Parking behaviour: Bundled parking and travel behavior in American cities

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between bundled residential parking and travel behavior, with a particular focus on use of public transportation, and controlling for vehicle ownership. When the cost of parking is bundled into the price of housing, the time and stress of finding parking near home falls. These lower costs may lead households with bundled parking to drive more and use transit less than households without parking, even if both households own vehicles. To date this idea has been difficult to examine empirically. In this article we test this prediction using the public transportation module of the 2013 American Housing Survey. We confirm the association between bundled parking and travel. Households with bundled parking use transit less, spend more on gasoline, and—when they do take transit—are more likely to drive from their homes to the transit stop.