Austraffic has undertaken a vast number of parking surveys across Australia and has a large pool of experienced survey staff capable of accurately undertaking:
- Inventory studies
- Duration of stay studies
- Occupancy studies
- Utilisation studies
Our experienced staff can help you with the survey design, to ensure the best outcomes are achieved relative to your survey needs. Data collection and reporting methods can be customised to suit your individual requirements.
Austraffic has superior analysis tools to produce accurate data matches and deliver meaningful data reports:
- Inventory Lists
- Split time periods
- Accumulation summaries
- Departure v/s arrivals summaries
- Detailed data sheets
Parking Surveys can entail a variety of techniques and applications.
Parking Accumulation Surveys
A count of the number of vehicles parked within a defined zone at regular, predetermined time intervals. Typically a field observer walks a circuit through the car park counting and recording the number of cars present per zone on each interval.
Electronic data loggers can also be utilised for closed networks, where the volume of all vehicles entering and leaving the network cordon are recorded and the variation of In and Out movements are used to calculate a moving accumulation estimate.
Site visitation cycle times in each case is usually set to the signed parking time limit or a subset, eg a 1 Hour restriction may have a 1 hour cycle or 30 or 15 minute cycles.
Parking zones usually define a specific parking condition or restricted limit, eg Disabled Parking, Loading Zone, 2P, Taxis Only, specific kerb space. An extreme application of this survey, would be to have every parking space with it's own unqiue identifying number or space code
Survey costs are proportional to the frequency of visitation and recording, so there is a matching of minimum data need versus budget availability to optimise a survey plan.
Parking Stations
Can be economically surveyed by coverage of entrance and exits only, where discrete floor utilisation is not required, else a floor walk coverage is required.
Parking Duration Surveys
Undertaken when you need to know how long vehicles are remaining parked.
This survey typically works to cycle times of an observation and recording of a part of the vehicle registration number plate and noting by an allocated zone identifier. A zone identifier again identifying a unique special parking condition or locale of parking.
The degree of sensitivity of interpretation is limited to the design cycle time, eg 5, 15, 30 minute or 1/ 2/3 or 4 hour. The goals of the survey need to be clearly defined prior to survey design with and understanding of the underlying issues. A long term cycle time of say hourly will not assist with managing a short term demand adjacent to a shop that serves a role as a news paper seller or milk bar.
The conventional output of such a survey is to depict, subject to cycle frequency sensitivity the demand of duration of stay of vehicles. This may assist in determine a demand for say a long term car park or misuse of a short stay park station by all day public transport commuters. Or you may reassign a part of a one hour restricted zone to say 5 minute parking to allow and free up an area out the front a news paper seller to have a shorter but higher turnover.