Less parking, more life? Promises and challenges of urban parking-space repurposing. Evidence from a controlled before-after quasi-experimental study in Berlin

Private cars generate substantial urban health, environmental, and social costs. Despite their continued dominance and extensive subsidization, cities are increasingly experimenting with measures to reduce private car use. In 2023, a residential neighborhood in Berlin repurposed approximately 350 on–street parking spaces – about 13% of the area’s total – by converting them into green spaces, outdoor classrooms, shared–mobility stations for e–bikes and e–scooters, and designated zones for deliveries and local businesses. The intervention was evaluated using a controlled before–after quasi–experimental design, based on surveys conducted shortly before implementation and six months afterward. The research design distinguishes between a main and a secondary treatment area, two demographically and socioeconomically comparable control areas, and two adjacent neighborhoods potentially affected by traffic and parking displacement. More than 11,000 residents were invited to participate in each survey wave. Treatment areas were fully sampled, while residents in control areas were selected through area–based random sampling, yielding effective sample sizes of 2,027 respondents before and 1,770 after the intervention. Difference–in–differences analyses show no significant reduction in private car use among respondents. However, the intervention was associated with improvements in perceived road safety and outdoor physical activity, as well as small reductions in noise annoyance and traffic–related quality–of–life impacts. At the same time, parking search times increased, noise annoyances from visitors and restaurants increased slightly, and adjacent neighborhoods experienced very modest parking displacement. Policy acceptance declined somewhat after implementation but remained positive among a majority of respondents in the wider treatment area, while opinions were more evenly divided among residents living in the main treatment area that was most affected by the intervention. Overall, this study – one of the few quasi–experimental evaluations of parking–space repurposing – highlights both the potential benefits and the trade–offs of neighborhood–level parking-space repurposing.