Parking intrusion occurs when non-residents park on neighborhood streets in order to avoid parking fees while access nearby opportunities (e.g., retails, offices, or sports events). Such intrusion is environmentally undesirable because it invites driving to urban centers with convenient transit services and the worst traffic congestion. It encourages excessive search for parking on neighborhood streets that endangers local pedestrians, cyclists and children. It also becomes a contentious political issue when a large number of intruders compete with local residents for the limited, free street parking. Debates over parking intrusion and its solutions often entangle policy initiatives (e.g., congestion pricing or metered parking reform) and key redevelopment projects (e.g., stadiums).

However, little is known on parking intrusion in the transportation literature: when and where does intrusion occur? who are the intruders? where are they from? why do they decide to “intrude”? does parking intrusion benefit or hurt local economy? how much is the excessive driving associated with parking intrusion? which solution is better, a higher meter price or resident parking permit?

This research aim to 1) measure the spatial and temporal pattern of parking intrusion, 2) understand the determinants of parking intrusion, 3) estimate the vehicle mileage travelled (VMT) induced by parking intrusion, and 4) evaluate the causal effect of development projects and transportation policies on parking intrusion, using New York City as a case study. New York City is ideal for this research because it is the only major U.S. city without any resident parking permit programs, preserving the “authentic”, uninterrupted pattern of parking intrusion.

The research relies on two data sets: the 11 million parking tickets issued by New York City every year and the vehicle plate registration database managed by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV). By linking the ticketing location and the registration location of the same plate number, parking intrusion can be identified. This method has potential to detect parking intrusion at a great temporal and spatial scale. However, two methodological issues must be considered: 1) how to separate residential parking tickets from non-residential parking tickets, and 2) moving of residents and the update of vehicle registration at DMV database.

The final deliverables include the visualization of temporal and spatial pattern of parking intrusion, an exploratory statistical model on determinants of parking intrusion, the quantification of excessive VMT induced by intrusion, and the evaluations of the Barclay Center and the Park Smart program.