Parking is an important aspect of urban transport planning and policy. Parking policy measures such as changes in the scale or composition of the parking stock, adjustments in tariff structures, stricter enforcement measures or new forms of signing can have significant direct and indirect effects on transport system performance and wider economic and social goals. In recent years new modelling approaches have been developed to support the analysis of parking policies. However, so far, there have been relatively few systematic applications of these new techniques and practical experience in their use is limited. This paper describes an application of the CLAMP (Computer based Local Area Model of Parking) model in Birmingham City Centre. This application constitutes the most comprehensive implementation of the CLAMP model to date. The first section of the paper briefly discusses the policy background of the study and outlines the key parking policy questions facing the City Council. In the second section the structure of the CLAMP model used in Birmingham is briefly described, focusing in particular on the modelling extensions introduced during the study. The third section describes the data collection phase of the study which consisted of a series of conventional travel and parking surveys, together with a set of computer based stated preference experiments addressing linked destination, mode and parking type choices. The fourth section summarizes the results of these experiments and illustrates how they are applied within the model in order to examine a range of alternative policy options. The paper concludes with a general discussion of the experience gained in the study and the implications for future studies.
Abstract