The following guidelines should be followed when undertaking a parking stress survey. If these guidelines are not followed, we may not be able to make a full and proper assessment of the proposal.

Timing of the survey

The survey should be undertaken when the highest number of residents are at home, which is generally late at night during the week.

A snapshot survey between the hours of 12.30am and 5.30am should be undertaken on two separate weekday nights (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday).

Surveys should not be undertaken in weeks that include public holidays and school holidays, and it is advised that weeks before and after holidays should also be avoided.

Surveys should not be undertaken on or close to a date when a local event is taking place locally since this may impact the results of the survey.

Additional surveys

Additional survey times may be necessary where the development site:

• is a town centre location
• has regular specific uses close to the site (eg, place of worship, education, etc)
• has commercial uses close to the site
• is close to railway stations/areas of commuter parking

Extent of survey

Exclusions from the survey

The following areas should be excluded from surveys:

• if the site is in a CPZ, any parking bays in an ‘adjoining’ CPZ
• any CPZ bays in the survey area where the site itself is not a CPZ
• private roads and housing estate roads
• common sense should be applied in all cases, and the extent of the survey area and justification for any amendments should be included in the survey
• if an inadequate justification is provided for a survey area, then amendments may be required or a recommendation for refusal made accordingly
• places where drivers are unlikely to park, for example:
  • locations where parking is restricted due to the width of the road or waiting restrictions.
  • areas that may present highway or personal safety issues, or difficulty in accessing the parking, such as on a major road, in areas with poor surveillance, etc

Required information

The following information should be included with the survey results submitted to the council:

• The date and time of the surveys.
• A description of the area, noting any significant land uses in the vicinity of the site that may affect parking in the survey area (places of worship, restaurants, bars and clubs, train stations, hospitals, large offices, town centres, etc.).
• All areas excluded from the survey, with an explanation why they have been excluded.
• Any unusual observations, for example, suspended parking bays, spaces out of use because of road works, or the presence of skips, etc.
• A drawing (preferably scaled at 1:1250) showing the site location and extent of the survey area. All other parking and waiting restrictions, such as double yellow lines and double red lines, bus lay-bys, kerb build-outs, and crossovers (vehicular accesses), etc, should also be shown on the plan.
• The number of cars parked on each road in the survey area on each night should be counted and recorded in a table as shown below. It would be helpful to note the approximate location of each car on the plan (marked with an X).
• Photographs of the parking conditions in the survey area can be provided to back up the results. If submitted, the location of each photograph should be clearly marked.

Surveying areas with parking restrictions

In a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ), only Resident Permit Holder (RPH) Bays and Shared Bays that allow residents parking (these may be shared with Pay-and-Display parking and/or Business Permit Holders) should be counted.

To calculate parking capacity, each individual length of parking bay must be measured and then converted into parking spaces by dividing the length by 5 (each vehicle is assumed to measure 5m) and rounding down to the nearest whole number.

For example, a parking bay measuring 47m in length would provide 9 parking bays (47/5=9.4=9).

The capacity of each parking bay on a road must be calculated separately and then added together to give a total number of parking spaces for each road. This is to be done for all roads in the survey area.

Surveying unrestricted parking areas

All areas of unrestricted parking should be counted. To calculate parking capacity, each length of road between obstructions (such as crossovers, kerb build-outs, yellow lines, bike hangars, etc) must be measured and then converted into parking spaces by dividing the length by 5 and rounding down to the nearest whole number.

Example 1

A road has a lot of driveways that restrict the amount of kerb space available for on-street parking. The length of the kerb between the first two driveways may measure 8m. This would only provide 1 parking bay (8/5=1.6=1).

The distance to the next driveway may be 12m, which would provide 2 spaces (12/5=2.4=2). This calculation would have to be done for every length of road between every driveway,  to provide the total amount of kerb space available for on-street parking.

Example 2

A road has a series of kerb build-outs. The distance between the first two measures 47m in length, which would provide 9 parking bays (47/5=9.4=9).

The capacity of each separate section of road between build-outs must be calculated separately and then added together to give a total number of parking spaces for each road in the survey area.  For reasons of highway safety, the first 5m from a junction should also be omitted from the calculation.

A map or plan showing the measurements used in calculating parking capacity should be supplied so that this can be verified by the council.

The parking survey may not be accepted if this is not supplied. The results should generally be presented in the following format (figures given as an example):

(Note adapted from and based on the Lambeth Parking Survey Guidance).