system and bicycle road systems as

well as restrictive parking policies are basic requirements for a significant shift, but do

not provoke radical changes.

The core of current Mobility Management Strategies are therefore "soft" measures (e.g.

promotion, communication and information, better coordination of existing user

services), which enhance the effectiveness of "hard" measures of traffic planning. These

soft tools do not necessarily require large investments measured against their high

potential to change mobility behaviour on the long term.

2.5 Traffic will become more environmentally friendly and urban compatible although basic problems will persist.

Environmental concerns are on the political agenda of nearly every city, several EU

projects and European declarations testify the ambitions for realizing sustainable

transport patterns.

Already in 1994 the charter of Aalborg expresses the wish for a turn over in urban

transport policies:

The reality shows the opposite: public and non-motorized means of transport often have

the subsidiary function.

Environmental friendly transport means has become an imperative, since traffic problems

diminish the economic development and attractiveness of urban areas and become a

significant agglomeration disadvantage. A turning away from a concentration on car

orientated towards urban compatible mobility hence is part of the local competitiveness

and on the agenda of nearly every local authority.

Progress has been made concerning car emissions (low emission cars). New technologies

foster for example the development and usage of hydro cars or natural gas cars.

But the consumption of public space by car orientated infrastructure and the noise due to

the traffic volume still remain a basic problem.

Charter of Aalborg (European Conference on Sustainable Cities & Towns in Aalborg, Denmark on 27 May 1994) We, cities & towns, shall strive to improve accessibility and sustain social welfare and urban lifestyles with less transport. We know that it is imperative for a sustainable city to reduce enforced mobility and stop promoting and supporting the unnecessary use of motorised vehicles. We shall give priority to ecologically sound means of transport (in particular walking, cycling, public transport) and make a combination of these means the centre of our planning efforts. Motorised individual means of urban transport ought to have the subsidiary function of facilitating access to local services and maintaining the economic activity of the city.

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2.6 Transport systems will become more flexible.

The degree of utilisation of urban transport systems will increase, therefore the need for

adjustment and control becomes more and more important. Facing the multiple functions

the inner cities of today have to fulfil, efficient systems which can react flexible to the

diverse requirements need to be implemented. Flexible office- and shop-hours and for

example cultural events cause different peak hours and the urban transport system has

to handle the flexible demand resulting from that.

Furthermore flexible systems offer an evenly distribution on different transport means

and an evenly utilization of the road network.

New technological approaches in telematics are the basis for it. Traffic management

control centres, traffic guidance systems, navigation systems are examples. Particularly

in the area of parking management new technologies are an important tool.

2 Trends in Parking Policies

An effective parking policy, meaning effective strategies and instruments to handle the

parking problems, depends, as mentioned in the introduction, on numerous

determinants. Basic parameters as city size, city structure, motorization and the local

transport system are building the frame for what is useful, and what is not. In practise

the room for manoeuvres is limited by the political will and the budget.

Nevertheless some trends are visible when analysing the different approaches made by

the partner cities concerning their parking policies. They correspond to basic findings

made in other project and initiatives occupied with urban transport issues.

First of all integration, management and enforcement are general keywords. In most of

the cities parking is a relevant element of an urban mobility strategy and should be part

of any overall planning tool, like an urban transport plan.

The integration of parking strategies in the general city development planning shows

the importance attached to the topic and the awareness, that an effective parking policy

can have great impact on the speed and the destination of urban traffic flows. Some

plans provide detailed guidelines for parking space management while others include

parking in a more general way.

Second parking space management is realized or in implementation in nearly every city,

unpriced parking in inner city areas is the exemption due to the understanding that free

parking does not solve congestion problems. Furthermore priced parking can be a

resource of revenues for the local authority.

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Third strict control and enforcement of the managed areas is the sine qua non of an

effective parking management.

Parking space management strategies in the participating cities usually provide a

monitoring system through enforcement. While in Berlin and Antwerp the police is

supported by parking wardens from authorized companies, in other cities this is solely

operated by the police. Experiences show that controlling and issuing offences with fines

are the keys to an effective parking problem solution.

The following actual tendencies in parking policies can be subsumed in four different

categories: new supply strategies, application of new technologies and services,

refinement of parking management concepts and new approaches in mobility

management.

2.1 New supply strategies

Restriction of on street parking

Today, none of the participating cities supports a simple demand-supply policy regarding

parking. The restriction of on street parking due to the high percentages of parking

search traffic in central areas and due to the fact that cruising for parking slows down

traffic significantly. The overall economic costs of parking search traffic are expected to

be very high, although there is only little formal analysis of parking e.g. on the

economics of parking.

Nevertheless in some cities current parking pressures lead to a scheme that includes

providing new parking space, like in Bologna, Bari and Santa Cruz.

Reallocation

Parking space will be more and more shifted into less sensible spaces. The limited public

space in inner cities was and is often devaluated for parking reasons. Space is needed for

other purposes and the allocation of existing parking spaces by virtue of conflicts with

other urban space functions.

From this follows that increasing investments for the construction of parking space have

to be spend in the future. Underground parking and less space consuming mechanical

parking systems will become more accepted, although construction and operating costs

are high.

Additionally park and ride must be mentioned, but the chances of success for inter-modal

mobility offers are controversial debated, research has shown that reaching a proper

acceptance level is very difficult.

