This study investigates the elasticity of on-street parking demand using the automatic transactiondata from parking pay stations obtained before and after a parking rate change that wasimplemented in Seattle in early 2011. The parking rate implementation consisted of a rateincrease in some neighborhoods, a rate decrease or no rate change in others. We formulatedelasticity as a function of time of day and neighborhood characteristics by developing twogeneralized least square (GLS) models. We also probed into the potential presence of―asymmetric behavior‖ — on-street parking demand response to an increase in pricing mightrespond differently to a decrease in pricing.Results confirm our hypotheses — price elasticity of the parking occupancy is inelastic andvaries by time of day and neighborhood characteristics. Furthermore, the price elasticity forneighborhoods with increased rates is higher (-0.304) than that for those with decreased rates (-0.103), suggesting that parking demand is more sensitive to rate increases than decreases,supporting our hypothesis on asymmetric behavior.For policy guidance on pricing, we demonstrated that the estimated elasticities can be used todetermine the optimal parking rate to achieve a desired level of parking occupancy at everyblock in the study area. This method can be easily applied in every city that has similar parkingpay stations.
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