Parking management as a means of decreasing air pollution in cities

Cruising for parking increases fuel consumption thus additionally polluting the environment: on one hand due to increased travel time, and on the other due to undesirable engine operation mode during parking search as a result of low speeds and frequent stops. Considering that in the recent decades sustainable development, including environmental protection have become important, more and more researchers are dealing with the parking search phenomena aiming to address or mitigate the problem. This paper examines and quantifies possible parking policy contribution to decrease air pollution through reduction in parking search. In order to achieve this goal, three models were used in the paper: first, multinomial logit model that links the parking policy with the demand, i.e. volume and occupancy; then ordinal regression model that links parking occupancy with an average parking search time; and finally, Copert model which determines, based on total search time (obtained by models one and two) and a referent car, the reduction in polluters’ emissions. Results prove significant impact of parking policy (time limit and price levels) on the emission of polluters, which verifies the initial hypotheses. This paper can assist policy makers in a transparent decision-making process on the basis of empirical data and modelling results.