University Parking in Downtown Atlanta: Case Study and Demand Factors

Abstract 
Over 95 percent of all automobile commuters in the United States receive free parking at work provided by their employer. Despite efforts to increase commuting options, 91 percent of commuters still drive to work. 

Universities, unlike most other major employment centers, rarely provide ample, free parking on urban or rural campuses. The typical U.S. university has on-campus parking at the rate of only one space for every three students, and one for every two faculty and staff members. Most universities charge students, staff, and faculty for parking privileges, which can range from as little as $10 per year to as much as $100 per month. Urban campuses tend to have relatively fewer parking spaces and higher parking fees, while suburban and rural campuses tend to have relatively more parking spaces and lower parking fees.

 

Background Information 

Downtown State University is an urban campus, located within a mile of the core of Atlanta’s downtown, with 12,000 students and 4,000 faculty and staff. The university recently undertook an ambitious parking construction program, adding over 1,500 parking spaces in two parking decks, at an average construction cost of $14,000 per parking space.

 

To amortize the bonded debt associated with this construction program, separate, higher parking fees were imposed on the newly built Student Center parking deck. In addition to the annual parking permit fee of $100 per vehicle, a daily charge of $1.50 is assessed against anyone on campus wishing to use the new facility. This parking pricing policy led to considerable dissatisfaction, particularly among students, who apparently prefer to park a mile away from the center of campus and walk or take the Shuttle Bus, rather than to pay the $1.50 additional charge for daily access to the more centrally located Student Center parking deck.

The result has been parking shortages across campus, except in the Student Center parking deck, which often is far from full, even during periods of peak parking demand. The parking and transportation budget is short more than $100,000 in anticipated revenues, principally because of low utilization of the Student Center parking deck.

Scramble spaces” are open to anyone who has an annual parking permit. Key-card spaces are restricted in access to those who have key cards to gain access to that specific lot but are otherwise open to anyone with an annual parking permit. Reserved spaces are identified with a unique number and are assigned to a specific individual on an annual basis. Of the 6,600 scramble spaces distributed across campus, 5,500 are set aside for students, while 1,100 are set aside for faculty and staff. Short-term daily spaces are all located in the Student Center parking deck, and cost $1.50 per day with an annual parking permit, and $3.00 per day without such a permit. Keycard lots and reserved spaces generally are limited in availability to faculty, staff, and Ph.D. students, and are assigned on the basis of seniority, rank, and demonstrated need. Miscellaneous parking spaces with special restrictions include those allocated to family housing, the athletic association, the faculty club, the alumni association, and the student infirmary.

Background Information

 

Demand Factors
Parking demand varies by location, time of day, day of the week, and semester. Virtually every lot is full at some time during any given week, but some lots reach capacity more often than others. Parking restrictions typically are enforced only between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., on weekdays during regular academic terms.

During other time periods, only traffic regulations are enforced, except that requests from reserved space holders to remove illegally parked cars may be honored at any time, and handicapped spaces are always restricted. About 15,000 annual parking permit applications are processed each year. Of the 15,000 annual parking permits sold, 74 percent are for first vehicles, 15 percent for second vehicles, 3 percent for third and additional vehicles, and 8 percent for replacement vehicles. Only one vehicle per student, staff, or faculty is allowed on campus at any given time. Enforcement of this provision of the parking code is principally through the honor system. Additional vehicle permits are provided as a courtesy to multiple vehicle owners, who may need to drive more than one vehicle to campus during the course of any given year. Replacement vehicle permits are provided whenever an existing car is lost, sold, or destroyed.

Of the 15,000 annual parking permits sold, 49 percent go to regular students, 9 percent to cooperative work-exchange students, 20 percent to staff, 20 percent to faculty, and 2 percent to various others. Faculty and staff are more likely than students to register additional vehicles. Students must prove ownership of additional vehicles prior to registration. Faculty are most likely to register their vehicles in the fall semester, while cooperative work-exchange students are least likely to do so at this time. All annual parking permits are nominally valid from August 1, at the beginning of the academic year, through July 31 of the following year. Average daily weekday utilization of the Student Center parking deck varies significantly on a monthly basis.

 

The Annual Parking and Transportation Budget
The sale of annual parking permits generates about $1.15 million in revenues annually. This constitutes well over half of the entire parking and transportation. The Student Center parking deck provides $160,000 annually through the collection of daily parking fees. Quarterly transportation fees are assessed against all students at a rate of $9 per quarter, providing another $350,000 per year. Transportation fees are used to cover the operating costs for the Shuttle Bus and the Escort Van Services, which are used primarily by campus residents. The campus police chief has expressed some concern about the high rate of parking violations on campus, particularly among students, who comprise well over 90 percent of all those cited for parking violations on an annual basis. Despite the fairness and objectivity of the Student Parking Appeals Board, and the fact that over half of all parking tickets issued on campus are never paid, the revenues generated from fines assessed against unregistered and illegally parked cars on campus are quite substantial, contributing over $250,000 to the annual parking budget. The cost of enforcing parking regulations is not insignificant, however.

Demand Factors

 

The annual parking fee is $100. Cooperative work-exchange students spend less time on campus, for which they receive a 50 percent discount off the regular rate. Key-card lot spaces cost an additional $50, and reserved spaces an additional $100 per year. Annual parking permit registration fees are prorated, based on the number of weeks remaining in the semester at the time the permit is sold. All other parking fees are fixed in price, regardless of when sold.

