Evaluating the impact of a workplace parking levy on local traffic congestion: The case of Nottingham UK

Abstract

A Workplace Parking Levy (WPL) scheme raises a levy on private non-domestic off street parking provided by employers. In April 2012 Nottingham became the first UK City to implement such a scheme with the revenue generated hypothecated for funding transport improvements. The lag between the introduction of the WPL and the opening of related public transport improvements represents an opportunity to study the impact of a WPL on congestion as a standalone measure. In order to achieve this it is necessary to consider changes to variables external to the WPL, which also impact on congestion, which may obscure any beneficial impact of the scheme. An autoregressive time series model which accounts for the impact of these exogenous variables is used to evaluate the impact of the introduction of the WPL on congestion. Delay per Vehicle Mile is used as the dependent variable to represent congestion while the number of Liable Workplace Parking Places (LWPP) is used as a continuous intervention variable representing the introduction of the WPL. The model also contains a number of economic, transportation and climatic control variables. The results indicate that the introduction of the WPL as measured by the number of LWPP has a statistically significant impact on traffic congestion in Nottingham. Additionally, external explanatory variables are also shown to impact on congestion, suggesting that these may be masking the true impact of the scheme. This research represents the first statistical analysis of the link between the introduction of a WPL and a reduction in congestion.