Vehicles searching for parking create an environmental and economic impact. Despite negative externalities for individual drivers and society as a whole, there is a dearth of research in the area of parking search from the perspective of local government authorities. The aim of this paper is to ascertain the perceptions of local authority policymakers in relation to parking search. City and county council officers within the East Midlands area of the United Kingdom indicate a lack of recorded evidence regarding the volume of vehicles searching for parking, which creates an issue both in terms of establishing the existence of parking search and in quantifying the level of the problem. However, council officers express consensus in the view that on-street parking search is more likely to occur within peripheral urban areas away from the core city center, as such areas may be lacking in parking facilities of the type that are typically provided in central urban areas, such as large off-street surface car parks or multi-story parking facilities. Local council officers perceive that parking search is more prevalent in larger market towns that attract a large number of visitors for shopping and personal business purposes but that are not able to provide sufficient parking supply to meet peak period demand. IntroductionSearching for parking occurs when an individual reaches his or her destination, intends to park, and proceeds to drive around an area searching for a parking space that fulfills specific requirements for that particular journey. On-street parking search creates a problem for individuals and society due to negative externalities arising from additional vehicle miles traveled on the wider traffic network; an impact defined as "a random access queue that interferes with traffic flow" (Arnott and Inci 2010). The environmental and economic impact can be quantified in terms of increased network traffic flow and It is apparent from the literature that much of the research investigating parking search has been undertaken from the perspective of individual drivers who are searching for a parking space that fulfills their particular needs. Given the potentially significant impact of parking search in urban areas, which may have far-reaching implications in terms of parking and transport policy, this paper investigates the views of local government officials relating to parking search. It is possible (and indeed likely) that the perspectives of local government officers concerning parking policy may differ substantially from those of motorists, who typically are more concerned with parking decisions as they attempt to find a parking space rather than wider societal impacts. Indeed, research investigating the difference in opinions between professional economists and those of the general public in the United States found systematic differences between the economic beliefs of laypersons and experts (Caplan 2002). However, despite the findings in this study being limited to local authority perceptions of par...

Vehicles in search of on-street parking create an environmental and economic impact: they increase network traffic flow and congestion, heighten pollutant emissions levels, create additional noise, give rise to time delays for through vehicles, and lead to potential safety hazards when vehicles maneuver into or out of on-street spaces. Despite extensive negative externalities for individual drivers and society, the search for parking is a little researched area. The aim of this study was to review and identify factors that influenced an individual's on-street parking search decisions. These factors were time cost, pricing, areawide parking policy, and personal and socioeconomic characteristics. The study also examined methodological and modeling approaches applied to on-street parking searches. The paper identifies a research direction to investigate factors that influence parking search behavior across cities and countries, which will enable interspatial comparisons of influencing factors. The quantification of the economic, environmental, and safety impacts of the search for parking is a further important research area, which can be accomplished through an examination of the impact made by vehicles in search of parking, as distinct from the impact of through traffic. The findings of the present study have potential urban parking policy applications, which could reduce the number of vehicles that search for parking, with associated environmental and economic benefits.

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