Parking Cruising Analysis Methodology Project Report

Weinberger, Rachel; Millard-Ball, Adam; Fabusuyi, Tayo; Calvin, Ellis; Blackburn, Jazymyn; Neuner, Michelle · 2023 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration

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Summary

This report, sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, addresses the need for a robust methodology to quantify parking cruising—vehicles circling for on-street parking priced below market equilibrium. Cruising contributes to congestion, air pollution, and driver frustration, yet existing estimates, such as the widely cited claim that 30% of urban traffic searches for parking, are often extrapolated from limited studies and lack precision. The project aimed to develop a data-driven tool to measure excess travel caused by parking search, identify cruising hot spots, and assess the impact of policy interventions, thereby supporting better curb management strategies. The researchers developed a software tool called "Cruise Detector" that utilizes global positioning system (GPS) data harvested from smartphones. The methodology involves identifying streams of GPS pings that represent travel, matching these data streams to a street network, and constructing a potential parking search radius around the final destination. The actual path taken is compared against the shortest possible path; if the traveled distance exceeds the shortest path by a specific threshold, the trip is classified as including excess travel due to cruising. The team applied this tool to case studies in four U.S. cities: Washington, DC; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; and Seattle, Washington. These analyses utilized various data sources and time periods to examine cruising patterns across different urban forms, mixed-use areas, and policy environments, including performance pricing and meter suspensions. The findings indicate that cruising rates were highest in Seattle and Chicago, where 7.3% and 6.8% of trips, respectively, showed some portion of cruising. Across all cities, the level of cruising remained consistent even when using different data sources. However, the researchers noted that cruising estimates may overstate the parking problem, as consistency in cruising rates—even in areas with readily available parking—suggests that many identified trips involve drivers taking longer routes for reasons other than parking scarcity. The analysis revealed that cruising is generally a localized issue; even in identified hot spots, the average time spent cruising is brief, and it impacts only a small percentage of total trips. Case studies further demonstrated the tool’s ability to detect changes in cruising behavior in response to policy shifts, such as meter price adjustments in Seattle and meter decommissioning during the pandemic. The significance of this work lies in providing municipalities with a freely available, open-access tool to empirically measure parking search behaviors rather than relying on generalized assumptions. By quantifying excess travel rather than just the proportion of drivers searching, the methodology offers a more direct metric for policy interest. The report concludes that while cruising is a real phenomenon, its prevalence is often overstated, and it represents an equilibrium behavior where drivers may park short of their destination or select spaces based on convenience. The findings support the development of targeted curb management policies and highlight the importance of assessing data quality and source variability when implementing such tools.

Key finding

Cruising for parking affects a small but consistent percentage of trips across different cities, with the highest rates observed in Seattle and Chicago, though these estimates may overstate the actual parking search problem due to drivers taking longer routes for other reasons.

Methodology

field_study

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• exposure measurement

Information type

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• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence