Evidence on performance

Parking charges have been advocated as a means of fiscal demand management.  Here we briefly outline findings relevant to parking charges arising from empirical work which sought to compare perceptions of local public authority transport officers with assumptions and capabilities of decision-support tools.  

The study asked transport officers about inter-city competition and its implications for prospects of implementing fiscal demand management, especially congestion charging and parking pricing.  There is a strong perception that parking charges are politically problematic and that they attract public opposition. The reasoning offered by opponents of charges emphasises concerns that they will damage competitiveness of an area by deterring business and shoppers.  The transport officers confirmed this perception, if not evidence (see Marsden 2006) of a correlation between parking charges and reduced retail competitiveness. However this perceived correlation is not uniform and there is a  “sharp distinction between those – usually major cities which consider their sufficiently attractive to bring in visitors from outside of their area as well as retaining the custom of their own residents, and places which understand their retail as something that serves more local demand” (Marsden et al. 2013).

Objective	Scale of contribution	Comment
		Charges can cover some of the opportunity cost of space taken by a parked vehicle, and some of the externalities of motor vehicles.
		Residents parking permits can prevent over-demand for parking on residential streets. Since parked cars are associated with increased danger of collision with child pedestrians and cyclists (Petch and Henson 2000), reduced parking might improve child safety.
	/	Limiting demand for use of motor vehicles can reduce poor air quality and emissions, and limit loss of space given to vehicles. Charges within an area may create harm at the fringes if people park just outside the charging area.
	/	If they are effective at limiting demand for driving, parking charges can contribute to alleviating problems of equity such as ill health associated with poor air quality, death and injury in collisions on roads, and severance. Reduced traffic in residential areas can bring social benefits (Appleyard 1981). However charges might have detrimental impacts on accessibility for those on low income.
		See liveable streets above.
	?	There are some perceptions that parking charges can be detrimental to business investment and retail, However there is weak evidence on a relationship between economic growth and charges.
		While charges may compensate for some externalities they are unlikey to bring substantial profit.