BMW FIZ Problem Analysis

(1)

Technische Universität München Project Seminar

WS 2014/15

BMW FIZ Problem Analysis

Designing a Parking Management Strategy for Employees and Residents

Topic Supervisor:

M.Sc. Julia Helen Kinigadner

Authors:

Ali Bawano Pauline Borde Pierre Mohr Durdez Jordan Evans Salil Sharma

Submission Date: 06.03.2015

(2)

i

List of Figures

Figure 1: FIZ Future extension area ... 1

Figure 2: Three-step strategy to tackle parking issues around BMW FIZ ... 3

Figure 3: Transport infrastructure around the BMW FIZ area ... 8

Figure 4: Parking facilities and land-use in the FIZ area ... 9

Figure 5: Parking management stakeholder matrix ... 12

Figure 6: BMW FIZ trip origins for employees ... 14

Figure 7: Employee inflow and outflow, FIZ Area, Wednesday, 11 August 2012 ... 14

Figure 8: Employees present, FIZ Area, between 6:00 and 9:30 am ... 15

Figure 9: City of Munich parking management framework ... 16

Figure 10: City of Munich parking management spatial strategy ... 17

Figure 11: Walking accessibility from the present core area ... 20

Figure 12: Walking accessibility from the FIZ Future core area, shifted westwards ... 20

Figure 13: Corporate activities are situated along the new FIZ main axis ... 21

Figure 14: The new FIZ area will be better integrated with its surroundings ... 21

Figure 15: Parking capacities in the FIZ Future area. ... 22

Figure 16: Residential area close to FIZ Main Entrance ... 26

Figure 17: Screenshot of the application for license plate counting ... 28

Figure 18: Representation of a ‘parking behaviour code’ ... 30

Figure 19: On-street parking utilisation over time ... 37

Figure 20: On-street parking utilisation over time street-by-street ... 39

Figure 21: Parking issues in the residential neighbourhood ... 41

Figure 22: Parking lots and garages included in the study. ... 46

Figure 23: 300 m accessibility isochrones for three representative parking lots. ... 49

Figure 24: Demand of the parking supply. ... 51

Figure 25: Distribution of FIZ employees ... 51

Figure 26: Concentration of employees within 300 m at FIZ. ... 53

Figure 27: Theoretical demand of the FIZ parking supply ... 54

Figure 28: Number of vehicles entering FIZ parking garages within 15 minute intervals ... 56

Figure 29: Percentage of employees having a parking space in the different FIZ sectors. ... 60

Figure 30: Different ways of connecting the north to the south of FIZ. ... 62

Figure 31: Microscopic parking guidance systems ... 63

List of Tables

Table 1: Goals and indicators ... 4

Table 2: Successive steps of the project ... 6

Table 3: Possible parking patterns by FIZ employees ... 10

Table 4: Stakeholder index ... 11

Table 5: Existing parking infrastructure capacities ... 13

(5)

iv

Table 6: City of Munich parking management strategy breakdown. ... 16

Table 7: Issues and levers for FIZ parking management. ... 23

Table 8: Extract of license plate numbers database... 29

Table 9: Examples of parking behaviour ... 31

Table 10: Different parking behaviours recorded and their categorization ... 32

Table 11: On-street parking capacity of the residential neighbourhood ... 36

Table 12: On-street parking utilisation over time street-by-street ... 39

Table 13: Vehicle counting results for three main FIZ parking garages ... 55

Table 14: Percentage of capacity entering the three main FIZ parking garages ... 56

Table 15: Vacant spaces and parking utilisation for the three main FIZ parking garages .... 57

Table 16: Distribution of employees and parking spaces for three different scenarios ... 58

Table 17: Preliminary evaluation solutions for reducing parking demand ... 66

Table 18: Parking cashout effects for areas with good public transportation service... 69

Table 19: Parking input variables ... 71

Table 20: Parking space scenarios for the provision of parking at FIZ ... 72

Table 21: Cost saving scenarios for the provision of parking at FIZ ... 72

Table 22: Cashout scenarios... 73

(6)

1 1 Introduction

Headquartered in the Bavarian capital city of Munich, BMW is one of the largest industrial enterprises operating in Germany. Currently employing approximately 37,000 workers in Munich alone – making up close to 20% of Bavaria’s automotive industry employment numbers (Welfens, 2012) – BMW is looking to expand. One of BMW’s main work hubs, the Research and Innovation Centre (German: FIZ – Forschungs- und Innovationszentrum),will not only be refurbished but also extended.

The so-called ‘technological heart of BMW’, FIZ, is an advanced development centre for BMW vehicles and new technologies, currently accommodating 26,000 employees in the north of Munich. BMW’s continuous growth, changes in technology (e.g., electric mobility, new materials and increasing interconnections) as well as modifications to working times and workplace environment models have warranted development extensions at FIZ (FIZ Future, 2014). As shown in Figure 1, these extensions are to be undertaken according to the design proposed by the Henn architectural studio, winner of the multistage international competition for FIZ Future, involving both urban planning and landscape design.

Figure 1: FIZ Future extension area (FIZ Future, 2014)

The new developments at FIZ will bring in drastic changes, ranging from modifications to site ingress and egress points to the more major developments concerning public transport networks and the FIZ walking accessibility backbone. These extensions are predicted to increase the centre’s gross floor capacity from 500,000 to 800,000 m² while accommodating an additional 15,000 new employees by 2050 (Zangs, 2014). This is expected to create new problems and challenges both in and around FIZ.

Aside from the more obvious problems faced with having 15,000 new employees, namely, increased traffic loads and a more congested public transport network, one of the most

(7)

2 political and debated problems for the new FIZ Future extension is parking. As of current, approximately 50% of BMW’s FIZ employees and external clients commute to work by means of a private car, generating 11,000 work-bound trips per day, all which require some form of parking (Schuh & Co, 2013).

