Permitted Subsidies: The Costs of Subsidizing Private Automobile Storage in Public Space

Abstract

This major research paper aims to understand how the City of Toronto administers its residential on-street permit parking program and asks what costs; economic, environmental, social, or otherwise, the city incurs through the operation of the program. This research paper approaches the question through a mixed methods methodology foregrounding a quantitative data analysis to draw associations between permits per person and other variable such as income and mode share through a quantile regression analysis. The research was further supplemented by interviews with professional planners and engineers working both in private and public sector to provide a framework of the current state of on-street parking and residential on-street permit parking programs (ROPPPs). The findings from this research make methodological, empirical, and theoretical contributions to the existing literature that can aid in a better understanding of the challenges facing ROPPPs. The quantile regression analysis found that the effect of median income, public transit mode share, and active mode share varies across quantiles of permits per person with public transit mode share having the strongest effect on permits per person. Participant interviews provided an outline of the challenges facing ROPPPs and on-street parking policy more generally along with the myriad solutions municipalities are implementing to mitigating these challenges. The conclusion puts forth three policy pathways with increasing emphasis on the reallocation of space on the street for those outside of motor vehicles.