Parking Demand Management at Delft University of Technology

Abstract

The last decade the TU Delft underwent a tremendous growth. It is not only its growth but its increasing population as well. Thus, since the last years, new buildings and parking areas were built to host all its stakeholders. Due to this ongoing growth, and in an effort of the administration to establish its vision for a sustainable campus, its interest is focused to the parking stress that the TU Delft currently faces. More specifically, parking demand has been growing along with the increase of the university’s population. Although the effects of Parking Demand Management (PDM) on people’s behavior have already been the focus of many studies, its exact effects on the traveling and parking behavior on universities’ commuters remain unclear. What is more, most of the studies consider alternatives such as on-street, off-street parking, whereas in the specific study alternative ways of transport that lead in parking demand reduction were chosen to be investigated. The purpose of this study is to shed light in the effects of different Parking Demand Management strategies and apply them in the parking demand of the TU Delft. The framework that is developed in order to confront the increasing parking demand of the TU Delft includes two parts. The first part focuses on the identification of the current parking supply and demand, followed by an estimation of the future parking demand. An observation in the parking areas of the TU Delft campus and forecasting techniques are employed to define the current and future parking supply. The results of the first part show that currently the parking demand of the TU Delft is inside the acceptable boundaries (86,5% of the total parking supply). However, according to the observations, the distribution of the volume of the parking demand differs from the distribution of the parking supply. Consequently, parking areas with less than 85% of occupancy and parking areas exceeding the parking supply are observed. Concerning the future parking demand, the results foreshadow a large increase in future. It is expected that in 2020 the demand for parking in the TU Delft campus will exceed the supply by 17,5%. The second part, is dealing with the effects of the chosen Parking Demand Management (PDM) strategies in the commuters behavior. PDM is considered the application of different strategies and policies to reduce parking demand, or to redistribute it in space or time. To be able to identify the aforementioned effects on the commuters’ behavior, a stated choice experiment is employed. As expected parking cost attribute has the highest effect on commuters’ travelling and parking decisions. Furthermore, the calculation of the elasticities of all the attributes used in the stated choice experiment, confirms the hypothesis that the price incentivizes commuters in their travelling and parking choices. More specifically, every percentage increase of the parking price will result to approximately 1,5% of decrease in Drive Alone demand. As far as searching time is concerned, it is proved to be inelastic. Every percentage increase of searching time results to less than 0,5% decrease in the Drive Alone alternative, while every percentage increase of egress time results in 0,337% decrease of the same alternative. In order to transfer the aforementioned theoretical approaches to practical results, simulations with the estimated model are realized. The results of the simulations prove that Carpooling is more preferable than Park & Ride with the initial policies. However, by reducing the cost of Park & Ride, in respect to Carpooling and by introducing minibus service to minimize its egress time their effects are managed to achieve a balance. More specifically, the model shows some remarkable reduction of parking demand due to carpooling and an increase of Park & Ride share at the same time. Finally, the simulations that take place prove that with high parking fees a total annihilation of Drive Alone alternative is possible. Finally, the two parts are combined to construct a complete plan of recommendations for the next five years. For this purpose, three scenarios based on the parking supply are developed. The first scenario considers the current parking supply to remain constant for the next five years. The second scenario implies the increase of the parking supply, while the third scenario considers the decrease of the number of parking spots in the campus. For all three scenarios parking fees are recommended and can be found in detail in Figure 22. Sustainable mobility of the university can be achieved through the application of the aforementioned parking demand management strategies at the TU Delft campus. Nonetheless, an attempt to quantify the increase in sustainability through the estimation of the reduction of the CO2 emissions is made. Briefly, for every 5% reduction of parking demand in the campus of the TU Delft, 145 tones of CO2 per year will be avoided. The successful implementation of the abovementioned framework can constitute a source of inspiration and consequently influence other institutions and organization to adopt a philosophy towards sustainable campuses. Therefore an attempt to generalize this case into other contexts is made. Not only universities’ but also organizations such as airports, hospitals, and municipalities can benefit from the application of this framework. However, it is recommended that in different contexts, the coefficients of the model, as well as its attributes should be reconsidered and adapted according to the needs of the specific occasion.