With increasing demands on roadspace and the need for effective parking policies, highway authorities require accurate data on parking activity. In the past survey techniques have used a patrol, or parking beat, method of data collection. The advent of reliable portable data loggers has facilitated the collection of more detailed data by continuous observation of a smaller sample of parking spaces. This paper compares the effectiveness and accuracy of the two methods, both theoretically and through direct comparison of actual data, in the context of on-street surveys - although the results are equally applicable to off street parking. It is shown that the parking beat method can lead to serious deficiencies in the accuracy of the data collected.
Abstract