This demand for parking and the resulting spillover problems in the surrounding residential areas are causing conflict between the various stakeholders in and around FIZ – with BMW employees and local residents, as well as delivery services, BMW contractors and visitors coming to no conclusions. In addition to this, issues concerning parking capacity utilisation, parking subsidisation equity, land consumption, and negative transport externalities have also gained traction. Solving these problems and issues poses many challenges with no clear solution available that is able to satisfy the complex range of stakeholders all of opposing interests.

The purpose of this project seminar is to develop a parking management scheme for BMW FIZ, focusing both on existing parking issues as well as potential problems and opportunities generated by the FIZ Future extension. The paper is organized as follows:

Section 2 presents the project goals and indicators, as well as the overall methodology developed to understand and solve parking issues related to FIZ.

Section 3 proceeds with a global problem analysis – first presenting the scope of investigations and the study area; then investigating the stakeholders involved and their respective interests; finally presenting Henn’s proposal for FIZ Future.

Section 4, 5 and 6 go deeper into the problem analysis and respectively expose investigations of the three main parking issues related to FIZ, namely: (1) How to solve parking problems in the residential areas (2) How to ensure efficient use of existing and future FIZ parking facilities and (3) How to integrate parking strategy into broader perspectives.

Section 7 finally combines the outcomes of these investigations into an overall parking management plan for FIZ Future.

2 Methodology

This section presents the methodological approach which was developed to analyse parking issues related to BMW FIZ. It explains how the three study goals and the corresponding set of indicators were defined; and also describes the team work and project follow-up.

2.1 Goals

The basic project documentation and information provided by BMW clearly pointed out two parking problems related to FIZ. The first one relates to on-street parking issues in surrounding residential areas, with residents complaining about BMW employees occupying

(8)

3 their parking places (BMW Group & Landeshauptstadt München, 2013). The second corresponds to parking problems occurring inside FIZ with parking facilities meant to be saturated and ‘full’ after 8:30 in the morning (B. Grüber, personal communication, November 26, 2014).

As a result, an important part of investigations needed to focus on these two issues. The two first study goals were set up accordingly: (1) solving parking problems in the surrounding residential areas and (2) ensuring the efficient utilisation of current and future FIZ parking facilities. The two goals are closely related to each other, since avoiding on-street parking in the residential areas and making better use of FIZ parking facilities both contribute to

‘pushing’ FIZ parkers out of the residential neighbourhoods and back into BMW parking facilities.

Furthermore, it quickly became obvious that solving parking issues was not just about managing the parking supply. The demand-side of transport should also be integrated into a broader set of measures, constituting an overall corporate mobility management plan. The fact remains that encouraging people to use alternatives to the private car (lowering demand) while reducing the amount of parking places available (lowering supply) can have a significant impact on parking. FIZ Future provides a great opportunity to change the mobility habits of FIZ employees and to launch new concepts and innovative solutions to solve parking issues.

Therefore, the third goal aims at putting parking management into perspective and discussing alternative demand-based solutions that could be implemented.

These three objectives are schematically represented in Figure 2, showing BMW FIZ on one side and the residential neighbourhood on the other. The parking situation has been consciously exaggerated, as a way to illustrate one of the main problems the team was facing when investigations started. Complaints about parking were abundant however the lack of data and previous studies made it difficult to distinguish between facts and fiction.

Figure 2: Three-step strategy to tackle parking issues around BMW FIZ

(9)

4 Are residents invaded by BMW cars? Are FIZ parking facilities completely full? Is there really no way to compromise? Consequently, the main part of the present study consisted of understanding the nature and extent of the parking problems related to BMW FIZ, before starting to think about suitable solutions.

2.2 Indicators

After having set-up the three main study goals, it was necessary to come up with indicators – in order to quantify the parking issues observed and to assess the effectiveness of the solutions proposed. It was decided to keep the number of indicators limited, in order to prevent complications and also to ensure that the corresponding data was accessible. The three goals and their corresponding indicators are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Goals and indicators

Goal 1 Solve parking problems in residential areas

Indicators

1) Cars illegally parking in the surrounding residential neighbourhoods (#) 2) On-street parking capacity utilisation during week days (%)

3) Residential areas affected by parking issues (km²)

Goal 2 Ensure efficient utilisation of existing and future BMW FIZ parking facilities

Indicators

1) Walking distance to parking facility (m) 2) Employees working within 300m

3) Employees per parking space in a given distance (emp/sp) 4) Parking capacity utilisation (%)

Goal 3 Integrate the FIZ Future parking strategy into a broader parking perspective

Indicators

1) Modal shift from car to other modes (%) 2) Number of parking places reduced (#)

3) Cost savings due to fewer parking spaces built (€)

Concerning parking issues in residential areas, the indicators were developed according to a series of three simple questions: Who is causing the problem? How large is the problem?

Who is affected? First, there needs to be a particular focus on illegal parkers (e.g., parking in front of private garages or where parking is restricted) and their number should remain as low as possible. Second, on-street parking utilisation is an important variable since it involves data that can be easily collected and also reflects the parking pressure on the residential neighbourhood. Third, particular attention should be paid to the extent of the problem, namely which residential areas are affected and if the problem is likely to expand or not.

(10)

5 For the second goal, focus was put on FIZ parking facilities with the objective of ensuring their attractiveness. Accessibility was identified as the first important criterion (e.g., a parking space will be attractive if it takes an employee less than 5 minutes to walk from the parking facility to his/her office). The repartition of the facilities was also highlighted as relevant (e.g., parking facilities should be located at strategic points and fit to the parking demand, namely where employees work). A last important indicator is the parking capacity utilisation, which enables to directly measure parking demand and to highlight possible saturation issues.

