An assessment of the urban public parking management in Uganda : a case study of Kampala city.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the management of public parking in Kampala city with a special focus on the city’s Central Business District (CBD). A mixed methods research design was used in carrying out thisstudy. Key research methods used in the study include: questionnaires, face- to -face interviews and observation. Under this study, 328 questionnaires were used and distributed to collect quantitative data. Face - to- face interviews targeted key informants to collect qualitative data. Respondents for the questionnaires were selected using convenience sampling technique while purposive sampling was used to select respondents for the face -to -face interviews. Data collected using qusetionnaires was processed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Qualitative data that was collected from the key informants and analyzed thematically. Findings revealed the underutilization of the majority of studied parking facilities based on their parking indexes. For parking facilities along Kampala-road, the Parking Index was indicated as 49.88% and 57.5% on a weekday and a weekend respectively. Results for parking facilities along Buganda-road showed that the Parking Index was 60.733% and 31.45% on a weekday and a weekend respectively. Besides, the Parking Index for William Street was 42.1% and 55.74% on a weekday and a weekend respectively. The Parking Index for Watoto Parking Lot was 83.07% and 68.86% on a weekday and a weekend respectively. For Mercantile multi-storied parking facility, the parking index was 75.96% and 56.37% on a weekday and a weekend respectively. Lastly, the Parking Index for Mabirizi basement parking was 27.7% and 35% on a weekday and a weekend respectively. Based on the Importance Performance Analysis (IPA), the customer satisfaction Index (CSI) was 52.4% indicating a moderately satisfaction level of the parking management in Kampala among motorists and drivers. However, from the fifteen public parking management attributes that were studied, only four (4) of them that included affordability of parking, availability of parking spaces, accessibility to parking spaces as well Safety and security of the vehicles were accorded the greatest importance by the drivers. Consequently, the existing public parking management system in Kampala was found to be inneficient. Based on the study results, it is important to introduce a coherent and comprehensive public parking policy to guide investors, transport regulators and motorists in Kampala city.Recommended also is the preparation of a public parking design manual to guide the gazetment of off-street and on-street parking, establishment of car free zones in the CBD to manage rising demand for parking and improve traffic flow, promotion of city densification and mixed- use development programmes, adoption of new parking technology to enhance efficiency, attracting more investment in multi-storied car parking facilities through public private partnerships (PPPs) as well as establishment of park and ride facilities along public transit corridors such as the proposed bus rapid transit (BRT) stations, passenger railway stations.