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SPACE-USE EFFICIENCY AND PROFITABILITY IMPLICATIONS FOR UNBUNDLED PARKING: CASE STUDY RESEARCH USING LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION CASEY JONES Casey.Jones02@gmail.com The bundling of parking and housing fees has been discussed extensively in the literature. Many arguments have been forwarded against the practice of bundling these fees together and efforts have been made to encourage unbundling so that fewer parking spaces are needed for new buildings. This article explores unbundling from the perspective of parking facility use for existing parking facilities based on the argument that better utilization of existing facilities can be achieved if housing and parking fees are separated and the parking lots become shared use facilities. Case study research of two existing parking facilities is conducted and the parking facility use is documented. License plate recognition technology is used to collect data. This work shows that exclusive use parking facilities are not used as well or as often as similar shared use facilities and that by unbundling parking and housing fees and making shared use parking facilities, owners can realize significant new revenue. More importantly, by unbundling and converting parking facilities to shared use, new parking structures can be delayed or deferred entirely leaving land for higher and better use. Keywords: parking, unbundled parking, parking utilization, shared parking Introduction Parking is commonly included in the cost of rental apartment and condominium housing. This practice is called bundling and transportation demand management professionals, planners and sustainability advocates decry the practice because it is argued that bundling increases auto usage – or, conversely, bundling does not discourage auto use. Indeed, several studies on the subject have shown that unbundling housing costs and parking fees can reduce auto usage, parking demand and vehicle miles traveled when other alternatives to driving exist. When drivers are made aware of the full costs for parking and are given a choice, some elect to adjust their behaviors by doing such things as owning fewer cars, using mass transit more, participating in car share or carpools programs or switching to other modes. These actions can lead to a reduction in the demand for parking spaces and examples in new developments that have shown successfully how fewer parking spaces can be included in a project to begin with serve as an example for other developers when they decide how much parking to include in their projects. But what about existing facilities that were built some time ago under zoning regulations that required more spaces to be built TRB 2011 Annual Meeting Original paper submittal - not revised by author.
