On-street parking search: A UK local authority perspective

Vehicles searching for parking create an environmental and economic impact. Despite negative externalities for individual drivers and society as a whole, there is a dearth of research in the area of parking search. The aim of this paper is to ascertain the perceptions of expert public policy stakeholders in relation to parking search. Local authorities within the East Midlands area of the UK indicated a lack of recorded evidence regarding the volume of vehicles searching for parking, which created an issue both in terms of establishing the existence of parking search and in quantifying the level of the problem. However, Council Officers expressed consensus in the view that on-street parking search was more likely to occur within peripheral urban areas away from the core city centre, as such areas may be lacking in parking facilities of the type that are typically provided in central urban areas, such as large off-street surface car parks or multi-storey parking facilities. Furthermore, parking search appeared to be more prevalent in larger market towns which attract a large number of visitors for shopping and personal business purposes, but are not able to provide sufficient parking supply to meet peak period demand.