Parking violations as an economic gamble for public space

Gössling, S, Humpe, A, Hologa, R, Riach, N and Freytag, T (2026) Parking violations as an economic gamble for public space. Transport Policy, 116. pp. 248-257. ISSN 0967-070X

Preview

Text Parking violations as an economic gamble for public space.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (10MB) | Preview

Abstract

Parking fees and fines represent contested issues in cities, as they conflict with vehicle owners' opinion over ‘rights’ to public space. As cities have moved to regulate vehicle density by introducing parking fees, a share of drivers may feel compelled to ‘cheat’, weighing the price of parking fees against the cost of fines, or to simply park illegally outside designated areas. To better understand these interrelationships, this paper considers negotiations of public space as an economic gamble that can be assessed on the basis of parking violations. The study is situated in Freiburg, Germany, and relies on a mixed-methods approach that investigates the views of the regulatory agency and its enforcement officers, as well as registered parking violations (n = 181,735, in 2019). Time-spatial probabilities of being fined when parking illegally are calculated as risks, defined as detection probability per “hexagon-hour”, an indicator integrating space and time. Results confirm that in the inner city, it is economically rational not to pay parking fees during 86.1% of hexagon-hours, and in surrounding areas during 99.9% of the time. Findings confirm that urban space can be negotiated in an equilibrium of fees, fines and controls. To make vehicle ownership and use less attractive, the price of parking needs to be high. Fines need to be high in relation to fees, and control densities need to constitute significant detection risks.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	3509 Transportation, Logistics and Supply Chains; 33 Built Environment and Design; 35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services; 3304 Urban and Regional Planning; 1205 Urban and Regional Planning; 1507 Transportation and Freight Services; Logistics & Transportation; 3304 Urban and regional planning; 3509 Transportation, logistics and supply chains
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date of acceptance:	12 December 2021
Date of first compliant Open Access:	7 September 2026
Date Deposited:	07 Sep 2026 15:37
Last Modified:	07 Sep 2026 15:37
DOI or ID number:	10.1016/j.tranpol.2021.12.010
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29337

View Item