Parking Demand

Parking is an essential, though often overlooked, component of all transportation systems. Transportation systems may be conceived of as having two distinct physical components: a network of guideways, with vehicles that travel over that network, carrying passengers and/or goods. In this view, parking facilities represent specialized nodes along the network for storage and servicing of vehicles not in active use.

While the term parking usually refers to storage for automobiles and trucks, in infrastructure terms, vehicle storage also looms large in the maritime and air transport systems. The physical networks used by air and water transport are mainly supplied by nature, but the majority of investment apart from vehicles is in terminals (seaports and airports); berthing of ships and aircraft is an important component of such terminals.

Parking demand studies focus on cars and trucks for good reason. While the global maritime and aviation fleets are numbered in tens of thousands, cars and trucks number in the millions in most nations, and, in the United States, the motor vehicle fleet is nearly as great as the population. Moreover, compared to other modes, the average car is infrequently in active use.

In the United States, travel surveys reveal the typical private vehicle is in motion less than one hour a day. This means that more than 95 percent of the time, the vehicle must be parked. A typical automobile parking space requires approximately 320 square feet (30 square meters), including necessary maneuvering space, so the demand for parking space is prodigious in countries and regions where motor vehicle ownership and use is common.

The demand for automobile parking is a by-product of the demand for automobile travel. A motorist travels to a certain destination for a certain purpose (for example, to work or to shop) and must store the vehicle upon arrival. From the motorist's perspective, a parking space directly adjacent to the destination is ideal, and the desirability of a parking space decreases with the amount of distance, cost, and difficulty of reaching the nearest parking space to the desired destination.