General Background Information

The past few decades have seen growing attention on the economics of curb parking.

Pierce and Shoup (2013) attempted to eliminate traffic congestion and raise the turnover through demand-responsive pricing. In 2015, Taipei City, with the similar aim to increase parking turnover during the daytime and prevent shortage at night, implemented a thoroughgoing price reform for on-street parking. Different from previous policy that only prices parking spaces along main arteries, the government now prices all curbside parking, including those located in the allies. Although this reform seemed to be successful, reducing long holdover, it also led to an unintended outcome that curbside parking, in some areas, appeared to be empty and unused at all hours. This phenomenon divulges an undeveloped aspect that empty curb spaces are a land-use issue. Having curb parking unused all the time is apparently an inefficient use of land.

Curb parking or, say, on-street parking from the land economics point of view, is a product of land provided by the government. The presence of empty parking spaces at all times is equivalent to a large valuable inventory of vacant lands with the sign of market inefficiency. In the year 2017, there is a total of 47,247 curbside parking spaces in Taipei City that covers over 649,646 𝑚𝑚², equivalent to almost 79 football fields. An investigation disclosed from the Department of Transportation of Taipei City (DOT) further suggested that 30 percent of road segments, especially which is located in

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time, not to mention the off-peak periods. These data indicate the severe inefficient use of land in urban areas. Approximately 7.79 hectares of land cannot serve either as road or as a parking space but remain empty. They are a waste of public resource and consequently a welfare loss for the whole society.

Although the social welfare loss stemmed from the inefficient use of on-street parking, neither urban planners nor researchers seem to have taken this stunning land costs into account. The setup of parking spaces and parking rates primarily reflects the traffic and public safety concerns, lacking the awareness of land costs or use. The similar phenomenon is observed in the academic world; surprising little literature has raised the issue of land use efficiency when curb parking is under discussion. One of the most fruitful areas of parking research has concentrated on the elimination of parking externalities from the traffic standpoint. Several studies have noted that free on-street parking embodies the concept of the tragedy of commons; it creates the classic commons problem such as the time waste for cruising, traffic congestion, and air pollution. The long holdover retrains drivers from accessing parking spaces and increases the time for cruising for parking. To resolve this ensuing congestion, a large body of research has proposed to use various pricing model to alter the on-street parking occupancy (Arnott & Inci, 2006; Pierce & Shoup, 2013).

In this paper, we pursue to retrieve the missing attention of land use efficiency on curb parking. We employ the Parking Supply and Demand Survey in Taipei City to probe into the actual demand of curb parking. If curb spaces do not achieve full occupancy during the "peak time” when a highest parking utilization is expected, the empty curb

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space creates an inefficient use of land. The explorations of vacant parking lots and their opportunity cost mark a need to provide a fresh viewpoint from land use efficiency to both researchers and urban planners. We conduct a comprehensive analysis on Taipei City to understand different patterns of parking and land-use efficiency. Such research is still in its infancy, but it may lead to a contribution to unveil the land aspect of curb parking. We believe that this line of research may serve as a reference for government’s parking plan in the future.

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This paper is inspired by the change in occupancy rate of on-street parking after the 2015 parking price reform in Taipei City. The purpose of this study is threefold:

1. Fill in the research gap between the on-street parking and the land use efficiency Most of the present research centers on the parking shortage that generates traffic congestion. Few studies have dealt with the unoccupied on-street parking from the land use perspective. This paper offers a new viewpoint from land use efficiency to fill in such a gap.

2. Inject the land perspective into the planning practice

Empty curb parking is a misallocation of the public resource, but few people bear this in mind. We attempt to bridge the long-neglected connection between curb parking and land use efficiency by highlighting the significant welfare loss and low return on investment of curb spaces. The government should stress more on the land element while planning on the on-street parking.

3. Explore potential factors in parking occupancy to attain ideal land use efficiency Many economists utilize pricing models to avoid traffic congestion and manage the parking behavior at the curbside. They set out the target occupancy rate and use the market price to achieve it. Subject to the limited data available, we failed to know the demand function and its elasticity to the price of parking spaces. We, however, are able to find out what is likely to affect parking occupancy and further enhance land use efficiency by empirical investigation. Thus, we conduct a cross-sectional study to provide concrete suggestions for parking planning.