The last goal aims to investigate innovative parking management solutions for BMW FIZ. This should motivate employees to use alternative transport modes (demand side) but to also give BMW the possibility to build fewer parking spaces (supply side). In this regard, a modal shift from car to other modes is a good way to see the impacts of demand side strategies, while allowing the latter two indicators (space and cost savings) to effectively fund these strategies.

2.3 Project follow-up

The methodological approach consisted of three main steps, shown in Table 2. It first started with a global problem analysis, which aimed at gaining as much information as possible about BMW FIZ and related parking issues. This rather qualitative approach mostly relied on a literature review and on-site visits. It enabled the development of an in-depth stakeholder analysis – summing-up all important players involved and their respective points of view in relation to parking. In addition, the current BMW FIZ as well as FIZ Future proposal were investigated, in terms of corporate mobility and transport/parking infrastructure. A literature review was also undertaken in order to gain insights into parking management best practices.

At the end of this step, parking issues were highlighted and then some recommendations proposed (see mid-term paper).

Nevertheless, facing a lack of previous studies and relevant parking data, the team needed to proceed with its own research and data collection to continue the analysis. Therefore, the second step of the project was put in place. For this part, the team was divided into smaller working groups, each group being responsible for investigating one of the three study goals.

For the two first goals, particular attention was paid to the methodology: (1) how to analyse parking issues? (2) which data is relevant? (3) how to process it? (4) how to display the results? Extensive on-site investigations and computer work needed to be done. For the third goal, the literature review was further developed and scenarios were created, in order to assess which parking management measure was the most suitable for BMW FIZ. In all cases, specific recommendations were provided according to the findings.

For the final step, the whole team came together again. The findings of each sub-goal were discussed and combined into one global parking management concept. It was the occasion to confront on-site observations and own team findings to the various stakeholders’ claims.

The pros and cons of the FIZ Future proposal were also discussed, namely, what chances

(11)

6 and risks the proposal represents in terms of parking. The proposed global parking management concept aims to complete what FIZ Future is not likely to be able to achieve.

Table 2: Successive steps of the project Step 1: Global problem analysis

Becoming familiar with BMW FIZ

 Several on-site explorations at FIZ and its surroundings

 Identification of transport/parking infrastructure as well as critical zones for parking issues

 Visit to the FIZ Future exhibition to collect data about the project proposed by Henn

 Documentation about BMW employees, strategy and objectives Identify existing parking issues around BMW FIZ

 Citizen discussions, planning documents, data from the city of Munich

 Information communicated by BMW

 Stakeholder analysis

Gaining insights into parking management

 Journal articles, books, forums

Step 2: Goal oriented investigations

Investigate parking issues in a residential neighbourhood close to BMW FIZ

 On-site visits to collect on-street parking data and witness parking conflicts

 Data processing and interpretation

 Recommendations based on issues observed and the literature review Assess utilisation, demand and accessibility of FIZ parking facilities

 On-site investigations to collect data about utilisation of main parking facilities

 Accessibility and demand analysis based on GIS software

 Data processing and interpretation

 Recommendations based on issues observed and literature review Look into innovative parking management strategies for FIZ

 Extensive literature review about mobility/parking management strategies

 Analysis of existing and future parking management solutions

 Recommendations based on literature review and scenarios

(12)

7 Step 3: Parking concept proposal

 Sum-up of main findings and confrontation between own results and stakeholders’ claims

 Discussion about opportunities and risks brought by FIZ Future

 Overall parking management concept proposal for BMW FIZ

The structure of the present paper was developed accordingly to those three steps. As a result, the next section presents the results of the first step, namely the global problem analysis of parking issues around BMW FIZ.

3 Problem analysis

Starting with a description of the study area, this section proposes a stakeholder analysis with a special focus on BMW employees and the residents, as well as the parking strategy of BMW and the city of Munich. It also describes FIZ Future proposal by Henn and concludes with a summary of issues and levers identified.

3.1 Study area

Figure 3 shows the current FIZ area, acting as a strategic point of interest in the northern part of Munich. The area is highly accessible by public transport, located next to the metro station Am Hart, which provides direct access to Munich Central Station, heading to the south, and to Munich airport via the connection to the regional train, heading to the north. The area can be accessed by major roads (Schleißheimer Straße and Frankfurter Ring), by public transport (metro and bus), as well as by active modes. Private BMW shuttle buses are also used to bring BMW employees to their workplace. Parking spaces are available in the close vicinity to these shuttle lines, effectively creating a local P+R system for BMW employees.

Figure 4 takes a closer look at the area and shows the present parking facilities in and around FIZ. Delineated in the legend, some sections of the parking supply are temporary while others are permanent, there is also parking not only for BMW-related employees but also for visitors.

Some parking facilities outside FIZ have also been identified as being used by BMW employees. However, in order to better manage the scope of this project, only the employee- based parking supply both owned and rented by BMW were considered. In terms of land- use, FIZ is located next to a large industrial area in the south-east (Euro Industrie Park) and surrounded by several residential areas (one in the south-west and larger zones in the north/north-east).

(13)

8 Figure 3: Transport infrastructure around the BMW FIZ area

(14)

9 Figure 4: Parking facilities and land-use in the FIZ area

(15)

10 For the present study, focus was put on parking facilities inside BMW FIZ and a limited area close to FIZ – zones accessible from FIZ entrances within less than 15 min walking. The study area follows the boundary used for the FIZ Future contest, as shown in dotted blue (see Figure 4).

However, many questions remain open for discussion regarding this choice. Since the study focuses on managing parking issues, a suitable study area should theoretically include all places where parking problems related to BMW FIZ are likely to occur. In the case of FIZ- related parkers (e.g., employees and visitors), parking patterns can be very complex as seen below in Table 3.

Table 3: Possible parking patterns by FIZ employees

Situation 1 People come, park their car in the FIZ surroundings (either off-street or on-street) and then walk into the FIZ.

Situation 2 People come by car, park their car close to a bus station from the free shuttle service available for BMW employees and then access the FIZ site by bus.

