PARKING REQUIREMENTS AT SUBURBAN SHOPPING CENTRES - AN INVESTIGATION

A parking requirement prediction model, based on shopping centre size and car ownership in catchment area, has been developed and evaluated. It is suggested that parking standards take account of shops acting as shopping centre groups rather than treating individual shops separately. Types of parking standards have been compared. The sliding-scale parking standard, the rate of provision varying with gross floor area, performed almost as well as the more complex prediction model developed. All the parking standards examined would have been improved if expressed as ranges of provision since it would then be possible to take account of additional unmodelled factors. These included location vis-a-vis the road network hierarchy and shopping centre character or style of operation. It is considered that stage construction of larger car parks could overcome some of the problems inherent in forecasting demand. (Author/TRRL)