Emerging Trends and Issues in Parking Industry

Parking1) is an essential component of the transportation system and every vehicle needs a place to be parked at every destination when they are not being used. It is said that a typical automobile is parked 95 percent of the time.2) The fundamental problem with parking is that there are no longer enough spaces for everyone to park whenever and wherever they want. So parking is becoming a key issue in most urban areas with the increasing number of vehicles. It is important to define parking problems carefully. For example, if people complain about a parking problem, it is important to determine exactly what type of problem, and where, when and to whom it occurs. The parking issue can be defined as simply a matter of (less) supply and (huge) demand. Increasing supply helps reduce parking congestion and spillover problems but may increase other problems such as inducing travel demand causing more fuel usage and emissions. It may also be defined as a problem of management in that available facilities are used inefficiently and should be better managed. It is true that when appropriately applied parking management can significantly reduce the number of parking spaces required in a particular situation, providing a variety of economic, social and environmental benefits.In many towns and cities, parking is not managed at all, mismanaged or managed only in very limited areas. Motorists have been observed spending a significant percentage of their total trip time searching for a parking space. This can significantly affect the level of traffic congestion and environmental quality within an urban area.According to the statistics from the Ministry of Land, Transport, Maritime Administration, it is estimated there were about 15.2 million parking spaces and 17.3 million vehicles in total in 2009. Considering the imbalance of geographical distribution in parking spaces and demand distribution among time of the day, Korea is suffering from a severe lack of parking spaces.It seems that that the industry is significantly bigger than the size we can estimate from the statistics and figures from the government side. The parking industry, both private and public facilities, generally has not been analyzed comprehensively by anyone so far. This article aims to summarize the emerging trends and issues in the parking industry and to discuss policyimplications from them