Situation 3 People come to Munich by car, park their car in a Park & Ride facility and then reach the FIZ site using U-Bahn or S-Bahn.

Situation 4 Alternative storylines such as people coming by public transport, stopping at a station close to the city centre and then taking car sharing to reach FIZ site.

Parking impacts can propagate much further than the area that generates them, effectively making it rather difficult to define an adequate study area. This also brings about questions concerning the data that has been provided to us by BMW. What is meant by approximately 50% of BMW employees commuting everyday by car? How was this percentage calculated?

How are situations 2, 3 and 4 taken into account? In addition, daily mobility patterns of BMW employees are more complex than just commuting from home to work. There can be various combinations of trips and trip-chains within one day, such as home-FIZ-other-FIZ-home, home-FIZ-airport and home-other-FIZ-home, situations that require a strong understanding of the respective mobility patterns.

According to the data provided by BMW, roughly 25% of employees have at least one outside activity per day (Schuh & Co, 2013). Which modes of transport are these people using?

Particular places of interest, such as industrial sites (other BMW locations, sites of partner companies where BMW employees attend meetings/conferences) and key transport nodes (Central Station, Munich airport etc.) are also likely to have a strong impact on the mobility behaviour of BMW employees. Simplifying the problem to a home- and work-based parking scenario does not suffice when more complex decisions are being made pre-trip and post- trip, decisions which can change and further have an effect on parking requirements.

(16)

11 3.2 Stakeholder analysis

After presenting the study area, it is necessary to focus on the main stakeholders involved in parking issues related to BMW FIZ. This section proposes a stakeholder analysis focused on identifying stakeholders, documenting their needs, assessing and analysing their importance and decision making power, managing expectations, and taking actions.

3.2.1 Overview

Table 4 offers a complete index that illustrates all stakeholders that are deemed to affect or be affected by the project.

Table 4: Stakeholder index

Stakeholder Description

BMW Group Main driver of the entire FIZ Future project. Both owns and rents parking spaces around the study area. Looking to bring about focus towards electromobility and car-sharing. Underpins car industry and Munich economy.

BMW FIZ employees Largest stakeholder of FIZ Future project. 26,000 people who require their mobility habits to be satisfied. Possibly causing problems for residents in the FIZ surrounding neighbourhoods. Also important political stakeholders for the City of Munich.

BMW workers unions Workers unions with influential bargaining powers are required to be engaged so as to have the overarching confirmation of employees to affect working conditions and benefits.

BMW FIZ visitors Important stakeholders, require attention in relation to their off-street parking rights at FIZ and their on-street parking behaviour.

The City of Munich Important stakeholder in terms of both parking regulation and enforcement.

Will be able to determine if regulation is acceptable in the study area. Also able to provide parking management metrics.

MVG Indirect stakeholder having control over public transport in Munich. Needs to be engaged in order to determine the effects of different parking supply scenarios on public transport. A state of no action by the stakeholder can directly induce more car trips, all which require parking.

Henn Main driver behind the architectural design of the FIZ Future project. Has detailed plans concerning the current and future parking supply and demand requirements of FIZ. Also holds industry know-how in terms of parking accessibility.

Residents Important political stakeholders. Currently concerned about their streets being taken away by BMW employees.

Businesses Small-sized stakeholders within the FIZ study area. Might require their parking rights to be secured so as to allow for customer turnover through parking.

Companies Medium-sized stakeholders within the FIZ study area. Might require their parking rights to be secured so their employees can still park in the area.

Delivery services Business deliveries to FIZ require their parking rights to be taken into account to ensure delivery reliability. These stakeholders possibly make up a large number of external visitors to FIZ.

Emergency services Require access to surrounding residential areas without being hindered by illegally parked cars.

Parking solution provider Industry know-how and experience in terms of which parking solutions would be feasible for FIZ and the study area.

(17)

12

Schools Possible future parking generators that might cause conflict with parking in the study area.

All stakeholders detailed in Table 4 are translated to the stakeholder matrix below in Figure 5. The measures of decision making power and importance are used to gauge how each stakeholder is to be treated throughout the progress of the project.

Figure 5: Parking management stakeholder matrix

Solving the parking problems within the FIZ study area poses many challenges. With all the necessary stakeholders having been detailed in Table 4 and Figure 5 above, such a diverse range of groups, organisations, authorities and individuals provides problems in itself.

Solutions that would best solve the problems of one stakeholder would only put a range of other stakeholders at a disadvantage, leaving no room for simple straightforward decision making. These problems are further exacerbated by not only having to take into account the importance and decision making power of stakeholders that use the private car for their work- based trips but also how they choose to go about their mobility. For example, stakeholders that car share, carpool, park & ride, as well as cycle, all mandate special planning for their own parking needs.

3.2.2 BMW FIZ Employees

There are approximately 26,000 employees working within BMW FIZ at present, the large majority of whom are required to be mobile for their work. In addition to these employees, FIZ needs to take into account the space required for their 1,700 visitors, up to 5,000 delivery services and 7,000 test vehicles (B. Grüber, personal communication, November 26, 2014).

With such a large number of persons and vehicles having to connect with FIZ every day, a significant parking supply is mandated. The total number of parking spaces for employees is approximately 9,100, with an additional 1,150 temporary parking spaces available. For test vehicles, 1,700 parking spaces along with an additional 1,900 temporary parking places are allocated (Schuh & Co, 2013). The total number of parking spaces for employees fits the

(18)

13 mandated amount of parking, stipulated by the City of Munich – namely one space for every two employees minus 20% (BMW Group & Landeshauptstadt München, 2013).

