Summary

Parking is costly and limited in almost every major city in the U.S., contributing to increased congestion, air pollution, and driver frustration. Limited parking may also constrain transit ridership in dense regions, such as the Bay Area, where parking has been full or close to capacity at many of the 29 BART transit stations with parking facilities. Future job growth in the region is likely to worsen parking shortfalls. With parking construction and land use costs increasing, innovative alternatives for meeting near-term parking demand are needed. Smart parking management could provide a cost-effective solution. One smart parking management approach, a concept that we call "dynamic messaging," uses advanced technologies to alert and guide travelers to parking spaces as they become available at or nearby desired destinations to make the most effective use of the existing parking supply. Preliminary estimates suggest this resource management approach could increase available parking by 15 to 40 percent in many areas (Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 2001).

The transit-based, smart parking management research field study will test and evaluate an advanced dynamic smart parking management system to better utilize existing unpaid parking at a transit station (for example, BART's Rockridge station), where parking capacity is strained and to explore a shorter-term (i.e., daily) paid parking concept (at present, BART's paid parking is monthly only). The system will include traffic sensors that count the number of vehicles entering and exiting the lots at the station. The real-time information obtained from the sensors will be conveyed to dynamic message signs (DMS) to alert drivers to the availability of paid and unpaid parking spaces. We will also explore the implementation of a smart parking reservation technology that would allow travelers to reserve long-term (e.g., monthly) and short-term spaces (e.g., daily) in the paid parking lots by internet, phone, and cell phone. For example, if those with longer-term permits (i.e., monthly) did not want to use their space for some period of time (a day or more), then the smart parking reservations system could allow these spaces to be used for daily paid parking. The demand for paid parking recorded on the reservation system could be used to dynamically adjust the price of parking by time of day. This would be the first demonstration of this smart parking management concept in the U.S.

The proposed expansion study will employ multiple before and after instruments to evaluate the following:

- The impact of an advanced smart parking management system on more effective resource management at transit parking stations,
- The effects of smart parking management on transit ridership,
- Behavioral response to improved parking information,
- The informational needs of current and potential transit riders,
- Feedback on the advance smart parking management technology,
- Evaluation of institutional issues associated with the expansion field test project, and
- Lessons learned from the field test.

The ultimate goal of this research is to develop a dynamic smart management parking system that could be implemented throughout transit (light and heavy rail) systems to more efficiently manage parking and increase overall ridership.

Victoria Transport Policy Institute (2001). TDM Encyclopedia: Parking Management-Strategies for More Efficient Use of Parking Resources. Victoria, British Columbia. www.vtpi.org.