The time looking for a parking space: strategies, associated nuisances and stakes of parking management in France.

Among the components of urban traffic, the vehicles searching for a parking place represent a percentage of the traffic that cannot be eluded. SARECO has lead a research for the PREDIT (French program of research) in order to evaluate the stakes linked to the time spent by road users looking for a space in France. When a motorist looks for a parking space, he creates a certain relation with the space in which he moves. The strategy he will carry out depends not only on the urban context but also on his individual characteristics. The enquiries have clarified motorists' behaviours : As he looks for a space, the motorist progressively enlarges his circle of research. Beyond 15 minutes, the average distance to the destination is less than 200m. When the time gets over 15 minutes, the distance gets more and more important and can get over 500m. In the process of its looking for a parking space, the road user will have to decide whether to switch to a new scope. The direct nuisance is of course the time spent by the motorist as this activity is obviously unproductive. The average searching time is 3,3 minutes in Grenoble, 11,8 minutes in Lyon, and in Paris, 10 minutes in Commerce district and 7,7 minutes in Saint-Germain district. The visitors represent most of the searching time because they are the greatest number of cars, however the residents are those spending individually most of the time. The extrapolation to the whole France (taking also into account enquiries made by SARECO in smaller towns) has lead us to an estimation of 70 millions hours spent looking for a space each year in France, which represents around a 700 millions euros loose each year, including an estimation of the externalities costs (noise, pollution,). However, the toll implementation leads to a segregative mobility and can have pervert long-term effects, especially if, subsequently, no alternative means of transportation are developed. The inner city could then become a rich " ghetto ". The stakes of searching time reduction exceeding 1 billion euros each year, the subject should be studied thoroughly. France with an average rate of respect of pay parking being under 30% can certainly reduce drastically the amount of time wasted in searching a parking space. For the covering abstract see ITRD E135582.