A summary of the parking capacities can be found below in Table 5, these figures are the closest representation of the current on-site parking capacities. Despite the static nature of the parking supply at FIZ, it is still rather complex to establish the locations of parking facilities, as well as their capacity and their purpose (places reserved for BMW employees, test vehicles and visitors). The data that was found were often out of date by many years, with it being rather difficult to differentiate between current and future capacities. The situation is made even more complex given that:

(1) Many parking places are temporary – cars being parked on the future construction site for FIZ extension

(2) Devices indicating how many parking places exist are defect – meaning that it is very difficult to evaluate the utilisation of parking facilities

Table 5: Existing parking infrastructure capacities

Parking User Permanent Parking Spaces

Temporary

Parking Spaces Total

Employees

(26,000) 9,100 1,150 10,250

Visitors

(1,700) N/A N/A N/A

Test Vehicles

(7,000) 1,700 1,900 3,600

* Values in parentheses denote the total number of the respective parking user.

In order to better understand the mobility patterns of FIZ employees a range of studies have been undertaken in recent years. In 2013, the Munich-based traffic consultancy Schuh & Co investigated the residential locations of BMW FIZ employees (see Schuh & Co, 2013).

Through evaluating a sample of 16,828 postcodes of internal staff, it was found that 52% of employees have their primary residential address in either the Munich region or its surrounding municipalities, while the remaining 48% come from the urban city region of Munich (see Figure 6).

(19)

14 Figure 6: BMW FIZ trip origins for employees (Schuh & Co, 2013)

In terms of modal split, between 40-50% of FIZ employees come to work by means of a private car, generating approximately 11,000 work-bound trips. And, with each of these trips requiring parking at any given time, it is observed that many employees park their cars in the adjacent residential areas as well as on future building sites. Schuh & Co made further observations regarding personnel arrival and departure times, reflected in Figure 7. They report a significant influx of personnel between 6 am and 8 am, with the highest volume being 1,500 people within 15 minutes. On the other hand, in terms of outflow, most personnel leave FIZ between 4 pm and 6 pm, with the highest volume being 1,100 people within 15 minutes.

Figure 7: Employee inflow and outflow, FIZ Area, Wednesday, 11 August 2012 (Schuh & Co, 2013)

(20)

15 Taking into account these inflows and outflows, it was found that over an entire working- week, the maximum number of personnel within FIZ, at any given time, fluctuates between 12,000 (Friday) and 14,000 (Tuesday) people between 6 am and 9:30 am (see Figure 8).

Considering that the amount of workers within FIZ at any given time, reaches a maximum of 14,000 – approximately 7,000 of who commute by means of a private car – it is possible that BMW FIZ employees already have their parking requirements satisfied. BMW, according to documents provided, supply 10,250 spaces for their employees at FIZ, not including the many temporary spaces. However, considering that BMW FIZ employees have previously voiced their concerns about parking garages being full at 8:30 am, these specific stakeholders as well as BMW AG need to be strongly engaged in order to address this disparity.

Figure 8: Employees present, FIZ Area, between 6:00 and 9:30 am (Schuh & Co, 2013) The figures above already provide a rather large amount of valuable information.

Nevertheless, it should be kept in mind that the available data is aggregated, meaning that it relies on averages reflecting neither individual variations nor temporal fluctuations. For example, the mode share of BMW employees commuting to FIZ is likely to be very different according to different periods of the year – e.g., the cycle modal split is much lower during winter.

3.2.3 BMW FIZ Mobility and Parking Strategy

In order to reduce the high demand for private-car mobility, mobility which usually results in increases in parking demand, BMW focuses on a range of strategies. These strategies fall into two areas, namely, promoting non-motorised modes and managing the mobility of its employees. In relation to the latter, BMW currently employs multiple pull-measures to reduce the amount of private motorised traffic. These measures include private shuttle bus systems, flexible working-times, subsidised public transport tickets, and parking management.

(21)

16 In terms of parking management, however, BMW has established a new parking strategy for FIZ Future. According to the future traffic volumes that will be triggered by the developments, BMW aims to have all of its necessary parking supply conveniently located for employees as well as visitors. Alongside standard car-parking spaces, the company also aims to have 6,000 to 10,000 spaces for test vehicles. At the same time, special priority is given within BMW’s strategy for parking spaces that are both attractive and accessible in terms of walking, so as to prevent on-street parking in the neighbouring areas.

In order to better protect the neighbouring areas from the large amounts of spillover parking induced by FIZ, BMW has concentrated part of its mobility strategy on the issue of on-street parking. The strategy considers controlling parking demand management through an in- house parking management system that, for example, controls who can drive to work depending on their place of residence (only those living further than 2 km away). In order to further protect residents and the neighbouring areas, BMW also aims to continue to engage the City of Munich government in order to establish parking management measures. In addition to this, parking management within FIZ will be improved upon, specifically though a traffic management study, so as to prevent parking spillover into the residential areas.

3.2.4 The City of Munich Government Parking Strategy

The City of Munich parking management strategy covers three major areas (Landeshauptstadt München, 2007). These areas concern the controlling of on-street parking, information for off-street parking, and providing supply for off-street parking (see Figure 9).

Figure 9: City of Munich parking management framework

The City of Munich further details its position in terms of each of the three major parking management strategy areas in Table 6.

Table 6: City of Munich parking management strategy breakdown (Landeshauptstadt München, 2009).

Control: On-street parking

 Controlling through:

- Resident parking - Pay-and-display parking - Short-stay parking zones

 Diversified by time and space and price

(22)

17

 Enforcement

 Reducing origin/destination private vehicle trips

 Reducing private vehicle parking search traffic

 Improving accessibility for residents

 Ensuring accessibility for companies, customers and visitors

 Encouraging more effective use of existing parking facilities

Information: Off-street parking

 Parking guidance systems

 Parking information systems

 Usage of private off-street parking spots by different user groups at different times

 Mobility management

Supply: Off-street parking

 Park+Ride and Bike+Ride facilities

 Resident parking facilities

 ‘2000 parking spots programme’

 PPP-programme to force investment in resident parking facilities

 Parking space restrictions through zoning maps

How each of the three major strategy areas is applied on the spatial scale across the Munich region is detailed below in Figure 10. FIZ is currently positioned within the ‘City Outside the Inner Ring’ zone, despite this, the City of Munich is in the process of bringing harsher regulatory measures to this zone.

