MINNESOTA: Parking Pricing Demonstration in the Twin Cities Area
The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has studied parking pricing in the Twin Cities and a successful parking cash-out program (where employers provide their employees the option of cash in lieu of a parking benefit) has been demonstrated. The City of Minneapolis is currently undertaking a major downtown transportation study where parking will be an important consideration. This project will entail a substantial amount of outreach by the Humphrey Institute, which has an excellent track record and is highly experienced in involving the public in transportation pricing issues. The 18-month outreach program will include efforts tailored specifically to the media, local governments, and community leaders and will create a high level parking pricing task force. Demonstration sites will be selected and parking pricing will be implemented at these sites. A comprehensive evaluation will be performed.
A variety of pricing innovations will be explored, as will integration with the I-394 MnPASS project and the University of Minnesota Metro Transit smart-card system. This has the potential to lead to greater political support for parking pricing. Pilot projects will showcase parking pricing innovations which in turn could be applied to many other parking facilities and on-street parking spaces.
Project Status
Project Completed
The four test modules are now complete and results have been compiled and analyzed. A draft final report has been developed and a workshop to present final results was planned in December of 2011.
Parking pricing has taken on a role beyond recouping infrastructure investment costs and is now also being utilized as a public policy tool for travel demand management. Recently developed tools for travel demand management include innovative parking pricing strategies that incentive alternative mode choice. The principal goal of this research is to examine the effects on commuter mode choice of introducing flexibility and incentives into monthly parking contracts. The demonstration consisted of running four different test modules over the course of three four-month periods. The four test modules include a discounted transit pass option (Buying Flexibility), two forms of rebate programs (Marginal Rebate and PayGo), and a free transit pass option (Disincentive Removal). The first rebate program, Marginal Rebate, offered a rebate for the difference between the marginal parking cost and transit fare on days when transit was used. The second rebate program, PayGo, offered the same transit rebate in addition to a rebate for the full marginal parking cost on days when a mode other than parking or transit was used. Analysis of the commuting behavior among participants in this study demonstrated that the level of incentive positively correlates to the propensity for mode shift to occur, with significant and increasing mode shift in the two programs that offered the greatest flexibility and incentive. However, the data collected also indicates that a discounted or free transit pass is not enough to entice mode change. Potential to deploy parking contract models that include flexibility and incentives are also briefly explored.
For More Information Contact
Kenneth R. Buckeye
Program Manager Value Pricing
Phone: (651) 366-3737
E-mail: kenneth.buckeye@dot.state.mn.us