 

Parking costs include capital, operating, and maintenance costs. Capital costs are $1,000 per space for surface lots, $14,000 per space for above-ground parking decks, and approximately $20,000 per space for subterranean spaces. On an annual basis, parking capital costs are about $400 per space, and parking operating and maintenance costs about $200 per space, for parking decks at State University. This includes all costs associated with periodic resurfacing, adequate liability insurance coverage, and maintenance and all other incidental and indirect costs of parking provision.

 

Survey Results: Transportation and Mobility Behavior at Downtown State University
The Parking and Transportation Advisory Committee at Downtown State University recently conducted a survey of students, staff, and faculty on transportation and mobility issues. Overall, 358 of 2,000 surveys distributed across campus were returned, yielding an average 17 percent response rate. Almost 50 percent of the faculty and staff surveys were returned, while only about 10 percent of student surveys were returned. Undergraduate students were particularly unlikely to respond, with a 6 percent average response rate.

 

Faculty were most likely to drive alone, to park on campus, and to have used the Student Center parking deck. Resident students were most likely to use both the Shuttle Bus and the Escort Van Services provided on campus. Although residents made up only one-third of the total student body, they made up two-thirds of the users of both the Shuttle Bus and the Escort Van Services.

 

Faculty tended to be the oldest and best-paid members of the University community. Staff were much more likely than other groups to be female, and somewhat more likely than faculty to have children living with them. Commuter students were more likely to complain about parking location, while resident students were more concerned with parking pricing and related issues. The number of students, staff, and faculty will not change appreciably at Downtown State University over the next decade.

 

Off-Campus Issues
Local residents in Adjacent Neighborhood north of campus have complained of Downtown State University students and staff parking on the streets in their neighborhood to avoid the University’s annual parking fees. Most homes in Adjacent Neighborhood are rental units. Many are occupied by Downtown State University students. The University would like the city to adopt a neighborhood parking permit program, which city police would have to enforce at city expense. Monitoring and surveillance of Adjacent Neighborhood area by campus police would likewise entail significant costs.

The Annual Parking and Transportation Budget

 

City of Atlanta would like the University to deal with the problem internally, for example, through disciplinary measures. In order for Downtown State University to eliminate the problem internally through incentives, all parking on campus would have to be provided free of charge. This would lead to increased parking demand, probably in excess of the existing supply of parking spaces on campus. This would then necessitate an increase in the number of parking spaces on campus, most likely through the construction of additional parking decks. Otherwise, parking demand would spill out on to the local streets again, even with free parking.

 

Comments by the President of Downtown State University
The president of Downtown State University, a policy analyst by training, recently attended a joint meeting of the Parking Rate Committee and the Transportation and Parking Advisory Committee of the University. The president delivered the following critique of current parking pricing policy:

 

1.Current parking prices do not reflect real opportunity costs or relative values for either surface lots or parking structures.
2.Current parking prices only current costs with no provision for reserves to fund new construction needed.
3.Where demand exceeds supply on campus under current parking prices a priority scheme is used to allocate resources.
4.Reserved spaces for faculty and staff are assigned on an ad hoc basis.

 

The president suggested basing a revised parking policy on comparisons with experience from other urban campuses around the country. The president recommended developing relative prices first, and then multiplying such relative prices by a fixed term to equate total system revenues with total system costs. The president further identified this case as a classic example of a rational economic pricing problem.

 

A special task force is being set up at the request of the president to study this problem. The task force will be asked to propose parking pricing and investment criteria and solutions that are equitable to all members of the Downtown State University community and that are efficient from a parking and transportation management perspective. Your firm has been asked to develop a report on the subject to the president and the two committees meeting in joint session within two weeks. You have been assigned to take the lead.

Prompt
Your firm, Atlanta Policy Analysis, Inc., has just been hired by Downtown State University to examine the parking problem on its urban campus. You decide to conduct a full-cycle policy analysis, from verifying that a problem exists, through specifying evaluation criteria and reasonable alternatives, to conducting an evaluation of the alternatives that you have selected as most reasonable. All of the basic information you need to conduct your analysis is provided in this case. Suggested additional reading material is listed at the end of the case, which provides an overview of parking pricing and supply control theory, methods, and applications.

 

There are five key constituencies on campus that must be reasonably well satisfied with any solution you propose. These include: 4,000 resident students, 8,000 commuter students, 2,400 staff, 1,600 faculty, and the adjacent neighborhoods that are concerned about spillover parking on residential streets. Your proposed solution is constrained, in that the overall parking and transportation budget must be balanced on an annual basis, regardless of the specifics of who pays how much for which services in any given year.

 

Please limit your memorandum to no more than 15 double-spaced typed pages and place highly quantitative material in appendices. 

 

Elements of the problem-solving policy proposal include: 
1.Statement of the problem and its context
2.Background, overview, and significance of the problem
3.Policy Landscape including key stakeholders and key factors that influence the issue from a policy perspective. 
4.Policy options and criteria for options analysis 
5.Proposed policy solution recommendation the problem that addresses the feasibility realism and defensibility of the solution
6.Proposed implementation and evaluation plan
a.Identify the main type of evaluation that will be conducted. 
b.Discussion of the type of evaluation method(s) you intend to use
c.Development of a Logic model