Figure 10: City of Munich parking management spatial strategy (Landeshauptstadt München, 2009) In terms of how the City of Munich is looking to further advance its parking management program is well detailed. For the new FIZ Future development, recent documents dating back to as early as 2013 highlight new parking management trial areas in the northern neighbourhoods adjacent to FIZ (Landeshauptstadt München, 2013b). Despite the lack of details, these areas will include new ‘control: on-street parking’ regulatory measures, measures which will not be rolled out to the specific problem neighbourhoods to the east of

(23)

18 FIZ. In relation to private off-street parking, regulation has changed over the years at FIZ, however as of current, further development will be based on one car space per two employees, with a further 20% reduction in spaces available (BMW Group &

Landeshauptstadt München, 2013).

3.2.5 Residents of Munich

The concerns and expectations of residents living in the FIZ surroundings were reported during a recent citizens’ discussion (BMW Group & Landeshauptstadt München, 2013).

Citizens from the municipalities of Milbertshofen-Am Hart and Feldmoching-Hasenbergl were invited by the BMW Group to obtain information and express their views concerning the current situation and their expectations for the FIZ Future project.

The first topic mentioned by citizens was the parking issues in the FIZ surroundings caused by visitors, delivery services and also BMW employees. According to the residents, there are enough parking places available at FIZ but these are located too far from the FIZ main entrance, thereby giving BMW employees the preference of parking in the residential areas nearby in order to walk less and save time going in and out of the parking facility. Concerns were also raised in relation to accessibility problems for emergency vehicles and supply services. In addition to the residential areas being saturated with cars, neither speed limitations nor ‘Tempo-30’ zones are respected.

Citizens also mention the saturation of the metro station am-Hart, which makes them avoid this station during peak hours. However, citizens can see a great difference during weekends, where they find it very pleasant to live close to FIZ. In addition, residents have a rather negative image of Schleißheimer Straße due to intense traffic flow and lack of crossing facilities, so much so that they consider the street as a ‘highway’. In a broader perspective, residents also think that FIZ and its neighbouring residential areas could be better integrated, something which could be partially achieved through better parking management.

Nevertheless, the residents consider the presence of BMW Group as great advantage for the city of Munich and think that FIZ Future is a real chance to improve the current situation.

Further in relation to parking issues, residents strongly believe that such issues should be taken into account in the elaboration of the FIZ Future concept. They think that this should be part of a broader mobility strategy to improve the current FIZ situation. Citizens believe that the main problem is not the lack of available parking places at FIZ but rather the current disposition of the places. They believe that the provision of additional parking places at FIZ is dangerous because it would encourage people to travel more by car and therefore would result in additional traffic and parking issues, particularly in the surrounding residential areas.

In terms of more traffic and congestion, the construction of a new school in the Northern area of FIZ is also likely to cause additional traffic and hence raise the demand for parking.

(24)

19 Because of this, the residents see the need for special parking permits. In addition to this, they are also interested in having the FIZ parking facilities available for delivery services, cooperation partners of BMW, as well as FIZ visitors, open for public use on the weekends.

This is seen as a starting point for integrating the citizens and FIZ, alongside other possibilities of integration, such as the possibility that BMW employees and citizens share infrastructure and facilities (shopping discounts, and cultural offers such as a library).

As a final response to the discussion session, residents also offered their own solutions for how they think the parking problems around FIZ could be solved. Aside from future regulation measures that would be implemented by the City of Munich; bicycle renting schemes, shuttle bus extensions, e-commuting, and parking supply improvements for delivery and external BMW clients were the main solutions offered.

3.3 FIZ Future proposal

The architecture firm Henn won the competition organized by BMW to define the future of the FIZ area and its northern extension. Henn’s main idea is to concentrate the fluxes of BMW employees on a central axis, represented in Figure 12, running through the entire FIZ area from south to north. On this central axis, walking is encouraged by ‘people movers’ effectively making the western and northern sides of FIZ more accessible. In relation to parking management, this new central geometry aims to help mitigate the residential parking issue in the neighbourhoods surrounding FIZ by shifting core activities westwards possibly making the residential parking to the east less attractive for BMW employees.¹

1 All information, including pictures, provided in this section was collected at the public exhibition about FIZ Future taking place at LEOPOLD from 23.10.14 to 05.11.14.

(25)

20 Figure 11: Walking accessibility from the

present core area

Figure 12: Walking accessibility from the FIZ Future core area, shifted westwards

So as to make this central axis even more attractive, Henn architects plan to regroup corporate activities at this location. As shown in Figure 13, rooms for meetings and presentations, restaurants, and cafes will be preferentially located along the axis. A green space between FIZ and the FIZ Future north extension is also planned in order to better integrate the area with its residential surrounding. This space, labelled ‘Nachbarschaftgarten’

(see Figure 14), will be accessible to the public for leisure activities, while allowing for a more convenient east to west connection.

(26)

21 Figure 13: Corporate activities are situated along the new FIZ main axis

Figure 14: The new FIZ area will be better integrated with its surroundings

To cope with the growing number of employees, increases in off-street parking supply are also planned for the FIZ Future (see Figure 15). Considering just BMW-related employees, in the south section, 2,500 new parking spaces will be built, reaching a total of approximately

(27)

22 9,500. A relatively large increase of parking spaces, from 1,250 to 3,500, is also planned for the middle section of FIZ. In the presently non-existing north section, 1,000 parking places will be built. Rather large increases of parking supply are also planned for test vehicles. These figures were weighted less in importance as it was found that information concerning BMW’s production of vehicles and how they will distributed and managed would not be made available. In addition BMW test vehicles generally have their own discrete parking supply that does not interact with that of BMW-related employees.

