Stated Response Analysis of the Effectiveness of Parking Pricing Strategies for Transportation Control

Transportation control measures based on parking pricing strategies have been receiving considerable attention in many urban areas. Parking pricing entails the levying of a surcharge or tax for parking a personal vehicle that may vary by location and time of day. Stated responses to parking pricing scenarios were obtained from a survey sample of 656 commuters in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Two parking pricing strategies are analyzed. The first strategy involves the imposition of a parking surcharge alone; the second involves the imposition of a parking surcharge together with the provision of an employer-paid transportation voucher. A detailed descriptive analysis of commuter response to parking pricing strategies is presented, and the response distributions in relation to various socioeconomic, demographic, and travel characteristics are analyzed. In general, parking pricing–based strategies are found to exhibit the potential to serve as effective transportation control measures. The employer-paid transportation voucher, although resulting in switches in behavioral responses for a substantial number of commuters, had little impact on the marginal response distributions.