This paper is based on current research by the Institute of Research on Public Expenditure (IOO), for the Netherlands Transport Research Centre (AVV). The aim of both the research and paper is to provide insight into the types of public parking cost and amounts of these costs (and revenues). The results are preliminary. The research concerns public parking spaces in built-up areas, available to the public during some time of day. They can be publicly or privately owned. Parking spaces located on private grounds for private use are not included in the research. The Netherlands has approximately 9 million public parking spaces available for its 6.3 million cars. The Netherlands cover a total of 33.906.000 ha. Most parking spaces are located on the streets (80%), some on separate grounds (18%) and others in buildings (2%). In all municipalities the benefits either the costs of parking or both are zero (small municipalities). However, the real public costs are higher than the calculated costs which are estimated at 583 million guilders. The underestimation is due to not all known costs being taken into account, such as costs of employees, and others cost being neglected such as costs of real estate. As a result, driving is being subsidized through parking. The majority of municipalities, especially the larger ones, have recently introduced various forms of parking policy (payed parking, licenced parking, blue zones, and parking fines). This practice allows parking policy to evolve into a policy of charging real costs through realistic pricing. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E206647.
Abstract