Figure 15: Parking capacities in the FIZ Future area.

In total 14,000 parking spaces for employees are planned in the FIZ Future area. This however does not illustrate all the parking facilities available for BMW employees, since on- and off- street parking locations outside the area exist where BMW workers can park their cars.

3.4 Summary of Issues and Levers

Based on the documentation provided by BMW and the City of Munich as well as additional sources, a range of parking related issues and levers were identified. Table 7 provides a

(28)

23 summary of these issues and levers while also identifying the opportunities and threats that would be present for the implementation of a new parking scheme.

Table 7: Issues and levers for FIZ parking management.

Levers

 Devices to guide drivers and show how many parking places are available already on site

 BMW has already undertaken corporate mobility management measures

Issues

 Dominant entrance to access FIZ

 Bad distribution of BMW parking facilities, mainly located in the southern area

 Some BMW employees choose to park in the residential areas rather than in the parking facilities available for them

 No parking regulation (either parking permit nor pricing policies) in the surrounding residential areas

 Defect devices indicating how many places are available

 High car-dependency and affinity of BMW employees

 Low use of car sharing, car-pooling and e-vehicles

 Saturation of the metro station Am-Hart during peak hours

Opportunities

 BMW’s willingness to develop car sharing as well as the use of e-vehicles

 FIZ Future proposed by Henn

 Better accessibility with four entrances and a main entrance located in the southern part of the site

 Improved accessibility by public transport (S-Bahn, tram and buses)

Threats

 Shift from public transport/cycling/walking to car sharing/electric cars

 Shift of parking issues in the northern residential areas

 Possible parking conflicts due to the construction of a school in the northern area

At this point of the investigation, relevant parking issues could already be identified.

Nevertheless, additional investigations need to be elaborate, specifically targeting the three study goals, to be able to elaborate a suitable parking management scheme. In this regard, the next three sections presents the outcomes of our goal oriented investigations.

4 How to solve parking problems in the residential areas?

Parking appears to be a critical problem for citizens living in the residential areas surrounding BMW FIZ. Issues concerning parking have been repeatedly mentioned in citizen discussions in line with each successive extension to FIZ (BMW Group & Landeshauptstadt München,

(29)

24 2013). BMW representatives have also confirmed receiving complaints from the residents on a regular basis (B. Grüber, personal communication, November 26, 2014). Nevertheless, no investigation has previously been carried out in order to assess the exact nature and extent of these parking issues.

Therefore, a quantitative and qualitative study of the residential neighbourhood was carried out, with the objective of highlighting typical parking patterns and issues occurring in the area. The current section starts with the description of the residential neighbourhood chosen to be a suitable study area for investigations. It also describes the methodology used to collect and process the parking data. The main results and findings are presented, alongside the final recommendations and proposals for the observed parking issues.

4.1 Study area description

The first step of this study consisted of selecting a suitable residential neighbourhood to investigate parking issues. The two main selection factors for the study area were (1) that the area should be noticeably affected by parking problems and (2) that it should not be too broad so as to facilitate the data collection. Given that the FIZ Future extensions are mostly affecting the Northern part of current FIZ, residential areas beyond the southern railway line were not considered relevant. Areas directly north of FIZ were also not considered due to a planned trial parking management scheme in the area (Landeshauptstadt München, 2013b) The residential neighbourhood bounded to the north by Permanederstraße, to the south by Troppauerstraße and to the west by Knorrstraße was identified as being the most attractive zone for on-street parking. The area was closed off in this manner firstly due to its close proximity to FIZ, whereby any point of the residential area is accessible within less than 12 minutes walking distance from the FIZ main entrance. Second, because the area is located next to a transport node consisting of the subway station Am-Hart and several bus connections – thereby making it attractive for commuters. The third argument was that the majority (>60%) of residents coming from this specific area took part in the citizen’s discussion about FIZ Future, in which parking was highlighted as a main concern (BMW Group & Landeshauptstadt München, 2013)

Investigations were finally bounded to the east by the small park parallel to Georg-von-May- Straße. The main reason for this choice was the willingness to limit the size of the study area to facilitate the data collection. Assuming that drivers want to park as close as possible to the FIZ main entrance and transport facilities, it also made sense to focus on the western part of the residential area. Another plausible assumption was that drivers were not willing to park beyond the small park, acting as a ‘separator’ between the western and the eastern part.

However, additional investigations revealed afterwards that more distant parking can also be appealing if walking from a parking spot to the destination is attractive enough (e.g., walking through a small park during summer). In this regard, it cannot be excluded that parking

(30)

25 problems may reach beyond the small park to the east. Nevertheless, these are likely to be less significant than the ones highlighted within the selected study area.

Figure 16 provides a schematic representation of the investigated residential neighbourhood.

The area is mainly residential, with a rather low population density, consisting of separate large houses, up to three floors, mostly occupied by several families. At present, the few points of interest (namely a bakery, a Volkshochschule and a small factory) are concentrated in the southern part on Troppauerstraße. A school is also currently being built in the north- west on Knorrstraße and opening in September 2016 with 900-1100 (Landeshauptstadt München, 2014).

In terms of accessibility, the area includes several pedestrian paths that enable a good connection between its different parts, through the allotments in the north and to the adjacent residential area in the east. Overall, there is a significant contrast between the two sides of Knorrstraße with FIZ on the west side (tall buildings, high concentration of employees, main generator for activity and traffic) and the residential neighbourhood on the east side (separate houses, rather low population density and residents seeking for a quiet place to live).

