Women-only parking spaces: Determinants of parking space choice, investment decision, and a case study of Wuhan, China

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of introducing women-only parking spaces on drivers’ parking behavior and operator’s investment behavior based on a field survey of a parking lot in Wuhan, China. An econometric model is presented to identify the major determinants of influencing drivers’ time for completing the parking process at a parking space and their parking choice decisions towards the women-only parking spaces. Optimization models are developed to jointly determine the optimal proportion of the women-only parking spaces in a parking lot and/or the optimal parking fees so as to maximize the total net profit of operator, which is from the operations of car park and shopping mall. A case study from Wuhan China is conducted for illustrating the applications of the models. The findings show that driver’s gender, driving age, vehicle length, and parking environment (obstacles on one or both sides of a parking space) have significant impacts on the time for completing the parking process at a parking space. Women-only parking spaces can help reduce such time. Driver’s gender, driving age, and the past parking experience at the women-only parking spaces significantly influence driver’s choice of the women-only parking spaces, whereas educational degree and the past parking experience have no statistically significanteffects. However, investment in the women-only parking spaces may lead to a loss in the net profit of operator, and thus the investment decision on the women-only parking spaces should be carefully made for the operator in practice. These findings have important implications for planning of parking facilities and evaluation of parking policies.