Study of Park-and-Ride Facilities and Their Use in the San Francisco Bay Area of California

Abstract

Park-and-ride lots are important support facilities for transit and ride-sharing in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. The authors designed and carried out the region's first large-scale, detailed study of park-and-ride facilities and users. Three Bay Area Rapid Transit (rail) station parking lots were also surveyed. The user survey results showed that almost all the parking users were commuters; at the freeway lots, half were transit users and the remainder were organized and casual car-poolers. Most drove alone to the park-and-ride lot and made long trips to work, many more than 30 mi one way. Users had concerns about lot security, the lack of lighting, and the quality of transit services offered. Analysis of focus group data determined that schedule adherence rather than frequency was the cause of most concerns. Participants expressed a willingness to pay for parking that was fenced, security patrolled, and lighted, with shelters for waiting. Together, the surveys and focus groups have provided insights into ways to improve the park-and-ride lots and the services offered there, as well as on how travelers view transit and carpooling options. The results provide a sound basis for planning improvements.

Using Best Worst Method for Sustainable Park and Ride Facility Location

“…Researchers concerned about this issue have made several proposals to local governments to mitigate these problems. The majority of approaches have been a complete switch from private vehicles to a more friendly transport mode (e.g., pedestrians, bicycles, public transport) [18][19][20]. However, an alternative should also exist for inhabitants who own a private vehicle and live outside the urban area, and have limited or no connection to public transport services.…”

To Park or To Develop: Trade-Off in Rail Transit Passenger Demand

“…The general auto-orientation of most U.S. cities means that providing park-and-ride facilities can maximize the number of people who can easily get to stations (Shirgaokar and Deakin 2005;Merriman 1998). A parking facility extends the radius of a station's catchment area by several miles, and this causes an exponential expansion of the land area and population served by a given station.…”

“…The motivation for including interactions stems from recent survey research of Bay Area park-and-ride passengers that demonstrated how they generally make long trips to the central business district (Shirgaokar and Deakin 2005). The coefficients for these interactions measure how an independent variable can moderate the influence of another independent variable on the dependent variable.…”

“…• Origin parking (parking_o) × destination employment (jobs_d) (+): Park-and-ride passengers are often suburban professionals working in large employment centers (Shirgaokar and Deakin 2005;Black 1995). As such, high levels of employment at the destination may mean that parking at the origin has a stronger influence on ridership.…”

Associations among Distance, Quality, and Safety When Walking from a Park-and-Ride Facility to the Transit Station in the Twin Cities

“…Previous studies also use a disaggregate approach based on P&R user surveys. Some focus on demographic and trip characteristics of P&R users (Shirgaokar and Deakin 2005). Others include P&R as an access option to transit stations and then predict an individual's propensity to use transit based on their use of P&R facilities (Roorda, Passmore, and Miller 2009).…”