This contrast is also noticeable in the different streets that were investigated. These can roughly be classified into three categories. First, Sudetendeutschestraße and Knorrstraße are main transport axes with extensive through traffic. Second, Troppauerstraße presents specific driving and parking patterns with large in-and-out-coming traffic as well as short- term parking, due to the proximity of the shop and the small factory (delivery services, customers etc.). Finally, the remaining streets can be considered as ‘quiet’ residential streets with very little through traffic. In terms of parking regulation, there is a global lack of delineation and signage in the entire area. Parking restriction can be found on the east part of Troppauerstraße, in front of the bakery and the small factory. Additional signs also restrict parking on some sides of Sudetendeutschestraße, in Doeberlstraße and at the end of Georg- von-May-Straße.

(31)

26 Legend

Land-Use Transport Facilities

Residential area Highschool under construction

Current BMW FIZ

Allotment (Schrebergarten) Small park

Subway station Bus station Road

Path

Points of interest

 Bakery

 Volkshochschule

 Small factory

Towards FIZ Main Entrance

Streets investigated

Figure 16: Residential area close to FIZ Main Entrance

(32)

27 4.2 Data collection and processing

The second important step consisted of developing a methodology to collect and process the relevant parking data so as to grasp the parking situation in the study area. This represented a significant amount of work, in addition to the data collection in itself due to the planning required before going on site and also afterwards to think about suitable solutions to analyse the data.

4.2.1 Objectives

The investigation of the residential neighbourhood consisted of several on-site visits, which allowed for both a quantitative and qualitative understanding of parking issues occurring in the area. In this regard, several objectives were set-up:

 Identify different on-street parking user groups, based on their parking behaviour and on-site observations

 Estimate the on-street parking capacity of the area

 Study the on-street parking capacity utilisation over time and street by street

 Identify and locate critical parking issues occurring in the area (illegal parking, conflict situations, etc)

 Gain insight into how residents are affected by the current parking situation and FIZ Future (brief interviews during data collection)

4.2.2 On-site investigations

On-site visits, mainly consisting of license plate recording and observations, were performed at times considered strategic for the parking study:

 Sunday 11^th January 2015: 19:30 – 20:30

 Wednesday 21^st January 2015: 6:30 – 9:30

 Wednesday 21^st January 2015: 15:30 – 17:30

Going on a weekday and during the weekend was particularly important for understanding the parking pressure experienced by the residents. On Sunday evening, it is reasonable to assume that most residents are at home and that cars parked in the area mostly belong to them and not to commuters. Specific situations are also likely to happen, such as residents being away with their car for vacation, people parking in the neighbourhood to visit their relatives or even to take public transport to the airport (B. Grüber, personal communication, November 26, 2014). Nevertheless, the on-street parking situation on Sunday evening can be considered as a reference state, excluding the influence of BMW FIZ, surrounding facilities and other points of interests that would motivate non-residents to park in the area.

(33)

28 Collecting data at three different time periods (Sunday evening, Wednesday morning and Wednesday evening) was also necessary to identify characteristic parking patterns over time, so as to find out which car belonged to whom. The data collected on Sunday evening provides information about cars likely to belong to residents. During weekdays, data collection in the morning and in the late afternoon 10 days after the initial Sunday collection also provides information to differentiate between residents and commuters. Indeed, a working resident is likely to leave in the morning and come back in the evening, while a typical commuter comes in the morning and leaves in the late afternoon.

Investigating both Wednesday morning and Wednesday afternoon was also necessary to witness potential parking conflicts occurring at different times of day. For example, conflicts with delivery services are more likely to happen in the morning; while residents usually face problems to find a parking place when they come back from work in the late afternoon, and not when they leave home in the morning.

4.2.3 License plate numbers collection

Parking data collection was performed using a smart phone application. This application was configured to record (1) which car was parked, (2) where and (3) when. As shown in Figure 17, the street name and the license plate number can be easily entered, while the application automatically records the time and date. Further information can also be entered concerning the brand of the car and if the car is parked in a residential garage.

Figure 17: Screenshot of the application for license plate counting

With two team members involved in the data collection, it took approximately one hour to record the license plate numbers of all cars parked in the ten streets constituting the study area, starting from Troppauerstraße and ending at Permanederstraße. For data aggregation and processing, each one-hour lasting data collection round is considered to be a ‘snapshot’

of the parking situation during a given time span. For example, the first round of data collection on Wednesday morning lasted from about 6:30 to 7:30.

(34)

29 In this way, the database corresponding to the first snapshot starts from the first license plate number recorded on Troppauerstraße close to 6:30 until the last license plate number recorded at around 7:30 on Permanederstraße. Due to this way of collection, it is not exactly accurate to talk about a ‘snapshot’ of the parking situation since additional cars may have parked on Troppauerstraße after the street was counted. Nevertheless, this assumption of a

‘snapshot’ strongly facilitated data processing and displaying.

In this regard, five distinct time spans were defined:

 Sunday from 19:30 to 20:30 (T0)

 Wednesday from 6:30 to 7:30 (T1)

In total, 1298 single counts were recorded, corresponding to 410 different license plate numbers. Table 8 shows an extract of the Excel table containing the data collected. Given the large amount of data, it was necessary to develop a simple method to visualise and identify typical parking patterns.

Table 8: Extract of license plate numbers database

Date Street License

Plate BMW Private

Garage Time Time ID

Sun 11/01/2015 Bruno-Hofer-Platz DGFW5226 True False 19:47:56 T0

Sun 11/01/2015 Troppauer Str. DHIS201 False False 19:13:12 T0

Wed 21/01/2015 Troppauer Str. DHIS201 False False 6:38:31 T1

Wed 21/01/2015 Rockingerstr. DONN333 False False 8:34:54 T2

Wed 21/01/2015 Troppauer Str. DV546AH False False 8:04:15 T2

Wed 21/01/2015 Troppauer Str. DV546AH False False 16:50:16 T5

Wed 21/01/2015 Troppauer Str. DV546AHITALY False False 6:47:27 T1

BMW FIZ Problem Analysis