Researchers used Seattle as a case study to find the association between TNC trips and on-street parking occupancy. They found that up to a certain point, more Uber trips meant more parking occupancy. But model predictions show that once TNC trips reach about three times what they were in 2016, parking revenues will likely decline. The final report offers policy options to help cities plan accordingly.
As a proxy for AVs, researchers often examine transportation network companies (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft, because in many ways they operate as AVs will. In a 2019 NITC Small Starts project, «How Will Autonomous Vehicles Change Local Government Budgeting and Finance?» Benjamin Clark of the University of Oregon (UO) examined Seattle’s parking demand and revenue implications for several downtown neighborhoods. Building on that work, Clark and UO colleague Anne Brown took a deeper dive into how new transportation technologies affect on-street parking revenues. Expanding their analysis to the entire City of Seattle, they compared Uber trip data with built environment and parking data from the City. The goal was in part to learn what other localized factors, including TNCs, might explain changes in parking demand. They found that up to a certain point, more Uber trips meant more parking spaces occupied: each additional 1,000 Uber trips was associated with a 17.1 percent increase in parking occupancy.
Download the Final Report «What Makes Cents? How Uber Shapes Municipal On-Street Parking Revenue» at:
Yet findings reveal that the relationship between TNC trips and parking occupancy is not linear. The model predictions show that parking revenues will decline if or when TNC (or possibly AV) trips are about three times greater than the average number of daily trips taken in 2016.
WAIT…SO WHY IS PARKING MORE OCCUPIED?
Intuition might say that more people using Uber should mean less parking occupation. While some travelers may hail an Uber instead of driving, it’s not a simple substitution. Rather than reshuffling a fixed number of travelers from personal cars into Ubers, the advent of TNCs means more people are traveling to and from popular destinations using a combination of modes. TNCs complement other modes and may enable more people to travel on preferred routes and at more convenient times. The data used in this study do not provide insight into which TNC trips substitute for driving, which carry people who previously traveled by other modes or at other times of the day, or which are new trips entirely. Additional research is needed to better understand the potential mode shift dynamics between driving, TNCs, and other modes.
Story Source: Materials provided by Portland State University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.