Parking fees in Gothenburg: Effectiveness and consistency with traffic planning goals

Abstract

In 2009 the city of Gothenburg adopted a new parking policy which, among other things, aims to reduce long term parking and encourage short term parking in urban areas. This thesis provides an analysis of parking fees in Gothenburg, where emphasis lies on the city center, using off street data from Parkeringsbolaget and on street data from Trafikkontoret. One of the main factors that affect parking accessibility is the parking price. Thus, the dynamics of the price elasticity of parking demand, the length of parking time, and the intensity of use, such as daily and seasonal variation, are studied to examine if the fees are in line with the policy objectives. The results show that the current parking fees are too low to reduce long term parkers and to encourage rotation. Hence, the parking policy should be modified if a significant change in parking demand is to be achieved.