Parking management
Honestly, nothing competes with free parking. Free or low cost car parking will always encourage people to drive to work because every other option will look expensive in comparison. In fact, studies (Cairns et al, 2010 and Petrunoff et al, 2015, for example) have shown that workplace travel plans that include parking management strategies are more than twice as effective than those that only offer incentives.
While changes to parking policies may seem challenging, successful implementation—supported by empathetic, clear communication, a good amount of time to introduce changes, senior leadership modelling behaviour change, and alternative transport options—can mitigate concerns.
Costs of offering workplace parking
While parking is often offered as a perk, and sometimes a free one at that, there is a cost to offering parking to your employees.
Costs to employers
Buying or leasing land for the car park
On average, 12% of a company’s property expenditure is on parking spaces
Land is valuable in Oxford: Plots of land across Oxford are currently selling for £12-49/sq ft.
Building any parking infrastructure (including gates, signs, striping, garages, etc.)
Maintaining the car park (including cleaning, lighting, repairs, landscaping, restriping, repaving, etc.)
Monitoring the security and proper use of the car park
Admin time for managing parking permits
Staff complaints and retention issues around parking difficulties
Not being able to use car park land for other desirable projects (or even just to sell it)
Costs to employees
Price of parking permits, if parking is not free
Time spent looking for a parking spot or arriving early to make sure you get a spot
Stress and frustration associated with the hunt for parking
Lost health, financial and well-being benefits of alternative commuting methods because people default to driving when there is cheap or free car parking
How to manage parking better
There are lots of creative, low-impact ways to restrict or charge for parking, and so encourage your employees to try other options. And don’t forget to lead from the top - if your senior managers are playing by the same rules as everyone else, changes to parking will feel more fair to employees.
Restricting parking
Restricting parking is the most effective mechanism for changing driving habits that there is. A structured, phased approach, informed by evidence, can significantly increase staff uptake of alternatives such as liftsharing, buses or cycling. This should be done with a needs-based permit system that prioritises people who need to drive more. Needs-based permit systems can take into account things like disability and mobility difficulties, caring responsibilities and distance from the workplace. This feels more fair to employees, and causes less stress, congestion, and spillover than a first-come-first-serve system. When restricting parking, you may also need to work with local authorities to control street parking in order to stop people from just parking in nearby residential areas.
Charging for parking
Be transparent with employees about why you are charging for parking. It is also good to make charges pay-as-you-go rather than a flat yearly fee. This way, it is a charge employees are continually seeing rather than being a past cost that they can write off in their heads. Ring-fencing the income from parking to improve other modes of transport can also be an effective way of both funding your transport offerings and making employees feel like the parking charges are benefiting them. If you previously offered free parking as a benefit, you could prevent this from being seen as a lost benefit by offering something like a flat travel allowance that can either be spent on parking charges or another form of transport instead.
Example
Oxford Brookes University has recently changed their parking management system to a needs-based permit system. For their Headington site, where parking is extremely limited, only staff who are Blue Badge holders, Hall Wardens, have a demonstrable medical condition, or work unsociable hours are automatically eligible for a parking permit. Other staff are determined to be eligible for a parking permit by a needs-based scoring system.
Scores are based on:
Frequency face-to-face interaction with students and home working, based on role
Caring responsibilities
Journey time to the site by public transport (based on Google Maps at typical peak journey time)
Proximity of usual route to the site to a Park & Ride
Oxford Brookes has also rolled out daily charges for parking for staff permit holders who are not Blue Badge holders or Hall Wardens. These charges are scaled to income, so that those who make less money pay less.
They have reduced the number of staff car parking permits issued by approximately 50% and have seen significant increases in those travelling to campus by sustainable modes of transport, resulting in a sizeable reduction in carbon from commuting. This is how they did it…
Businesses should consider how parking policies can actively support sustainable transport:
Lift sharing incentives – Prioritise parking for liftsharers through guaranteed or preferential spaces
Paid parking – If parking is currently free, introduce charges to discourage unnecessary car use and car sharing
Use-based pricing – Avoid flat-rate charges (e.g., annual permits). Instead, charge per use to encourage gradual behaviour change (e.g., reducing car use by 1–2 days per week).
Align pricing with P&R costs – Set parking fees at least equivalent to the annual P&R parking charge (£370) to make P&Rs a more attractive option
Invest in comprehensive communications with staff, and connect to a bigger vision or values your organisation holds
Updated February 2025