Flexible parking space offers

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As the whole transport system becomes more flexible, this applies to the parking space

as well. Parking offers need to cope with temporary fluctuations in parking demand.

Linking up parking spaces among each other if required and the flexible and rapid

connection of big parking spaces with the final destination by public shuttles are

examples.

2.2 Making use of new technologies and services

The second new trend is the use of new technologies and services. New technologies and

telematics found ones way in the modern traffic systems of our cities (ITS Intelligent

Transport systems) and are an integral element of an effective parking management and

mainly applied to increase user-friendliness and to optimise enforcement.

Concerning user friendliness, central fields of operation are

dynamic parking guidance systems (on street and within car parks),

information service systems for users

This comprises for example information on private and public parking spaces (real time

availability: where, how many, how much) via Internet or SMS and in navigation

software.

alternative methods of payment.

This strikes mainly the payment of parking charges via mobile phone and the upgrade of

P&D machines (payment via bank card & credit card). Paying parking fees via mobile

phones is a rather new approach in the participating cities, so far with pilot projects in

Berlin and Antwerp and Athens soon. Several examples for this trend can be found all

over Europe. Up to now there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the use of these

new methods and systems as little data has been gathered so far on the costs, usability,

acceptance and limitations of these systems, but there are several successful examples.

alternative methods of enforcement

Regarding the optimizing of enforcement, key applications are for example real time

information from P & D machines and parking enforcement with data handhelds being

able to realise real-time communication with databases.

2.3 Refinement and readjustment of Parking Management Concepts

The refinement and readjustment of Parking Management Concepts are observable

developments in parking policies. After several years in practice, cities have learnt about

flaccidities of the implemented management concepts and see potentials for

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amelioration.

flexible tariff systems

First of all flexible tariff systems were implemented. Experiences have shown that the

optimal pricing model is in every case a flexible one, because priced parking

independently of location does not solve the parking congestion in inner city areas. Most

of the cities have a differentiated tariff structure with high and low charged zones.

Pre-emption of specific user groups

A pre-emption of specific user groups can be stated in the parking policy of several cities.

Here parking strategies only take into account the qualified demand. That means

supply is not provided for any parking space user. According to a ranking, only qualified

parking demand is targeted. Meaning, subject to the orientation of the local parking

policy and the area:

-parking for residents

-freight traffic (e.g. parking for delivery vehicles)

-parking for customers

-leisure traffic

-parking for commuters (work, education)

This ranking characterizes more or less the parking management strategy of the

participating cities. The focus of interest is concentrated on the field of residential

parking, where adequate and efficient parking space offers for residents in the inner city

are needed.

2.4 New approaches in Mobility Management

The next two points are indirectly influencing the parking demand in inner cities by

restrictions and/or incentive measures.

Restrictive measures: Limited traffic zones and Road Pricing

Measures to control (car) mobility in inner cities, which are actually discussed among

planners and politicians, mainly refer to restrictive measures like limited traffic zones or

road pricing. They seem to be quite popular in recent times, probably because effects on

the traffic can be recognized quite soon after implementation.

Bologna for example -Athens as well- has restricted the access to the historical centre by

implementing a Limited Traffic Zone. At the beginning of 2005 the municipality has

activated an IT system: 10 cameras have been installed at the main access streets. The

licence plate of each vehicle entering the L.T.Z. is scanned and the data is send to a

database. If the vehicle is authorised to enter the area, the data is deleted, if the vehicle

is not authorised the owner is fined. Since it has been installed, the number of accesses

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to the L.T.Z. was reduced by 17%. [Abbildung: Grafik 6 aus Konferenz-Report; Gre

und Lage der LTZ]

Additionally, the City of Bologna will soon establish a Road pricing system within the area

of the Limited Traffic Zone and will follow the prominent example of London and

Stockholm. By that the duration of stay in the zone can be controlled. The charge will

differ depending on the emission level regarding annual permissions (25 to 100 Euro)

and on the length of stay extraordinary access (5 to 12 Euro).

Incentive Measures

Road pricing and limited traffic zones are rather drastic measures. On the other hand soft

measures aiming at long time effects are constituent elements of mobility management.

Some participating cities adopted incentive measures to lower the parking pressure in the

inner city. A common example is providing park & ride parking spaces, where the users

do not have to pay for the subsequent public transport into the city and out of the city.

The question is: if incentives were as drastic as some restrictive measures, would they

lead to similar effects? We know that the Belgium Public Transport Authority De Lijn

had great success with a measure where families were offered to change their car for an

annual ticket for public transport. With 11.000 families joining this measure in 2005 and

only 800 families returning to their car this measure proves to be a success (TAZ).

Hasselt in Belgium (70.000 inhabitants) provides inner city public transport for free

(busses run every 5 minutes). Passenger numbers increased from 30.000 per year

(1997) to 4 Mio. per year (end of 2003) (source: wdr).

3 Conclusions

Mobility can be seen as basic requirement of the individual. The final point, from which

on this demand is satisfied, can be hardly estimated.

A saturation of the ongoing motorization on global scale is not on the horizon, car

ownership and use grow even though in different rates.

But, this finding was the outcome of several initiatives and projects dealing with urban

transport and mobility (metropolis, life, civitas):

Car use and congestion tends to be lowest in city centres where parking is

restricted and managed and where the public transport system is well

developed.

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If we want to meet the requirements for sustainable urban structures we have to rethink

the existing mobility patterns without neglecting the persistent importance of the car for

the accessibility of cities.