Tag Archives: FHWA

Free Webinar: Reducing Cruising for Parking: New Research & Tools Presented by the Federal Highway Administration

Reducing Cruising for Parking: New Research & Tools Presented by the Federal Highway Administration

 


Experts say 30 percent of urban traffic comes from cars circling in the hunt for parking—but recent research says that’s not necessarily true.

Join experts from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration to learn why that number is usually much lower. They have developed a new tool to reduce circling even more, potentially transforming the way people find parking, and how professionals limit costly cruising and maximize on-street and off-street resources.

Click here to view webinar.

Resources from Parking & Mobility

Read the January issue of Parking & Mobility, featuring our cover story on FHWA’s groundbreaking research on cruising and new tools to help industry professionals manage parking assets.

 

The Cruising Phenomenon

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently developed a tool to help cities help their drivers find parking and stop circling–after all, circling for parking creates a lot of downtown traffic. The first thing they did was study all that circling. And what they found was surprising:

The top line finding is that cities have likely overestimated their parking search problem by abstracting from the areas known anecdotally to be the worst. In spite of the myth that 30 percent of traffic is circling for parking, we find that the percentage of trips that include excess parking search is between 5 percent in Ann Arbor and 7 percent in Seattle. These lower rates don’t mean that cruising isn’t a problem, but rather is less universally one than previously thought. That’s good because it also means that cruising is likely more solvable through targeted measures.

That’s from their article about their study and their new tool in this month’s Parking & Mobility magazine–and there’s more, including an upcoming, free webinar with FHWA experts and researchers for IPMI members.  With the accepted number of 30 perhaps being as low as five, we think you might not want to miss either.

 

Expanding Traveler Choices Through the Use of Incentives: A Compendium of Examples

By L. Dennis Burns, CAPP

Near the end of last year, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released a new report: “Expanding Traveler Choices Through the Use of Incentives: A Compendium of Examples”.

Below is a brief abstract describing the document.

“With increased congestion across the Nation’s roadways, transportation agencies, universities, and research institutions are testing new approaches and implementing programs to cause travelers to shift their behavior to alleviate congestion and proactively and dynamically manage the transportation system. Using behavioral economic theories, agencies have provided different ‘nudging’ incentives to promote behavioral changes from travelers to shift modes, times of travel, or routes taken before and during their trips. This primer looks at different programs across the world to see how organizations have tackled congestion with these strategies.”

The report can be downloaded here. Happy reading!

L. Dennis Burns, CAPP, is regional vice president with Kimley-Horn.