Private vehicle use is not only a major burden on the environment, but also on the existing infrastructure, as parked cars take up a lot of public space and cause problems like congestion. By reducing the number of on-street parking spaces and promoting the shift to more public transport and shared mobility concepts, cities will become greener, safer and more sustainable. However, this conversation is not without controversy, as the exact impact of changing parking policies by reducing car parking spaces is unknown. This is exactly the issue that nuMIDAS use case 4 “Planning for parking” addresses in the city of Leuven, Belgium. The solution provided within the nuMIDAS toolkit is used to examine and visualise the potential impacts of reducing parking spaces in different areas of the city, such as parking demand pressure, average searching times, occupancy rates, variation in emissions, or extra kilometres driven. The toolkit allows for various scenarios to be run with different input parameters to ensure ideal parking management policies.
