پارکینگ در دانشگاه UC : مشکلات و راه حل ها

This study underscores the importance of adopting integrated parking management policies that ensure not only more rational use of the available parking spaces, evenly balancing supply and demand and bringing in revenues to cover the parking facilities costs, but also the improved attractiveness of alternative transportation modes. Parking supply and demand flows within the UC campus are estimated. The results indicate that the parking facility is underpriced and that there is overcrowding. To reflect critically on these issues and identify research areas to address their socioeconomic implications, a survey regarding the characterization of campus commuters and their travel options is presented. Logistic regression modelling is applied to determine the relative importance of UC campus commuters’ attributes in their level of willingness to pay to have reserved parking on the campus. Finally, some policy proposals are discussed.

Parking is a central topic in urban transportation planning and traffic management research (Davis et al., 2010, Khodaii et al., 2010 and Shoup, 2006). Anyone who has parked in the downtown area of a major city during the business day will attest to its high socio-economic cost. Parking in a convenient spot tends to be expensive, while finding available curbside parking normally entails spending time and walking some distance (Anastasiadou et al., 2009, Marsden, 2006 and Vianna et al., 2004). Cars cruising for parking further exacerbate traffic congestion and noise problems, originate accidents, waste fuel and other resources, pollute the air, degrade the pedestrian environment, and restrain levels of accessibility. The problems generated by the lack of parking spaces are becoming more acute, particularly in more densely populated areas or at locations with significant restrictions on their ability to implement a sound planned parking supply (Arnott & Inci, 2006). As a location that provides all staff and students with a place for their working, studying and even living, the provision of parking constitutes one of the most troublesome transportation problems at many university campuses, all over the world (Alshuwaikhat and Abubakar, 2008, Balsas, 2003 and Shang et al., 2007). This is true also for the University of Coimbra (UC) campus (Polo I). The UC is the oldest academic institution in the Portuguese-speaking world and one of the oldest in Europe. Situated on a hill overlooking the city, the UC comprises a cluster of historical buildings, which has grown and evolved over more than seven centuries, and which unquestionably constitutes its own noble and well-defined urban area within the city. The meaningful examples of a significant cultural heritage cluster which expressively illustrates an outstanding artistic and architectural value are confirmed by an ongoing candidacy to UNESCO world cultural heritage site. The need to ensure a balance that does not jeopardize the normal fruition and preservation of these cultural heritage goods constitutes a challenging research agenda. This paper intends to establish an ‘integrated modelling approach’, from which can be derived some significant contributions concerning parking issues within the UC campus. The analysis is organized as follows. Section Literature provides a review of the literature on the economics of parking. In section Method different methodologies will be combined in a complementary way, i.e. following the analysis of parking supply and demand within the UC campus, a survey concerning the socio-economic characterization of campus commuters and their travel options will be presented. Then, the survey data are used to test different multinomial logistic regression models to examine which characteristics of the individuals have a major impact on the willingness to pay to have reserved parking at the UC campus. Section Discussion and conclusions concludes the paper analyzing the main results and anticipating some directions for future research.

This study is guided by one major research ambition, i.e., to establish an ‘integrated modelling approach’, from which can be derived significant contributions addressing the heterogeneity of parking problems within the UC campus. The results of an ad hoc assessment process concerning the available UC campus parking places have shown that more than 45% of the current parking supply does not involve any kind of economic regulation. Typically, underpricing anything creates a shortage, and UC campus parking proved to be no exception. The modelling results concerning parking flows, presented in section Parking flows analysis, fully demonstrate that the existing parking places are largely insufficient to meet current demand. This conclusion is strengthened by the circumstance that non-regular parking has actually become a ‘valid parking alternative’ (inducing even more externalities). It is hard to understand why universities persist in subsidizing parking by providing it at no charge, or at prices that do not fully take into account parking costs. Therefore, one of the measures would be to increase control over non-regular parking and eliminate free on-street parking, encouraging both a modal shift away from private car use and the development of a parking meter revenue sharing plan towards public transportation projects. The survey results, presented in section The survey, have shown that these measures have a significant potential to start reversing the UC campus structural parking problems and make alternative transport modes relatively more convenient and cost-effective. Decreasing the overall subsidization of parking should not only reduce the attractiveness (in relative terms) of car driving, but can also be an important source of revenues to encourage the 73.6% of car drivers, who have shown their willingness to accept a compensation equivalent to a percentage of the cost of public transport in order to reduce car use, to take the decisive step. Additionally, promoting parking management and control policies that are compatible with the transport planning process might be associated with effects that go beyond the boundaries of the transportation system and can influence several socio-economic aspects. External costs may range from tangible investment, such as avoiding costs of parking structure development, to less tangible externalities such as the time savings in cruising-for-parking or health care costs associated with diseases caused by vehicle emissions. On the other hand, subsidized parking might only benefit car drivers, while public transport incentives might generate benefits much more pervasive and egalitarian. Multinomial logistic regression modelling revealed the relative importance of UC campus commuters’ various attributes in their willingness to pay to have reserved parking at the campus, stressing that “Females”, “University collaborators” and individuals with higher income per capita have higher probability of being available to pay to have reserved parking. Summing up, “colleges and universities must learn to act responsibly not only because it is right to be responsible, but also because it is in their self-interest” (Orr, 1992, p. 5). Three arguments can be extracted from this statement. Firstly, if fewer cars are travelling to the campus, then fewer parking spaces are required, lower maintenance costs are incurred, and the land currently dedicated for parking can be converted to other, possibly more rewarding, uses. Secondly, the University campus may constitute an important laboratory to test and implement new transportation strategies leading to reductions in infrastructure costs and less negative impacts on the surrounding areas. One aspect often disregarded is the potential of academia to influence not only the student’s mobility choices, but also the environmental awareness and habits they can develop in the long term, i.e., they can become powerful forces to reshape the future society’s transportation patterns. Finally, increasing transportation equity reduces the demand for parking, and can help universities recruit and retain students. In spite of all these arguments, the implementation of the proposals in this research agenda is a complex task likely to encounter considerable opposition, namely because campus administrators are expected to be reluctant to embrace such significant changes. However, the city of Coimbra and its University have the potential to take a leadership role and promote environmentally sound programmes well-matched with the preservation of the historical and cultural buildings comprising the campus, an aim that should be considered especially in light of the current aspirations as a world cultural heritage site classification, by UNESCO. Finally, although the results of this research are limited to the case of UC, this integrated modelling approach is applicable to other cases. Indeed, “big universities resemble small cities” (Shoup, 2008, p. 147), and the interventions in TDM at UC can provide important lessons concerning the design of planning policies aiming at controlling the scarcity of parking spaces in the city, and elsewhere in the world.