Parking pricing strategies and behaviour: Evidence from the Netherlands

Parking policy has long been considered an important tool for the management of urban mobility. One of the major policy dilemmas that urban planners face is the choice between short term versus long term parking i.e., the choice between a parking policy that stimulates short term parking [usually up to 2–3 h] and a policy that stimulates long term parking [usually between 4 and 8 h]. Pricing is the most important tool used by planners to make this choice. Yet, literature suggests that parking demand is inelastic. Accordingly, pricing only might not be enough if local authorities want to influence parking behaviour. We analyse three different parking policies commonly used in European cities – namely pricing only, pricing and time restrictions and daily tickets only – to understand the effects of these policies on a specific aspect of parking behaviour, namely the length of stay. We base our findings on the spatial analysis of 32 million mobile parking transactions made in 2018 in the Netherlands, obtained from a large parking provider. Findings indicate that time restrictions seem more effective than pricing only strategies in managing length of parking stay.