The three questions a parking study answers
How full does it get, how long do people stay, and how many different vehicles does each space serve in a day. Occupancy, duration and turnover. Everything a parking decision rests on — whether to build, price, restrict, or leave alone — comes from those three numbers measured properly over a representative period.
The common failure is measuring only the first one. A lot at 90% occupancy with two-hour average stays is a pricing and enforcement question. The same lot at 90% with nine-hour stays is a commuter-displacement question. Same headline number, opposite intervention.
What we survey
- Occupancy sweeps at 15, 30 or 60-minute intervals across the study period
- Duration and turnover from licence-plate matching between sweeps, reported anonymously as duration bands
- On-street against off-street utilisation, block by block and lot by lot
- Peak occupancy hour and the practical capacity point, typically the 85% effective-full threshold
- Illegal, double-parked, loading-zone and accessible-bay violation counts
- Bay inventory and dimension checks against the striping plan
- Entry and exit counts at garage access points for gated facilities
Sites we work on
Surface lots and structured garages, central business district kerbside, hospital and clinic campuses where staff and visitor parking compete, retail and mixed-use developments, stadium and event parking, university campuses, and residential permit areas. The method is the same; the sweep interval and the study period change with how fast the site turns over.
Privacy in duration surveys
Plate matching is how turnover is measured, but plates are not what gets delivered. Observations are matched to derive duration and then reduced to anonymous duration bands in the output. What you receive is data about the space, not about the vehicle owner — which matters when a study will be published in a public meeting packet.
Designing or restriping the lot too?
Occupancy data and layout standards are two halves of the same decision. Our guide to parking lot design and layout standards covers stall dimensions, aisle widths, accessible bay counts and the layout patterns that change your yield.
Frequently asked
How many days should a parking study cover?
A representative weekday plus a Saturday is the usual minimum. Sites with strong weekly or seasonal patterns — retail, event venues, campuses — need more, and we will say which additional days actually change the answer.
Can you measure duration without collecting personal data?
Yes. Plate observations are used only to match a vehicle between sweeps and are reduced to anonymous duration bands in the deliverable. No plate-level data is published.
Do you work from video or on foot?
Both. Video suits gated garages and fixed access points; walking sweeps suit kerbside and large surface lots where a single camera cannot see every bay. We will recommend based on the site geometry.
What is the 85% rule in parking studies?
A facility is generally treated as practically full at about 85% occupancy — above that, drivers circulate hunting for the last spaces, which adds traffic and perceived shortage even though empty bays technically exist.
Related guides
Parking Lot Design and Layout Standards
Stall dimensions, aisle widths, angle trade-offs, accessible bay counts and circulation patterns — and why the yield question should be answered with occupancy data before any of it.
Read the guide → ParkingHow to Run a Parking Occupancy Study
Occupancy, duration and turnover — how to measure all three properly, what sweep interval to use, and why 90% occupancy can mean two completely different problems.
Read the guide →Get a price for parking studies
Send the site details and the periods you need counted. We will come back with a fixed price and a delivery date, usually the same working day.