Review of the effects of developments with low parking requirements

Paper in proceeding, 2019

Parking management and planning can be used to address several issues related to sustainable urban development. E.g., parking availability affects both car ownership and usage, and parking planning can affect both land use and building costs. A tool used in several countries is minimum parking requirements (MPR) and lowering these could be a pathway to more sustainable mobility. However, the actual effects of lower MPR have not systematically been studied. In this paper we present the results of a review of twelve developments with low MPR in Sweden, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Existing research and reports have been analysed to compare these and draw conclusions on the effect of MPR on mobility patterns and mobility services. In addition, interviews were conducted with representatives from municipalities and developers. Some of the key findings are: • All of the studied projects have good prerequisites for sustainable mobility such as access to public transport, central location, mobility services, and bike paths. • Results indicate that the mobility patterns of individuals in the studied projects are more sustainable than in nearby projects. However, the causality of MPR and mobility is hard to establish. • Many projects combine MPR with mobility services such as carsharing. For this to be successful, requirements for MPR and mobility services should be included in the planning permission. • Legally binding contracts are needed to clarify responsibilities between developer, municipalities and mobility service suppliers. • Studied developments in and outside Sweden differ in posed requirements. Swedish projects only put requirements on parking and mobility services, whereas those studied in Germany, Switzerland and Austria put requirements on traffic or car ownership. • It is important to look at a wider geographical area and not only the specific project. Parking availability and pricing in the surroundings might affect the outcome of a low MPR project.