Coins, Cards, or Apps: Impact of Payment Methods on Street Parking Occupancy and Search Times.

This article investigates how different payment methods—cash, credit card, and mobile payment applications—and hourly parking prices influence drivers' parking behavior, street parking occupancy, and search times in a densely populated North American city. Using an online survey, real-life transaction data analyzed via regression discontinuity design, and discrete event simulations, the study finds that mobile payment users tend to pay for shorter parking durations than credit card or cash users, improving parking turnover and reducing search times. Additionally, a $1 decrease in hourly parking fees increases payment amounts by 16% on average, with cash payers showing the highest sensitivity, followed by mobile payers, while credit card payers are least sensitive. Simulation results demonstrate that pricing policies—constant versus progressive—and mobile payment adoption significantly affect occupancy and search times, with progressive pricing and mobile payments generally enhancing parking efficiency. These findings offer municipalities data-driven insights to tailor parking pricing and payment strategies according to neighborhood demographics and demand patterns to optimize urban parking management.